Hoping someone could help me. I have just adopted an 8 year old corn snake (male I'm told). It's tail tapers bizarrely and I'm told this developed about 4 years ago, doesn't seem to affect the snake but I wondered if it wasa common problem and should I get it checked out.

It certainly looks like a female that was bred a lot. Sometimes they develop "hips", fatty deposits right before the vent. It's not life-threatening or anything, just looks kinda funny. If I were you, I'd cruise over to the consnakes.com forums and ask. Kathy Love could probably answer this for you...

Wow, your pictures are way too big. You might want to adjust that. I think that's interesting that snakes can get 'hips'. All us females are doomed, LOL!!!

yeah soory about the pic sizes, never done that before, I'll know for next time.

Goldtop thanks for the advise, lady at my local reptile centre said it would be that too. Funny thing is previous owner had the snake for 8 years believing it was a male and never bred it so would they develop without being bred?

I'm not sure. I just saw this in Kathy Love's new book and the pic looked very much like yours.

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/

ive actually never heard of the hips growing in breeding female snakes before(learn somethin new every day!)....but to me, it looks like a possible abscessing anal gland, which is actually a pocket of bacteria and dead cells. if this is the case(and im not saying for sure it is), part of the treatment is as simple as checking and correcting his/her housing conditions. in my opinion, the snake should be taken to the vet to determine the issue, and if it is abscessing anal glad, it needs to be drained, AND disenfected. but, because you are under the impression of it being a male, you should probably take it to the vet, just in case.

a history of over feeding... probably a boid owner power fed this poor corn causing obesity.. and the wierd shape is the fat deposits around the section of the snake in your picture.

ive heard of this before and dont know any solution...

its probably why the original owner gave him up. i think your adoption of the snake and thoughtful care should make the rest of his life great.

good luck