Being a retired scientist, it is fun try to use the old brain to apply the little knowledge and logic that I possess to try to answer a question. I certainly can’t tell you how old your snake is, but I can take a pretty good guess at how
young it isn’t. All of the stuff that follows is by observation. Wild snakes in NY are born in late July or early August, about four to five inches long, assume they add an inch or two before they go down for the winter in October. Snakes that I have found that I am pretty sure are approaching their first birthday are about 10 or 11 inches, let’s say about a foot by fall, at age 1. Assuming four or five inches of growth by age two would put them at 16 to 18 inches the next spring (first mating). Chloe was about this size last summer when she had 7 babies (about the date of her third birthday). Two gravid females that I found last summer were significantly larger, in the 20 to 22 inch class, and had about 16 babies each, so a good guess is that they were approaching their fourth birthday. So I am guessing that a 24 inch snake would have been at least four and probably five years old (or older) in the fall of 2006. In any case her expected lifespan probably improved significantly when she was taken into your family.
Wow! I agree with Stefan, how bout that?
