Since this is a community forum interested in these related topics, we sometimes like getting feedback from other Herpers.
First, the part so hard for so many to say: I was wrong. I made a mistake. I apologize.
*Indoor lighting* was the problem in this dilemma. My bedroom overhead lighting is very different from the rest of my lighting. It must give a strange greenish hue to objects. Viewed under those lights, the snake looked very yellowish green on the sides, and brownish green on top. One other adult observed this and commented accordingly.
Under new halogen lighting (and probably once I get him outside in sunshine not seen for weeks here in WA) he shows typical Pacific Gopher colors of a straw base, with grayish-brown sides. Blotches are black on the neck, but become oak brown for the remainder of his length. Between darker tail blotches he has rusty rose blotches.
Typical of the darker Willamette Valley gopher snakes, I suspect that he was wild-caught. I’ve seen photos of very similar snakes from the EE Wilson Wildlife Refuge near Corvallis.
He is in a 90-gallon, naturalistic setup with 13 branches. He handles well, is active during most days, and basks & explores his biome often. Gophers really are under-rated, overlooked snakes. Certain individuals may be the best “pet” snakes of all.
1.0 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Willamette Valley dark phase)
1.0 Pantherophis guttatus (Abbott’s Okeetee influence)
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