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Length of shed skin

KevinK

KevinK

New member
Can the length of a shed skin be used as an estimate of how long
snake is?

I assume that the skin stretches some during it's removal, but how much on average?

I'm curious 'cause my snake's last shed was 20 inches, and I'm not sure how else to get an accurate length measurement.

Thanks,
Kevin
 
No don't go by shed skin. Its impossible to tell. I have heard some burmese python owners getting like 15 foot sheds from ten foot snakes. Don't even waste your time measuring the sheds.

bmm
 
Thanks.

So what's a good way to measure length. I'm not planning anything special with the numbers, I would just like to keep track to monitor growth.

Maybe I should go by weight instead of length.

Kevin
 
What I do is take a picture of my snakes next to a ruler with a digital camera. Download snake measureing program, put the pic on the program and it will tell you the size of the snake. I have a program which does it but im not sure how to send it. Someone else will have it and send it to you.

Thanks

Alex
 
Thanks Alex,

I did a forum search on "measuring programs" and found Serpwidgets snake measuring program. I've downloaded it and I'll give it a try.

Kevin
 
Cool, thats the one have.

Its good, make sure you take the pics from DIRECTLY ABOVE because if you take the pics from an angle it will be right, (im sure you know that, lol:p )
Good Luck

Thanks

Alex
 
Just thought I'd add this: another reason not to go by shed skin length is because this is the skin that your snake has grown out of so will be smaller that your snake. Or at least it *should* be. Bmm obviously found the opposite but either way it proves that sheds are a very unreliable estimate for length.

I don't have a digi camera so I've measured my snakes using a piece of string. Not very easy!!
 
Greetings,

Last Sat. my daughter and I watched a Nature program on PBS dedicated to snakes. One of the Herpers in the documentary measured a snake with piece of string by running it along the length of the snakes body and then measuring the string. We did this with her snake last night and it worked great. Mr. Ichabod Wadget Wiggles is 15 inches long.


Cheers,
Jason
 
Howdy,

First of all let me say that I really like Serpwidgets program. You just snap a picture of snakey and a ruler, set the measuring length and start measuring. Really fast and easy.

Second, I measured both snakes and compared it to the shed lengths that I had recorded earlier. I see that the shed length is REALLY unreliable. One snakes shed was 15.5 inches, but he's 16.2 according to the measuring program. The others shed was 20 inches, but she's only 16.3 according to the program. So, I got one larger and one smaller.

Thanks for all your help and ideas everyone,
Kevin
 
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