[Valley Pets]

Hey Roy!
Great to see that everyone has takin such a liking to these snakes!
As for your q's... They can reach the size as the T.s.sirtalis, I've seen some in the wild that were quite large indeed! But for the most part they stay somewhat smaller. Most of my breeding females are about 18-24 inches when they start to breed. Here's some info that was collected right here in Nova Scotia...

Newborn babies (139 snakes were measured) - 13.4 to 19 cm
Adult males (51 snakes measured) - 39.6 to 60.2 cm
Adult females (99 snakes measured) - 39.8 to 91.7 cm

That should answer your question just fine! lol All my collection is off WC animals from right here in N.S.
You are right in saying that the young are small! The newborns measured in that study could not have been all newborns...The ones I have bred have been only about 3 inches give or take at birth, and thin, so you have to feed very small fish pieces and small worms to begin with. The largest thing I have fed or would feed to a newborn is red-backed salamanders. One of those is a large meal for a newborn so that goes to show how small they are...
I have been able to get the younger snakes to take pinkies but only when scented with fish, and it takes a while to get them to take just the pink. In the summer I am always feeding frogs, which they are crazy over! Here in Nova Scotia these guys are almost always found near water, if I had to take a guess from what I've read and observed here in N.S I would say that easily 70-85% of their diet is fish,frogs and worms. On the islands you are right and they say that rodents are a very important food source.
They don't reguire any different care from that of T.s.sirtalis. Mine are all kept in a racking system like my corns/kings/milks..ect... They do great.. I only give them a larger water dish.. They are fed about 3-4 times a week. The young I try to feed more often, but this takes time as I usually have about 50 of the little things every summer!
Hope this helps Roy.. And everyone else..
Ryan-Valley Pets