Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just picked this little guy up. I believe I have a pair of TPs now.
The other one's been picky about eating, but I'm gonna try something new tonite and see how they do. I'll post up on the results.
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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

The one thing i love about pics is like an ugly ducking as a baby as they grow the colors explode nice snake.been keeping pictigaster for 28 years they do not get enough credit as one of the nicest north american pit vipers
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http://www.simply-sober.com/him.html

http://simply-sober.com/blog1/

Boy oh boy, I agree!
Pictagasters are my FAVORITE copperheads!!!

Randal

Nice taste. I had an adult about 5 years ago that I had to sell because I was moving around. Wish I had him back. Is there honestly any definitive way to be sure you're actually getting a pure Pictigaster? I always question Broad Band influence. Anybody have a surefire way? I'd love to know.

SnakesAndStuff can tell you a sure fire way to tell the difference.
Await for his reply.

Randal

as the name implies picti gaster painted belly some have a nearly black belly with yellow or white infused and a inverted u at the bottom of each band. Pure pics and pure lats from the center of there ranges are as easy to tell apart as a lepidus and a black mamba. Lats having very light bellies some pure pink.Pictigaster from an unavailible location in upton county have a almost solid black belly with few spots by far the niceset ive ever collected and i have collected over 300 to this date.some are burgandy to almost purple.These also only produce 1 to 3 offspring that are always very large for a copperhead and always take rodents I have never had one refuse.A personal favorite.THANKS ARCHIE ;RANDALL,cant wait for sanantone.
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http://www.simply-sober.com/him.html

http://simply-sober.com/blog1/

Here are pictures of the undersides of my 0.0.2 Trans Pecos. Apparently the parents are a Mardi Snipes Pic. and a Sanderson Pic.
Any thoughts on the belly coloration, or the sexes? They're siblings.

Additionally, neither of these guys is very interested in eating. Any T.P. specific tips would be appreciated.
I've tried f/t pinkies, fuzzies, my "leave some f/t food in the cage for about 24-48 hours" trick, a live rat pup, and late last night I tried a live small mouse. None of that has worked. I've been force feeding them for now until they do something voluntarily. Before I owned each of these snakes, I was told that a live fuzzy worked for snake A once, and a small mouse worked for snake B once.
T.I.A. !

PS - I used to have a pair of Laticinctus from Mardi from a screaming orange female he has, and I didnt know they can take about 2 years to color up, so I got rid of them, STUPIDLY after a year thinking they were gonna be dull. I wish I hadnt now
I forsee my collection switching over to being heavy on superb copperheads and less on North American colubrids

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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

Very nice pictigasters very simular to western crockett county bellies quite pure I would say.On the sex could not be for sure from a picture.On the feeding these babies do not feed like colubrids and are born with a bellie full of yolk ,make sure they have a good place to hide.try small crawler mice fuzzy .In the dark at night give it time nither one looks as tho it needs force feeding I use that only as a last resort.
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http://www.simply-sober.com/him.html

http://simply-sober.com/blog1/

Ok, cool. Thanks. I'm planning on shutting my snake room down for the winter in the next 2 months or so, so I want to be sure and keep good weight on them which is why I'm desperate about keeping food in them right now. I really dont have the option of keeping them elsewhere in the house while the snake room is shut down.
I'm hopeful that 6-8 weeks in the cold will be sufficient enough to get my kings and rats to breed, and also stimulate the coppers to eat ferociously upon warmup.
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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

MY PICS SHUT DOWN IN MID NOVEMBER TILL END OF FEBUARY.
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http://www.simply-sober.com/him.html

http://simply-sober.com/blog1/

Tom,
To me, it looks like you have a pair. (1.1)

Randal

I am by no means a TP copper expert, but i do keep and breed a lot of timber rattlesnakes. with the timbers, they are born LATE in the year...sometimes in very cold climates. Often these babies are born in Sep to Oct and then immediately burmate. They will not take their first meal till spring. Perhaps someone that lives in west TX can shed some more light on this. do they drop late in the year also? if so, perhaps after a cool down period, your babies will come up ready to eat. with baby southern copperheads, i have had some success getting them started on fish. we read from the researchers, that the yellow tail at birth is used to lure in fish to be preyed on. (i have personally never seen this in the wild) so, based on that supposition, i tried putting baby southern coppers in a deli cup. putting about an inch of water in the cup, placing a rock in the cup that is about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inched thick, so the snake can sit on the rock just out of the water. then i placed a feeder guppy in the water. i left the coppers for 48 hours. its not a science, but some of the coppers that were refusing pinks, took the fish. its a cheap and simple process, probably worth a try with the TP. if you try, please let me know the results. thank you.
Chuck Hurd

Chuck Hurd Serpentology

The defining characteristics were nailed in a post below. A true pictigaster has a ventral pattern that is very distinguishable from a laticinctus. The trick with copperhead subspecies is to look at the interaction of the ventral and the dorsal pattern. When you look at a true pictigaster you'll see light areas that extend from the ventrals onto the first few dorsal scale rows and they look like little upside down U's.

I also think it looks like you have a pair! (1.1)

Best of luck, as they're one of my favorite snakes.

I just had a copperhead given to me. I assumed it was local (which would have pinned it as an laticinctus but after looking at these pictures, closely looking at the snake and looking at one where I knew the locality, I'm starting to think I have a pictigaster. What do ya'll think?

Not really sure.. Need a pic that shows more of the interaction of the dorsal/ventral patterns... Also keep in mind that range maps are rough guides and many times subspecies range is WAY off, and ranges do change over time. From that photo I'd be leaning towards thinking you are in an area of integration between the two subspecies.

I agree, but, those dark ventrals remind me a lot of a pictigasters.

Randal

np
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http://www.simply-sober.com/him.html

http://simply-sober.com/blog1/

Sweetness!! I just got back from Pa late last night after taking a long weekend vacation with my wife to Gettysburg and Hershey too.
I picked up 2 newborn TPs at Hamburg though, havent even been offered food yet, but I dont care!! If I'm lucky, I have 2.2 now which makes me just extatic!
I'll try to get some new pics of my new Pic's tonite LOL
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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

Nice group you have, Best of luck getting them eating
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Dan S.
Crotalus & Company-- Captive Bred Reptiles
Venom-Center -- Venomous Community
Wisconsin Reptile Community
Hybrid Herps-- Hybrid Community

Here they are! I saw a sibling male, much older with his coloration and he looked awesome so I'm real excited!
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I havent taken the time to try and sex them yet, but one of them appears to be a female just at a glance as she's moved around the cage.
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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"