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A Question about Growth?

K

kcaj

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I know that this is a loaded question, ; But what would be the average expected growth rate of a drymarchon hatchling during their first year? I know that there are lots of different factors involved, frequency of meals,size of meals, willingness to eat,housing temps,overall health of animal,genetics etc. But I am sure that their can be an expected general size range that Drys will usually reach by their first birthday that would fit the norm. By my own experience, I have found that all hatchlings of the four species of Drys that I have currently , all have at least quadrupled their weight since I received them, with a few having a 6 or 7 fold increase in weight. All of my snakes are 05 hatchlings and a few were problem feeders for the first few months that I had them. I have seen postings of drys that were said to be an 05 hatchling that were just much larger than most of mine, I do have one that is around 4 feet and weighs about 1000 grams but he is my exception, most of my others are 3-3.5 feet and between 400 and 500 grams. Just curious as to what others might have to say. Jack
 
Only time will tell

Jack,
So I take it those two you got from me aren't growing like you'd expected. You just never know.

When I got Flea, from R.B., he was a year old, but not much bigger than a night crawler. Truth, my wife and several others will testify. Which is why I named him Flea. He was SO tiny. So his first year he hadn't grown much at all. He hadn't been eating much either, according to R.B. In fact, I had to assist feed a goldfish to get him going here. But,.....

After that, he took off like a ravenous rocket!!! He's now a little over 2 years old and he is just over SIX FEET LONG!!! No sheite. Every time I show him to my wife she says the same thing,..."Which one is that?" Because he grows so fast that she no longer recognizes him from last week!

Metabolic changes are like the wind with drymarchon. They change speed and direction constantly. And each animal has it's own schedule, or internal time clock. Not to mention the shallow captive gene pool has been contaminated by the dwarf gene. So there is no way to know for sure what you have until it reaches 4 or 5 years of age. Flea may put on the brakes tomorrow, and never break 7 feet. Or he may become a captive record giant. If he maintains his current pace, I'd say he has a good shot at the later. But when he first got here, I really had my doubts.

My guess is that at some point they all reach a certain metabolic milestone, at which point they begin to take off like a weed. Some are early bloomers, and some are late. And some may never take off. You never know. So my advice is to just keep loving them, and be patient. That's really all you can do. Except I think it helps to feed small, feed frequent, and feed as much variety as you can. Mix it up, both the menu, and schedule. Good luck, and keep us posted. Let's see some pics!
T.
 
Hi Tony, I am not at all unhappy with any of my animals growth rates. As I said, there are many factors involved here. I don't power feed my snakes. I feed them at 5-6 day intervals and give them two items of the proper size, which I have found to be something that they can swallow in just a few minutes even when swallowed backwards. I used to try and feed them every two to three days, I would wait till they pooped and then try to feed them again, but; for the most part they wouldn't want to feed so soon and I would have to feed the food items to my other snakes. As I said in my post I have a indigo that has had very exceptional growth (IMHO), but he was larger that all of my other hatchlings to start with and never had any feeding issue's ever, so he has always eaten larger prey items and was the first to start eating rats, and so it stands to reason that his growth rate has out paced my other drys. he is now eating two 60 gram small rats a week, while my other drys eat 25 gram pups. On November 18th I will of had the first of my dry's for one year and I have found that in my limited experience a slow starter will reach in the neighborhood of 400 grams in weight in their first year in my care and 3-3.5 feet in length and a quick starter probably double the weight or more and 4 feet or longer. These are just my observations on what I have personally experienced. I am just really happy that I haven't killed any of them yet, lol. Jack
 
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