freshly caught.....

[JuliusSqueezer]

yah...capt remember the pic you took last summer of the ratsnake you wanted identified? Your area has a huge population of intergrades. black rat x yellow rat = greenish ratsnake. (the name green rat was already taken elsewhere) nice catch!

Quickest way to tell a black racer from other black snakes is the white chin but otherwise brightblue to gunmetal grey belly. They are pretty but even when tamed, which is a rare occurance, they are annoyingly fast and will not wrap. The idea of putting the word constrictor in their name is almost as fubar as calling a crocodile skink a skink when it has every feature a gecko does or a scarlet kingsnake a kingsnake when it is actually a milksnake. Anyway, best to let the racer go...but if you insist, the only way you will ever keep it alive and get it to feed is to not handle and keep it in a very quite non-trafficed area of the house and provide lottsa hide. There is not a more stressed out anxiety ridden snake species in the US. Once established feeding he may calm down a little but will likely always be snappy when being reached for.

[addsig]

[captainmorgan]

thanks for the great info julius....i've been reading up and finding them not that adaptable to captivity. I'll let him go in my back yard. Hopefully I can see him from time to time....they really are beautiful snakes though. I didn't know they had so much in common as kings. They eat vipers and the coral snake too....pretty cool I thought. Thanks for the kudos on the catch. I really wish I could have caught that corn snake. I didn't realize there that "pretty" for lack of manly names....
[addsig]

	Corn Snake The Corn Snake or Red Rat Snake (Elaphe guttata) is a species of Rat Snake.

[Constrictor_BO]

Hey cap.. you better slow down catching those snakes. You aint gonna have room for all those rattlers you're gonna catch and take back home with ya here next weekend.

Nice lookin snakes.
[addsig]

[captainmorgan]

I'd love to get a pic of me holding a rattler...but it's definitaly not coming home with me!!!!!
[addsig]