Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My Mexican bairdi is about 40-45 inches give or take, (I measured him with the string method, so it may be a bit inaccurate) and about 208 grams at 2.5 years old. Although that's questionable since there "may have been a mix up" with the breeder's records. Long story. Basically it's possible that he could be 6 months to a year older than the people I got him from at the San Diego show said he was.

Would you say that's a good size/weight for a male bairdi that's 2-3 years old? He has also always been slow to shed, taking at least two months between the end of each shed cycle. My vet said it sounds like it could be unusual but he's not familiar with this species (nor with the Texan relative) and nothing bad ever came up in his fecal samples. He's very muscular, alert, has never had feeding problems, and otherwise seems healthy. I feed him every 5-7 days as usual.

I could of course be over thinking this, which I'm prone to do, but better safe than sorry.

My measurements are clearly off somewhere. I'll try to get a more accurate estimate of his length later today. I'm guessing it's less than what I previously posted. Otherwise it looks like I have a horribly skinny snake on my hands. Sorry about that. He doesn't sit still very well. I even double checked but I guess it's possible to get it wrong twice. Either that or my scale bit the dust.

I had to have a friend come over and help me out with this lol. He's around 38 inches including his tail so I technically wasn't too far off, but it was enough of a difference to make me think "That length to weight ratio sounds really weird."

He's a photo of him to make up for the silliness I've posted.

What a beautiful snake!

208gms. at that length is probably on the lean side but likely ok, although it could probably take more frequent or larger meals. What are you feeding it?

It would also help to see a full body shot to determine overall robustness or lack thereof. ...I'd also just like to see more of the snake.

If you decide you don't want it, please let me know

btw, apparently parasite screenings in some cases must be very target oriented to detect specific pathogens so a negative diagnosis for generics doesn't rule out infestation by some more cryptic parasite.
-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Apologies for the slow reply, in my house we do 'spring cleaning' in the winter and I completely forgot about this post for a while.

I started feeding him adult mice this year, he was previously on hoppers I believe. I can only get the pre-packaged frozen mice from petco (I think the adults they have are technically 'small' adults) since they're the only ones available to me unless I want to go with live. I feed him about every 5 or 7 days with my other snakes. They also sell pre-packaged rats but getting any sort of packaged anything from petco is overpriced. I can't breed mice because it isn't allowed where I live. We also don't have the freezer space for the 500 mice that would make ordering from rodentpro cost effective.

You can't have him unless I die, sorry.

Also, something that I forgot to mention: When I got him in June 09 I was told he had hatched in April and he was around 15 inches long. Later, when I tracked down the actual breeder (completely coincidentally, actually, since she had a photo of him as a hatchling on her site) she said that she hadn't produced any Mexican Baird's in 09, only in the summer of 08. Hmm. Something doesn't add up.

If you look at the photos in the flickr link I'm posting, you can also see how his colors have changed.

Here's a teaser photo for the flickr photoset of him.

Flickr

Thanks for the pics. He looks like a smallish but very healthy Mexican Baird's. I'm really attracted to that species. Nice pics to. He could probably take a little more food but if those pics are current I certainly wouldn't be worried. There are many experienced keepers who claim that less food means longer life. I've heard an alterna (Gray-banded Kingsnake) that went 25 years on like 6 mice a year! ...or something close to that.

We rarely see these on the forums so glad you posted and thanks for the pics. ...oh yeah, put me in your will please

Brad
-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Thank you, he's honestly my favorite, but don't tell my 3 other snakes. I've been trying to find a girlfriend for him that I can buy and breed with him eventually (as in, in a few years.) Wish me luck, because I found him completely by accident and he was sold to me as a female Texas baird. These snakes are fantastic and underrated and mine seems to be out on his magnetic 'shelf' thing or on his branch more often than in any of his hides. He's definitely a great display animal.

I need to get creative with where I get my mice if I want to increase feeding, because buying from petco is annoying and stupidly expensive. Here's what my receipt says:

3PK FRZN ADULT MOU 19.47
3 @ 6.49
3PK FRZN PINKIE MOU (this is for my baby rosy boa) 9.95
3 @ 4.99

Total:31.73
And they have a monopoly on mice in this area. I wish I could just breed them but that isn't an option for me.

The pricing at retail is out of control. I get mine shipped via Grayhound for $50 flat from my well known, and "cheesy" (hint) vendor in Tx. My order is $400 total on average and it feeds me 25 small to large colubrids for 3 months easy. The same would cost at least double and probably a lot more from retail (haven't calculated that recently). My order fills up about one third of the space in the freezer of a double door refrigderator. About a cubic 16 inches or so.
-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

...having limited freezer space really adds a layer to the game of optimzing a shipment. ...but lots of other planning as well ...unless you don't care about money, then just go to the local Pet Corp.
-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Get one of those little tiny 2-3 cubic feet ones for feeders. With 3 adult snakes you're probably looking at at least 150 mice a year in food, and paying 50 cents each versus 3 bucks each will pay for that freezer real quick.
-----
We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.

That's definitely a good option. I could look into that. In the meantime we've traveled about 120 miles to get 30 frozen mice (stored in an ice chest for the trip, of course.) We head up that way once a month anyway for other things so it isn't even unreasonable to do so for now.

That's a ton of driving but if you're already there...

I just hate frozen mice at petstores. Tiny and PRICEY Jesus!
-----
We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.