Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here are a few of my locality Keys animals - and my Rosy Blood.

I dont do much at all with corns - I actually consider these more Rat snakes than Corn snakes, but I do love my Keys animals!!!

My Boot Key snakes are as mean as any Texas Rat I've ever owned!
I'm sure they'll calm down as they age, but I have to laugh at how aggressive these little bitty things are.

My Big Pine animals are all super calm and very easy to handle - that might be because Don loved them up so much before he sent them to me!

big pine key hatchling female

big pine key sub adult female

aberrant boot key hatchling

aberrant boot key hatchling - different snake

boot key hatchling

rosy blood sub adult male

Thanks for looking...

byron.d

Wow Byron, Your pictures turned out great- those little devils are growing quick. Their parents are coming out of brumation when I get back to town in a few days.

I'm having a quick website built again- Although technically Rosy Rats are corns, I'm old school I guess and am going tolist them with my other ratsnake species. Once you own a PURE key corn you start to notice the differences- NOT just that the tiny hatchlings sometimes prefer lizard scenting for the first few meals... NOT just the major lack of black in the pattern.... NOT just the patternless bellies... BUT stuff like HEAD & BODY shape. They are built much more for an arboreal lifestyle since they spend a majority of their life in trees (due to storms, minimal ground cover, tides, etc.). Kinda like the insular forms of Boa constrictor imperator. They also have a much higher dorsal blotch count...etc. etc. so many little details!

Anyways- Congrats...you have a great collection of locality animals. It's getting really hard to find locality rosies these days!

Your friend,
Graham

I agree 100%. There are many details to these animals that link them more to Ratsnakes than to their Mainland counterparts.
Some might call it a stretch.... but these behave way more like my hatchling Everglades and Yellow rats than other corns I've had as hatchlings.
I have noticed that as you move up the Keys they tend to 'look' and 'act' more like Mainland corns - rounder head shape, more robust body, and more black around the saddles. I have a pair of Marathon Key snakes that could easily pass for generics - until you flip them over and see the reduced pattern on the belly. Otherwise very run of the mill snakes.

Thanks again Graham. I cant wait to see what your pair throws this year!!!

Here's one of my Big Pine Key males.

Man my photography is horrible...these were some quick pics I had snapped for Byron of the parents that produced the babies he's raising up... again...sorry about the pic quality but it'll give you an idea of what the parents look like. The male has a silver background while the female has the orange"ish" background. This pair are F2's from legal stock collected on Boot Key.

This is what Wikipedia says about Boot Key:

"Boot Key is an island in the middle Florida Keys located adjacent to Key Vaca. Boot Key is within the city limits of Marathon, Florida, USA. The island is largely undeveloped despite having a bridge spanning Boot Key Harbor to Key Vaca, which is now closed to pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

Immediately adjacent to Boot Key is a 38-acre (150,000 m2) tract of land from which the United States Government broadcasts Radio Marti. These broadcasts consist of news and cultural information intended for residents of Cuba."

Another pic with different lighting.

Byron, thats the ones you were telling me about when I ran into you at the Pomona show.. Awesome Bro.. Just awesome.. Post them up over yonder if you would not mind..

Now about their personalities, are they like the two young ladies I got from you a while back? Completely different behavious, IMHO, from my corns or my out crossed Upper Keys Aneries..

Regards... Tim of T and J

Yep. these are the little monsters I was telling you about. Stunning to look at but mean as all hell! I love these things though.

They are posted up around the corner.

Good seeing you. Take care.

byron.d

Cool Bro... Fiesty little twerps... That show was bonkers wasn;t it.. So many people there and well so many folks I have dealt with to.. Was good seeing you .. Did you happen to get anything???

Regards.. Tim of T and J

It's cool that there seems to be so much interest in those guys. As a kid, I recall getting some in to the shop I help at. If they really were? But I always recall the term rosy corn. I asked about it about 6-7 years ago and very little response. I honestly had no idea what was the difference, but sure interesting to learn.

To me the head and even eyes look a bit like a suboc. narrow, and eyes protrude a bit more. IMO I only know this as I caught a few last year and kept 1 juvie female. I knew little to nothing about them, but they are cool in their own right.

I'd also like to say, it's great to keep the locales pure as much as possible. very very cool, and thanks for sharing the pics.
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Thanks for reading.
Big Tom

www.HerpZillA.com

I have a Big Torch Key pair and the male has a good deal of dark ventral pattern. Not as much as a mainland, but definately there. Do you guys see a lot of variation in animals from the same key? Do you notice differences in appearance from key to key? The female has zero belly pattern. I really wish there was more info out there on the key's corn/rosy ratsnake. I find them to be one of the most fascinating members of the colubrid family.

I've had some Key Largo animals in the past that exhibited some belly checkering- I wrote that off to them being so close to the mainland E. g.guttata. Last year was my first year breeding the Boot Key rosies- Byron got the entire litter to raise up...neither of the parents show any checkering. I used to have Big Pine Key, Marathon Key and No Name Key rsoies- none of them had checkering.

I've never been to the keys to observe rosies in the wild BUT am heading down in '09 to photograph habitat and wild Rosy rats (if I'm lucky enough to find any).

Your animals sound awesome...got to LOVE locality animals!
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