young rat snake???

hello, I'm in a hurry at the moment, so I'll write more later but my boyfriend an I just adopted a young (under a year) rat snake (about 1.5 feet long) and he's light brown/gray with brown patterns. The parents are supposed to be either a red rat, green or yellow. Does anyone know if this seems likely, or which one our baby will be???? Thanks! I'll post a picture asap

 

Also, does anyone know at what age they change to their adult color? at 3 feet??

 

Please, if anyone has any information it would be greatly appreciated!!

 

I dont know too much about Ratsnakes, sorry...but do know if you could post a pic, that'd help the guys here that do

 

http://www.geocities.com/dreyko11185/snake1.bmp
http://www.geocities.com/dreyko11185/snake2.bmp

 

My boyfriend and I are starting to notice some random yellow spots on his face and under his head and going a little ways down his "neck" is yellow. Do you think he may be a yellow rat? We adopted him from the herpetology lab I work in here at school. The eggs were collected from an enclosure of 3 large rat snakes. The mother is believed to be the red rat snake, and the father is either the green one or the yellow one.

I would also really appreciate any helpful hints or comments about his temperment. I have been working in the herpetology lab for about 7 months (my only experience with snakes) so I don't know anything about young snakes' behavior. I understand that they will be more likely to strike and bite than an adult, being more vulnerable, etc.

All of the rat snakes we have in the lab are quite emotional in that they do not bite if handled everyday but if not handled for a month or longer they are right back to their scared, biting ways. When these young rat snakes were about 1/2 foot long (last fall) they would strike if you even got near the tanks they were in. I want to assume this is normal for their size/age...is it?

The rat snake we adopted is now about 1.5 feet long and is usually alright but bit my boyfriend today. Again, i want to assume that he just hasn't gained our trust yet and the fact he is young doesn't help.

Can anyone comment as to how normal how little baby rat is acting and if we should be worried at all. He is very curious at times. When we stick our hands in his tank, a lot of times he will come slithering up to our hand and check us out. Other times he is completely frightened. I think I may just be worrying too much but will getting him out for a few minutes each day allow him to feel safe enough that he won't be a "biting adult"...I only worry that he is a rat snake and his parents are fairly large and aggressive. I only have good experience with mammals. Is it going to help us gain his trust, as it would with mammals, to have this snake as a juvenile as opposed to an already grown adult?

 

dont handle the snake for a week leave it settle in after a week feed it if it eats dont handle it for 48 hours once it has settled in is will calm down with each handling (twice a week) and it looks like a gray rat snake if that helps

 

Certainly fairly normal behavior for a young one, that is relatively new. Stress in general can cause this. Even an unhappiness with the Viv can make the little fella grumpy. hand feeding can cause this as they see your hand as dinner (and relate your smell to it).

Let him guide the 'taming' process. Temperments vary from individual to individual as well as species to species.
My Corn is friendly to a fault. Rigt from day one. Great with handling and has always been a great eater.
My Pine, as well documented, can be fussy and does some great hissing and the odd strike.

So as long as you have a good Viv set up and maintain non-contact feeding... should be ready in no time.

If he's ok..handle..when stressed..let him be... Ya know?

Dave

 

Now by no means am I an expert..but those pics look very much like a cornsnake? Is it just me?

 

Well, a Corn kinda 'is' a Rat snake isn't it? So thus the resemblance. He mentioned them comming from a captive pair, so probably is a Rat snake...

All a nice Genus though...

Dave

 

I guess I was saying that do we know for sure the parents are red/green/yellow ratsnakes..and not being confused for a cornsnake?

 

Thanks guys! Yes, I am sure he is not a corn because we don't have any in our lab. We do have 2 black rats and one gray but I'm almost positive the eggs came from the viv with the red, green, and yellow rat snakes. the pictures are fairly accurate, he is light brown with darker brown markings. His temperament is pretty good now. I just held him in my hand for a minute or so and he just sat there and kindof looked around. Before I picked him up, i held my hand next to him on the side of his body and he came up to my hand and slithered inside my fingers for a minute. It was nice to know that he was just curious and checking me out, instead of being so frightened he felt he needed to bite or strike at me. It was a good experience. Any other comments as to his color would be greatly appreciated. Like I said, he has yellow splotches on his face and a yellow underside on his "neck". Does this seem likely for a yellow rat snake???

 

Oh yeah! His tank is a 10 gallon with a heat lamp, a small hide, a wooden log (he enjoys that a lot ,a small rock, and a water bowl that he has taken a drink from. His substrate is repti-bark (fir). I hear other things are best but we have used it in numerous vivs in the herp. lab and it seemed to be working well. He has some fluker's moss on top of the bark chips as well (left overs from a bag I used for my newts, lol). His light is on a timer.

 

here are pics of him so you can see his size and color better. The other picture is of his tank.
http://www.geocities.com/dreyko11185/IMG_1273.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/dreyko11185/IMG_1274.JPG

 

It's really hard to tell what it is, and unless you know who the parents are exactly, no one can tell you what it is. I did, however find a head shot pic of a GREEN rat snake. It has some yellow on his head and neck area, but the rest looks kind of brown to me.

Also, I've heard that fir could be poisonous to corn/rat snakes so you might want to get rid of it just in case. Aspen or even coconut bark works well. You should also have TWO hides in there, one on the warm side, and one on the cold side. See how he's curled up in the corner? You should put one there for him. Also, you may want to consider getting a heat pad as they benefit more from belly heat, rather then heat from above, you know? One more thing, when you handle him, if he bites, do not put him back in right away. Let him calm down first otherwise he'll start thinking that when he bites, he will be put back into his home, whic his what he wants. Not good. He's very pretty though!

 

Thanks for the compliment! We kept him out for a couple minutes after he bit my boyfriend. I forgot to mention that we're going to get an undertank heating pad and our local pet store ran out of hides (small university town) so when I go home next I'll grab a "real" snake hide for him....I know we're kindof lacking the whole temperature gradient thing at the moment. I have leopard geckos so I'm kindof getting a similar experience from them. Is the picture an adult? I see the adult green, yellow and red rat snakes in the lab everyday but I knew that they looked different when they were young, so I guess what I really need are photos of young rat snakes of different colors. It's not important, we were just really curious and excited to see what he'll end up looking like Thanks for the advice about the fir bark! We'll see what we can do about that asap.

 

That's good! I'm glad to hear that Err, read that lol! He does look like a young one though. You're right, they do change appearance as they grow. I don't think I can help you though. That pic I posted was of an adult by the way.

 

kitchen paper or toilet tissue rolls make great disposable hides too, they may not look good but the snakes like them

 

Thanks! I'll throw a roll in there for him until he can have a nice one We held him today and he's still squirmy and wants to get back in his tank, but no strikes or bites

 

That pattern is not a yellow rat. the yellows have long lines not blotches. Sort of looks like a corn/ gray rat mix.
Oh and by the way a red rat snake is the same thing a a corn.