If you're talking a little bigger (5 to 6 feet) then I agree with everglades or yellow rat. They can be very pretty.

If you want bigger than that then you'll have to go to asian rats. I'd recommend russian rats for their size and good temperment but they are hardly colorful (see photo below).

A Taiwan beauty snake can get up to 9 foot and a nice one is quite a sight. There are also several smaller beauty snakes and they can be quite colorful (thus the beauty in the name). There are several other larger colorful asian rats but they are rarer, harder to find, harder to keep, less handleable and more money. Even the beauty snakes can be a handfull and aren't as calm as corns. But even yellows and everglades can be spooky.

Several people on this site work with various beauty snakes and several have shots of yellows and other nice american ratsnakes (for instance bairdi's). I'm sure you can do a quick search here under taiwan or beauty and find several nice photos of colorful beauty snakes here.

Best regards
John

[ Hide Replies ]

• Colorful rats - TrpnBils, Sat Apr 23 18:16:19 2005
• RE: Colorful rats - duffy, Sat Apr 23 19:04:14 2005
• How much bigger? - jfirneno, Sat Apr 23 19:27:53 2005
• RE: How much bigger? - trpnbils, Sat Apr 23 20:01:19 2005
• Okay fine... - jfirneno, Sat Apr 23 21:20:26 2005
• RE: Okay fine... - TrpnBils, Sun Apr 24 00:43:48 2005
• Very good. Sounds like you've got the bases covered... - jfirneno, Sun Apr 24 10:17:14 2005
• Kids & ratsnakes....... - duffy, Sun Apr 24 06:00:15 2005
• Duffy, I agree with your observations on ratsnake behaviour... - jfirneno, Sun Apr 24 10:32:20 2005
• How about a greenish rat.... - Hotshot, Sun Apr 24 15:19:48 2005
• Or you could even go with an albino black rat..... - Hotshot, Sun Apr 24 15:23:11 2005
• RE: Or you could even go with an albino black rat..... - trpnbils, Sun Apr 24 15:46:16 2005
• "greenish" rats........ - duffy, Sun Apr 24 16:24:32 2005
• Oddrat input... - Conrad, Sun Apr 24 19:40:23 2005
• males get big.... - Gargoyle420, Mon Apr 25 01:11:29 2005
• RE: Colorful rats - Mass_Chaos, Mon Apr 25 22:46:57 2005