Although many, if not most, ratsnakes can be skiddish as babies, most can become very tame with age...At least the N Am ones I have dealt with and seen (including Tx rats!). Yesterday, my 9 year old had a birthday party & most of the kids observed and handled black rats, corns & tx rats. My bairds & greenish had just eaten the day before, so we didn't take them out.

Of the 10 ratsnakes (that includes the 4 corns) that I have, only one has ever bitten me...The leucistic tx rat was a biter when he was a baby. Now he never bites and I have no reservations handing him off to my 9 year old...Duffy

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• 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