Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I picked up this lil guy yesterday from a really great breeder here local. I fell in love almost instantly, so beautiful, and such a gentleman too! This lil guy is very laid back, eats great, a bit bashful still in his new surroundings, but very calm.

24 hours after I get him home, he's very calm with my hand nearby and looks to be right at home. I can't wait to start handling him Oh...I figured I'd name him after the rat in Charlotte's Web...so .. his name is Templeton.

Bill

Brindle rat? Looks like a corn snake. Ken

I'm going by what he was sold as .. to be honest, I'm not experienced enough to be able to tell the difference. Of course, if a mistake was made and he is a corn, I'm still very happy with him.

I can get some better photo's and post if needed. What would I look for to tell the difference in a corn and a brindled rat?

Thanks!

Bill

I have attached a pic of a brindle that I have. Remember that the brindle phase can vary greatly. I will try to post other pics later. In the pic with multiple snakes, the brindle is the one that has the little black flecks on it.

Dewey

>>Brindle rat? Looks like a corn snake. Ken

looks like an obsoleta
looks nothing like a corn
maybe you should look again, Ken.
I honestly can't figure out what you are seeing to make you say it looks corn.
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"resistance is futile"
Jimmy (draybar)

Draybars Snakes

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Check the "checkers" on its stomack. If they start right at the neck it's a corn. If they start about 1/2 the way down it's body it is a rat. I have never seen a rat exhibit that much yellow in the neck so young. More common in corns. Just my 2 cents.
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
0.0.1 MO Locale Black Ratsnake "Molly" (Flogging Molly)

"You can only take my money for so long. And then I don't have anymore, and then I get angry!"

Maybe this photo of the head will help more. I'll have to look at his belly tho and see about the checkering. I got him out today for the first time and handled him after having him for two days. He did great! No aggression at all, no musking, very calm and inquisitive. One thing for sure, he's gonna be a great friend

SCREAMING CORN!!!!!!!!!!!

not a brindle black rat.
Screams corn to me, too. Looks like a Miami, but it doesn't really look like a pure miami. Seems like a nice normal.

The only rat snakes I know of that come in brindle are black rats. And as variable as brindle black rats are, I've never seen one with yellow like that. Yellow is generally the last color to develop in corn snakes; not really sure about black rats, but I know that my brindle if 3 years old, and she doesn't have a bit of yellow on her. That's generally a corn snake trait there.
Plus the dark striping.

an Emory (Great Plains Rat). I'm not an expert on either the emory or the corn, but I see a resemblence with the emory. Here is a link to a pic of one.

http://www.kingsnake.com/ratsnake/emoryi.htm

Maybe it's a mix between an emory and a corn.

Dre, what do you think?

>>

Maybe if the picture was smaller and I could actually look at the whole snake at one time, I might see something different but that snake does not look like a corn snake to me.
At least not a pure corn.
Maybe a black rat corn cross but definitely not pure corn.
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"resistance is futile"
Jimmy (draybar)

Draybars Snakes

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>>>>
>>
>>And I still do not see pure corn snake.
It definitely isn't a normal corn or Miami corn.
Absolutely neither.
Like I said earlier, maybe a black rat/corn cross
but I will never be convinced that it is a pure corn snake.
especially when I look at the head.
the head screams obsoleta.
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"resistance is futile"
Jimmy (draybar)

Draybars Snakes

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>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I brightened the photo and the head does look corn.
I still say it doesn't look normal or miami, maybe anery but there is still something else there.
It just does not look pure corn no matter how I look at, resized, brightened or whatever.
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"resistance is futile"
Jimmy (draybar)

Draybars Snakes

_____

I am posting the head portion of the original photo. One can clearly see the spear-point marking on top of the head. My guess is that this snake is mostly Elaphe guttata emoryi. If it were not for the bit of yellow showing, I would have guessed pure emoryi.

np
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If lead paint is so deadly why do they make it so delicious?

As a public service, here is my reply to this post from the "What Kind Forum". I have not edited the text, but have added a PS below.

>>I just got this guya few days ago, and was sold to me as a brindle rat .. This is my first snake, and I have no idea how to tell a brindle rat from a corn.

Look at your snake's head. The brownish stripe that extends diagonally downard from the eye to the corner of the mouth is called the "postocular stripe". In the picture above the postocular stripe stops at the corner of the mouth. This is cited as a distinguishing feature of the Elaphe obsoleta ssp. (Black Ratsnake group), vs. Elaphe guttata ssp. (Cornsnake group); in Cornsnakes, the postocular stripe extends onto the neck (Conant and Collins, 1998).

However (a big one!), using field characteristics, albeit reliable ones, to differentiate captive-born snakes can be problematic. At best, one could say that your snake is consistent with a variety of the Black Ratsnake, Elaphe obsoleta ssp.

If anyone has a different opinion, please share!

Hope this helped.

John D

Post Script: I am extreamly hesitant to say that this snake is either E. obsoleta or E. guttata ( or Pantehrophis, if one prefers). An overhead pic, and a belly pic, are needed. This could be a hybrid/cross of E. obsoletaXguttata. Its very hard to tell with captive bred animals, and limited photographic evidence.

Photos below show profiles of Creamsicle Corn and Black Rat. Note the gifference in the postocular stripe.

JPD

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I am so not lesdysxic!

0.1 Creamsicle Cornsake "Yolanda"
1.0 Bairds Ratsnake "Steely Dan"
0.1 Desert Kingsnake "FATTY"
0.1 Black Rat (WV Rescue) "Roberta"