Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just given a gopher snake because the previous owner did not want him due to him being mean. My question is, are gophers related to corn/rat snakes? To me, he has the same body style, shape and size.
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------Misty-------
Never knock on Death's door. Ring the bell and run. He hates that!

As far as I know they are in the colubrid family so of course they are related. I don't know a whole lot about them but I have heard that they have a notorious attitude but after some handling they just bluff. That is all I know on them.
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Ball Python "Wilson" (Castaway)
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
0.0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Onyx"

I maintain 2 Pacific Gopher Snakes and can vouch for there attitude. They are in the same family but much much different snakes. An associate of mine calls Corns “Glorified Gophers” but he knows not what he speaks. Gopher Snakes also grow to a length of 48-100” while Corn Snakes average 24-72” I would say there closest relation is they are only 40 pages apart in the Audubon field guide. “Corns P.604 Gophers P. 644” which is where my size information above was collected.
My Research and Collection

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------Misty-------
Never knock on Death's door. Ring the bell and run. He hates that!

I can vouch for not using live prey. I still feed my Corns and young Gophers as well as my lizards live mice but the size they eat are just pinkies to maybe fuzzys and are harmless to the animals. My larger Gopher or Boas only get there food after it has at the very least been spun around and its head struck the table or something. I once had a Burmese Python that was partially eaten by a rat that was left in the enclosure. The snake lived, the rat died, I paid thousands to the vet but eventually got rid of the snake “I was 14yo, She was almost 11’ long and she was getting snappy” So my parents made me get rid of her at that time.
My Research and Collection

I don't think anyone addressed this specifically, so in case you were wondering, they need the same cage set up as corns, but like the prevous poster said, they get bigger, so you should give them more space as they get older. Very cool, by the way. I've wanted a pit for a long time. I'm kind of jealous. lol

Also as far as Enclosures go, One of my Pacific Gophers are a hatchling and kept in a 2G size enclosure right now. The other is a rather large "About 5 foot" Female. She was handed over to me by a client who was having tractor work done on his property, One of the backhoes dug her up producing several bad injuries. The vet said her best chance is to add her to my collection as she would never survive in the wild. She in currently in about a 60G size enclosure.
My Research and Collection

Pitts are a lot of fun if you dont mind the loud hissing and constant snapping. More than likly I could tame mine down a lot more but I just dont. The way I see it its more important to have a tame 12' boa than a tame Gopher Snake so my main atention as far as handeling goes is twards my large constrictors. I hope I will be aloud to do this, Since you mentioned you liked them and to show the starter of this post some potential for them I have included a few pictures.
Below is my Hatchling ready to eat me LOL

Here you can see the young snakes size in relation to the 2G enclosure

Below is the large one. She is very testy do to her wounds. We dont much with her very much, We are just leting her be comfy and try to heal.

"BELOW" Come any closer and I will eat you.

Enjoy
My Research and Collection

I'm not too worried about the hissing, but the striking is another thing altogether. lol I'd like to have a northern pine but I'm not really in a position to get any more snakes.

You can never have enough snakes, reguardless. Those are my thoughts. If I had the money and space, I'd have one of all the different corns, kings...ect.
"Hi, my name is Misty, and I am a Herp addict." I am not even a recovering addict. LOL

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------Misty-------
We have enough youth....How about a fountain of smart?

In my case, it isn't because I have too many - as a matter of fact, in my opinion, I have too few - it's just that I'm going to be moving at the end of this month, and then again at the end of the summer. I don't know where I'm going yet, or what the rules are going to be, so I can't buy a new snake when I might have trouble sneaking my old snakes in. It's kind of frustrating, especially since my tax return is on its way. . .