Ratsnake Hybrid

Right this has been puzzling me for aaaaages!

So thought I'd pick the brains of you lot to see what you thought

We have this rather beautiful ratsnake. EVIL as sin as you have probably read from previous posts about him! They didn't know what it was at the shop apart from that it was a ratsnake. But the colouration combined with the most nasty of temperaments leads us to think it's a texan X. But it doesn't look perfectly texan / grey / great plains which are the obvious ones. Graham suggested possibly X'd with a corn? It is possible he is a one off morph.
But it's temperament suggests there is definitely Texan in there. And has remarkable intelligence for problem solving i.e. if biting your shoe doesn't work, he will try to get a shot at your ankle or leg, and further try to find another weakness from there. And when that fails he death rolls then swipes back at you.

Colouration you cant see on the photo... is that under the chin, he is luminous yellow, mixing 1/3 down the body to a bright salmon pink. This salmon pink colour is also visible as specs between the scales along the length of his body

As you can see he has rather pronounced keeling down his spine

So what are your opinions of this lovely looking fella. And he is 7 feet long too.

wow, that is an absoultely stunning snake.

Looks like a grey x yellow rat snake to me.

I still think you will never really know unfortunately lol
maybe you should email the ratsnake foundation and see what they think,
I still think it might be a texas rat x with maybe a bairds or the red rat snake (corn snake)
or maybe even a great plains rat snake mixed with something lol

No I dont either but it's good fun guessing. And it's nice to get some opinions.

Cant handle him but wouldn't be without him.

Quote :

wow, that is an absoultely stunning snake.

I've always had dark coloured snakes. We saw him in the shop and had to have him because we thought his colouration was gorgeous. And to be honest makes for some nice pictures when he poses in strike position... which is nearly every time you go near the viv!

So you cant handle him at all?? Must be interesting cleaning his tank!!!

thats a good point! i need to clean out my aggro corn... would a snake bag or something work?

lol... i keep hijacking threads.... sorry!

Kuma wrote:

So you cant handle him at all?? Must be interesting cleaning his tank!!!

UNDERSTATEMENT of the YEAR!

I have to wave one hand in front of his face to get his attention then try and get him at the back of the head, but he became wise to that. So now I distract him but grab him close to his vent (body side not tail side) It's harder for him to swing back at me then because he is that heavy.
So still holding his tail end I stand in the middle of the front room, while my darling stigg cleans the tank out

Putting him in a bag is out of the question, he pushes from the bottom of the sack and strikes straight at your face.

you should really get some hooks lisa

WOW, he is a bad boy.


i'm suprised he is so agressive; I take it he is a good feeder?

all rat snakes are usually good feeders, especially aggressive ones, although i ave seen an aggressive snake strike constrict and then just leave it, infact Tango my baird rat I got from Lisa did that on his last feed, struck constricted for 10 minutes then left it

lycanlord19 wrote:

you should really get some hooks lisa

I know I keep forgetting to order one, but i'm that used to handling him now I dont think there is much point!

scorpion111 wrote:

i'm suprised he is so agressive; I take it he is a good feeder? Twisted Evil

Yes it's a case of open door, sling mice/rats in/close door very very fast! But strangely on other days he goes up to his food and gently picks it up and eats very calmly.
hehehe some days he has table manners, others days not lmao!

lycanlord19 wrote:

infact Tango my baird rat I got from Lisa did that on his last feed, struck constricted for 10 minutes then left it

Sounds like he is due to shed

yeah we think he is bout to his eyes arent cloudy yet BUT he seems more aggresive than usual I was holding him yesterday he came up to my face then tail rattled at me lol

the pet shop near me sells hooks if your interested lol
or you could go to ebay or Lee

I'll get one, one of these days. but im that used to catching him with my hands now lol.

Tango gets REALLY nervous when his eyes get cloudy. He's never striked but his tail does go like the clappers!

yeah I noticed, it is rather cute how he thinks hes a rattler lol
we are gunna get some hooks when we get our DWA cuz we are getting a western diamond back a mojave rattlesnake and hopefully a gaboon viper aswell

NO WAY!


when you gettin' your DWA? gaboon viper = absoulte awesomeness.

Hopefully next year we should be getting a big house then I will have a suitable room for DWA species, so next year hopefully, and yeah I love gaboons pet shop near me can get them in for me whenever he has 3 himself lol

AWESOME.

After seeing what their venom does to blood, you'd have a hard time getting me in the same room as one.

yeah I know how dangerous they are but I should be ok as long as im cautious

...What does it do to blood?

I know this species is very dangerous, but they are still stunning snakes.

if i rember correctly it, it turns your blood into this clumply hard liquide... like if you add lemon juice into milk.. something like that..

Turns it into jello, essentially.

Lmao, ok mabye that is a rather bad bite.

google it...