Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A little over a week ago, I was helping out in a bicycle event to raise monies for diabetes research. I was at one of the rest stops for the cyclists, a church in rural Camden Co. NC. Well I heard two of the other volunteers talking about seeing a snake on the property. I was thinking that with all the people there, that the animal would have been long gone. The next thing I know, I see one of the guys stomping on something. When I got over there, it turned out to be a Black Rat pup that was only about 10” long. I stopped the guy from killing it. It seemed to be stunned but with no external injuries. I picked up the little guy, and while he would try to strike anyone else moving around him, he never tried to bite me.
I wasn’t too sure that he was long for this world due to being stomped, but I took him home with me, and Sunday, after about a week of rest, I got him to eat a small f/t fuzzy mouse. I think the little guy is going to make it.
Unlike the Eastern Black Rats that I have breed, this one has brown saddles and a brownish tinge to his overall coloring. He may turn out to be a brown morph Black Rat. In this part of the country, that is something that you don’t see much. For the most part, our Black Rats are jet black with very little if any pattern showing as adults.
I will post a picture soon.

Man,....what a great sounding outcome for a change!....hope it continues to do well in your care. Things certainly do sound promising so far.

Good to know nobody from that large crowd got killed by that deadly venomous serpent before you could get to it..LOL!

Would have been great to see the "stompee" get stomped a few times for being so damned ignorant too!

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

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Well, he did feel foolish after I yelled at him for trying to kill a harmless animal. He felt even worse when I held it in my hand, and it didn't even try to bite me.

I was glad to see it eat. It is very small for a rat snake. I wonder if that wasn't its first meal since it hatched. It is also very thin.

One of my adult Eastern Black Rats

Yes, Im glad he did feel foolish for wanting to kill such a tiny little harmless snake.

BTW, That's a great looking, very solid black adult you have there too!

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

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Ahh, that is the reason for the coloring. He doesn't have the adult colors yet. Should darken in time!
Thank you for not being of the ignorant, snake hating herd!

Matthew

yea....I wanted to see video of the stomper getting a stomp

....stoopeed peepel..........

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......JY

Yeah, the freakin ignorance with snakes is absolutely ridiculous man!.......even as a young kid I never understood how so many people could be so damn clueless regarding such cool animals.

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

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

LOL.....yep.....I was like ? 10 or less....didn't know squat about snakes but I grabbed them anyways....blacks by the neck and garters just in hand....no parents taught me squat...I learned by asking others and just doing it myself...pigeons,rabbits,guinea pigs when young...then mice and some snakes at later teens...bred mice and learned all I needed by myself....still breed alot of mice from what I got....
snakes....gotta Thank a alot of people...Kingsnake.com too....Al Zulich and Rich Zuckowski.......Markel's book....and Richard Ross'....all I needed to do this...LOL>...sad.....
(*YES I got alot more books...pretty pics...HA)....

.....people......my parents still want me to quit playing with snakes....uuummmm...I am 50 ,,,,..my mother won't even lok at snakes on TV...she turns away or turns channel.....wierd....

.....snake killers....they just plain suck........
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......JY

I hear THAT!

I was never afraid of anything as a kid either, and would grab anything that moved as well.

Raised mice for many snakes at about age 14 too.

That is too funny dude, I will be 50 years old in 12 more days!..LOL!......oh! the pain!!...ARRRGH!!!

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

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Me either! Of course, this nearly ended up with me in the ER a few times! LOL Finally, realized RED on herps & bugs means Hands Off! LOL
My mother also refuses to look at my snakes. She pretends they are not here. Of course, since I usually help with the bills & she begged me to come home & help her when she got old. Well, the snakes are here & staying! LOL Oddly, she likes all my other herps.. People just go with the misinformation they got as kids.

Matthew

Yeah, that's some funny stuff. People are definitely taught to loath and fear snakes, while animals simply have a natural ingrained instinct to be very cautious of them.

Been that way with most people since the beginning of time, and will continue to be until the end of time unfortunately.

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

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Seems to be a primate thing, but its definitely LEARNED behavior. Well, I'm sure it kept a lot of Homo erectus from getting killed, its somewhat displaced in our urbanized world..

Matthew

Yeah, but Mr. homo erectus has the capability to learn about these over the course of all these many years, but most simply choose not to, that is the only real difference here..LOL!

Don't like them,..therefore I don't want to know anything about them. Don't know anything about them, that's why I don't like them.

LOL!!,....just an endless perpetual circle of human ignorance. This is an ugly "wheel" that will NEVER stop turning!!!

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

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Yeah, I've found that behavior before. Actually, H. erectus could be taught. Only H. sapiens REFUSES to learn!

Matthew

"Only H. sapiens REFUSES to learn!"

Excellent point indeed!!

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

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Yeah, makes up for my failure to save that Texas Rat a couple of weeks ago. Would you believe, someone actually hacked up the one killed in the severe storms last saturday. Come on, the thing had been dead for 2 days. Some people!!

Matthew

Yes,...

I heard that a rotted snake corpse could come back to life unless they have been chopped into many countless pieces..LOL!

~Doug

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Apparently, they believe this in Texas.

Matthew

...some of the crazy wives-tales are too much!

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

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Perhaps they thought it wouldn't be TRULY dead until sundown..
Jeeeezzz!

Matthew

Great job, thanks. Looking forward to pics.

btw, that adult you have is awesome.
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Have a nice day

Website: SerpenTrack

That one was also a rescue snake from York Co. Va. She was rescued from some guy's yard that dinn't like snakes in it.