I have a sweet, lovely 1 and a half year female corn snake. She seems very healthy, she is a wonderful eater, but she is so small. I knew she was smaller than her age, but it just recently came to my attention that she is LESS THAN HALF the size that a one year old is supposed to be. All the sources I look at say a one year old should be around 35 to 40 inches, and my year and a half is currently around 24 inches. I’m absolutely perplexed. I’ve asked my local breeder multiple times if this is normal, but he doesn’t seem to grasp how small she is as I haven’t had an exact number until today. He’s said “yeah, it’s normal for them to be a few inches small sometimes” but half the size does not seem to be in the category of “a few inches” to me.
As I’ve said, she’s healthy, active, a voracious eater, and she gets fed once a week on hoppers (I think) right now.
Am I just missing something obvious? Is this something that happens often that I just couldn’t find anywhere else on the internet? A care of dwarfism?
What does she weigh, what size feeder does she eat, and how often? How long have you had her?
It’s extremely unlikely to be dwarfism and much more likely to be feeding based. That being said, I very rarely take length measurements of my corns, so I don’t have a basis for comparison. However, I expect my adults to be at least 3 feet long by 3 years, so 24 inches at a year and a half old doesn’t sound unusual.
Hey there @nolgi! Welcome to the family! And btw, we all love pictures here! hint hint! Lol. @solarserpents knows her stuff most definitely! If your girl is alert, tongue flicking, active and eating consistently I would not worry about her length at all. It’s all the other things that count.
If she acts like she is still looking for food after her hopper, you can always offer her an extra fuzzy once in awhile until she graduates to small mice maybe? It’s a personal choice of course. And you don’t want to over feed of course.
One thing that occurred to me is that is there a possibility your female could be in fact a male? Male corns are a bit smaller than females, right @solarserpents? You mentioned your breeder so I’m assuming this breeder has sexed the snake properly? It seems that corns are fairly easy to sex at birth so you probably do have a female and as @solarserpents said your girl is right on point…….
Glad you found us @nolgi! 
Thanks! This is the time I trust generic pet sites for information, I guess. We can’t find the scale to get her weight but she’s on hoppers, once a week, and we’ve had her since February 14th 2022. She was 2 weeks old at purchase.
If she sounds normal to you, I won’t worry. Appreciate the insight.
Getting a weight with a cheap gram scale would definitely be helpful in pinpointing the best feeding schedule for her, but that sounds pretty good to me. My snakes that are about the same age as yours are only eating one size larger, so she likely is on track. If you can’t weigh her, just try to pick a feeder size that’s at least as wide as her thickest part, up to one and half times as wide as her.
No, not necessarily. They average about the same, but it mostly depends on their unique genetics and how they’ve been fed. Certain localities like Keys (and its derivative morphs) often run a bit smaller and leaner. And some, like Okeetees, tend to be larger.
Oh! Well here is my “I learned something new today” tidbit! Thank you Olivia! So my little Reese will be a big guy! He will be able to compete with his sisters! 
Welcome to the community, @nolgi . You’ve already gotten good advice. I’ll just throw in that individuals can vary quite a bit within the range of “normal.” Also, I personally have never had nor seen a yearling corn who was 35-40 inches long. @noodlehaus has produced some very big youngsters. She or @lumpy may have one that size, but that seems like an unusually long yearling range to me.
Most of us measure weight rather than length with young ones. They’re just not much into stretching out and holding still to be measured. I happened to measure two of my yearlings for someone who specifically asked that question last week. They’d just turned a year old and are about 24-28" long.
Sounds like your snake is doing just fine. Again, welcome to the community! And yes, we love pics!
As @caryl noted, there’s a lot of variance. I did a quick check and I have three girls that are just under a year and two months that are around 35". However, I also have a couple of siblings from the same clutch who are smaller, one about the same size as your girl. As long as she’s eating, growing, and her body condition looks good, there’s no need to worry about length.
The Meg of the corn world lol 