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Posted by chrish on January 29, 2003 at 01:55:05:
In Reply to: Re: Science... posted by colby on January 28, 2003 at 12:58:03:
According to most people on this forum it is unhealthy and going to die in 5 years.
No one is saying that. Several of use are pointing out that a high calorie diet is bad for many species in which it has been studied and could be equally bad for snakes.
And as a matter of fact, Western Hogs are one of the few snakes for which there are some good data, thanks mostly to Platt's (1969) study of nasicus ecology in Kansas.
Some of his findings are - (these are all SV lengths, you could add another 10-15% for the tail)
Females become sexually mature at around 350-400mm (13.7-15.7 in) and at an age of 20-22 months. (So a wild two year old female would be under 16 inches).
Males, on the other hand, were found to be sexually mature at as small as 300mm (11.8 inches) and at around 1 year of age.
Growth rates -
Males:
9 months - 179-255 mm (7-10 in)
21 months - 282-326 mm (11-13 in)
33 months - 330-356 mm (13-14 in)
45 months - 360-377 mm (14-15 in)
Females:
9 months - 206-296 mm (8-12 in)
21 months - 312-398 mm (12-16 in)
33 months - 418-451 mm (16-18 in)
45 months - 471-490 mm (18-19 in)
