Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok i was just wondering racers, coach whips and european whip snakes are all in the same family right?

I was just wondering how do they kill prey? And why do their bites hurt so much more then a rat snakes?

My friend has been bitten by one said it hurt so much more then his rat snakes bite and i dont get it cause these snakes are so slim and dont seem any bigger?

Those particular snakes are in the genus Coluber, and Masticophis, and they generally subdue their prey either by pressing it against a stationary object, or simply hold it down with body loops and consume it alive.

It's really strange to me as to why a Black racer's scientific latin name is....Coluber constrictor, when in fact they don't constrict their prey. I haven't quite figured that one out yet..LOL!

I'm thinking your friend probably just got bitten in a more tender area by the racer. However, I DO know that Indigo's have incredibly strong jaws as opposed to many other types of snakes.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

ive been bitten by a king snake also it did not hurt much at all but i hear bites from racers and whip snakes are very painful ? not sure why this is tho but ive heard ti from more then one person

Hmm, it's been a long time since I was bitten by a Black racer(6 or 7 years), but I don't remember it hurting too much though. I'm not real sure about their tooth length compared to the others mentioned, but their skinny little heads aren't particularly strong either, so I'm not real sure what the deal is on that.

It would certainly depend on if the snake struggled, and wiggled around while chewing on ya too or not, as to how much pain it produced..LOL!

I know when my adult brooks female tried to eat me last week, it hurt like crazy because only because she was twisting and contorting her jaws on my finger as she was constricting my hand trying to kill and consume it..LOL!

~Doug

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

I've been bitten by quite a few racers and a number of other racer like snakes (Drymobius, Masticophis, Dryadophis). I've also been bitten by a few kingsnakes (and milksnakes). I think kings and milks bit significantly harder than racers and their bites are more painful.
Watersnake and Pinesnake/bullsnake bites are worse than racers as well.

Of course, I don't think anything bites as hard as an indigo! They clamp down with a force that is really surprising when they want to.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

I don't really remember racer bites hurting that much either (though I had one bite me about 7 time in 2 seconds once).

However, we had one for a while that killed mice basically by chomping down on them so hard they couldn't breath...so maybe they are capable of biting a lot harder than I've experienced.
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

I had a pair of coachwhips a few years ago. They bit me a lot. I don't think it hurt any more than anything else the same size.
The first time I fed them I tossed a small live rat in which it promptly snatched up and then went on to thrash it around till it was dead, it made a pretty big bloody mess. Was a real wild kingdom moment.
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Jason

are these like european whip snakes?