Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Every spring at the school where I teach in southside VA we get an influx of black rats and black racers. 95% of the time I find out too late and am asked to come and remove a body after a custodian has squashed one or cut off ones head (they're still afraid to touch them after they're dead). The 5% of the time that I do make it in time, they are usually tiny hatchlings. Today I got lucky and got this guy this morning from a class down the hall. He never tried to bite me, but sure gave my hands a good musking. I'm gonna hang on to him for a little while because I've been looking for a calm local to use to try and reach my students with. I have a tiny one that I got last fall and a bunch of corns and such that I've brought in, but nothing has the effect of seeing exactly what they are so afraid of and have it be completely harmless. Maybe this will be both of our lucky breaks, he survives a trip in the middle school of snake death, and I find the teaching tool that I've been after.

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Black Rat Snake 0.1 (Patty)
Ball Pythons 1.1 (Morty & Mary)
Amazon Tree Boas 1.1 (Orville & Aeme)
Corn Snakes 2.2 (Bob, Sandy, Candy, and Tye)
Leopard Geckos 3.6 (Leo, Spaz, Spazzooka, Leiah, Han, Padme, Lonestar, Vespa, and Spot)
Central Painted Turtle 1.0 (Swim)
Red-Eared Slider 0.0.1 (Harold)
Mississippi Map Turtles 0.0.6
(Modelo, Tecate, Corona, Sol, XX, Bohemia)
Columbian Red-Tailed Boa 1.0 (James Jr.)
Central American Boa 1.0 (Steve)
Longnosed Snake 1.0 (Serano)
Bearded Dragons 2.0 (Irwin and Obie)

www.geocities.com/wink0083

Awesome catch ...

What a beauty !
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Safari Tom
See'em Touch'em Save'em
www.SafariTom.com

Great looking male Black Rat. I am of the opinion that the Black Rats found in S.E. Va. are some of the nicest looking in the country. I have a female rescue from Your Co. that is in need of a mate, but since she just shed again last night (her second after cooling), I think she has missed her chance.

Good luck with educating the students not to fear snakes. Who knows, you might just reach a few of them.

Below is a photo of my girl.

Assuming this one is a male, let me know if you ever want to give him a try. I'm going to leave him alone for a week and then try to feed him, or watch for him to defecate (whichever comes first) so I can check him out for parasites before I try working with him at all. I'm also hoping that a little bit of time getting used to me walking by him might help keep me from getting the stink treatment when I try to sex him (or her).

I also need to find a new place to store my photos, geocities free sites have too many limits including data transfer limits that apparently take down your pictures after just a half of day of views (sure they were big pictures, but the snake is too pretty to shrink them).

I see that a lot of you use photo bucket. Does anyone else have any suggestions?

If you want to see the pics, they are on my myspace page...
www.myspace.com/wink0083
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Black Rat Snake 0.1 (Patty)
Ball Pythons 1.1 (Morty & Mary)
Amazon Tree Boas 1.1 (Orville & Aeme)
Corn Snakes 2.2 (Bob, Sandy, Candy, and Tye)
Leopard Geckos 3.6 (Leo, Spaz, Spazzooka, Leiah, Han, Padme, Lonestar, Vespa, and Spot)
Central Painted Turtle 1.0 (Swim)
Red-Eared Slider 0.0.1 (Harold)
Mississippi Map Turtles 0.0.6
(Modelo, Tecate, Corona, Sol, XX, Bohemia)
Columbian Red-Tailed Boa 1.0 (James Jr.)
Central American Boa 1.0 (Steve)
Longnosed Snake 1.0 (Serano)
Bearded Dragons 2.0 (Irwin and Obie)

www.geocities.com/wink0083

You can post about 10 photos for free in the photo section of this site.

Just from looking at your photos, I would bet that you have a male. The tail is very long with a slow taper.

I feed my rescue snake f/t rats with 15" forcepts. She seems to like to see her prey moving. She pulls it in to her hide and makes short work of it.

Let me know if it is a male. I would be willing to drive out your way to give it a try.

Rick

Do I know you ? You look really familiar .. I grew up in Richmond VA and went to Freeman HS. How long have you been there?

Tom
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Safari Tom
See'em Touch'em Save'em
www.SafariTom.com

I grew up in Minnesota, and only moved to VA 5 years ago.
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Black Rat Snake 0.1 (Patty)
Ball Pythons 1.1 (Morty & Mary)
Amazon Tree Boas 1.1 (Orville & Aeme)
Corn Snakes 2.2 (Bob, Sandy, Candy, and Tye)
Leopard Geckos 3.6 (Leo, Spaz, Spazzooka, Leiah, Han, Padme, Lonestar, Vespa, and Spot)
Central Painted Turtle 1.0 (Swim)
Red-Eared Slider 0.0.1 (Harold)
Mississippi Map Turtles 0.0.6
(Modelo, Tecate, Corona, Sol, XX, Bohemia)
Columbian Red-Tailed Boa 1.0 (James Jr.)
Central American Boa 1.0 (Steve)
Longnosed Snake 1.0 (Serano)
Bearded Dragons 2.0 (Irwin and Obie)

www.geocities.com/wink0083

You should try anyway, won't hurt!
Todd Hughes