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Upsizing at feeding time?

G

Gabriele

New member
My little girl is now 6 months old and just finished shedding again. This time she did it all by herself, I am so proud of her. Previous sheds have always been in pieces and she needed a 'snakey spa' to get the rest of her shed off of her. This time she got it off in one long piece. : ))
Yesterday she was searching for food again, and she ate three pinkies in a row. I was afraid to give her more even though she still looked hungry. I have fuzzies in my freezer but the look so big??? She is 17 1/2 - 18 inches long and just about as thick as a magic marker. Can she take the fuzzies? or is there a size inbetween pinkie and fuzzie I should use first????

Oh, also, now that I have a full shed I can count the tail scales or what ever you call them to sex her. Can someone tell me the rule to tell the m/f diff.

Thanks for any input.
 
There's not an in between size, but you can sift through your box of fuzzies to find the smallest one to start out with. I'm sure you've heard that the fuzzie shouldn't be anymore than 1.5 times wider than the widest part of your snake, so eye the fuzzie first to make sure. Everyone will recommend getting a scale, and I won't lie it's so much easier having one considering the awesome Munson Plan guide lines, but it's not impossible to judge without weight. When I finally got my scale, it turned out that I was feeding incredibly close to his suggestions, and actually a little bit smaller.
 
Oh, and as for the scale count, you count all of the scales below the vent (where it changes from the scales being a single scale to being two scales sitting next to each other). If the number is 130 or less, its supposedly most likely female, and 140 or more male. When I did it, I used a gel pen to mark the scales I'd counted to so I didn't lose track. Gel pens work best because you can just gently dab it down and it will show a mark. I imagine a ball point pen would be much harder to use.
 
Thanks : ) Im going to get out the magnifying glass and the gel pen and I'll let you know what I find out.
 
Good luck! I ended up having to accept that I probably have a male instead of a female when I did it, hopefully you were right from the start :) I also just saw an old post on here where someone was talking about counting ALL scales, then subtracting the lower scale set from the upper scale set and going by that. Now I can't find that thread. Maybe that's more accurate though if you want to look? I guess it takes proportions into account.
 
Just remember the ranges on scale count for males and females do over lap. It is best to have them popped if under 18 inches or probed if over 18 inches. Probing is the best method for sexing a snake.
 
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