How Big are the Snakes?

Sometimes people ask me how big the snakes are. Lengths, I usually guess a couple feet for Sleepy and maybe 3 for Gordo. It's kinda hard to tell since they are so bendy and have an annoying tendency to never lay straight. As for the diameter of each, I incorporate a visual aid of my fingers making a circle. Gordo gets a skinnier finger-circle than Sleepy. I realize that helps you, the reader, none-at-all, but my visual aid probably isn't accurate anyway.

To me, they're a size that is easily manageable. What I mean by that is that if there was a throw-down between me and either, or even both, of the snakes you can trust that I will win.

Last Saturday, after I fed the snakes and returned them to their home, Gordo and Sleepy walked (ok, slithered) around and checked out what was new in their digs: the temperature of the water and if plenty of it was available, if I'd cleaned out all of the poop etc. You know, normal snake stuff.

Then Gordo started rooting. Gordo will scrape his face against anything to loosen his skin, thus the assortment of rocks and wood in the snake home.

The white arrow in the image above points to where Gordo's head is under the bedding.

Sure enough, Sunday I found Gordo'd left his old skin behind. While not a perfect shed, it was completely intact as in it was one whole piece, including the head.

So I whipped out my handy-dandy tape measure, and without having stretched the skin to full length and getting all anal about it*, Gordo's at least 44 inches long right now.

There you have it, Gordo's more than 3.5 feet long.

*Discarded skin is typically scrunched up in some sections and certainly twisted with belly-side up when it should be down. As it's not exactly moisturized, I was afeared that making it as straight as possible would break it, making it a bigger pain in the ass to measure. I'm good with a "greater than" value.