Reptile & Amphibian Forums

First, the type I think is a sonoran gopher snake. I narrowed it down to this one off the image taken by some guy that I found on google. Appears to have exact markings (though snake is not with me at the moment, so I'm going off memory). Hes probably 1' long and pretty thin, but doesn't look gaunt (its proportional). She found him in her garage. We decided to keep him as a pet and I've got him everything except heat lamps (she put a heat pad underneath, if he goes down through the substrate he can get to the heat). So I went to petco and got a frozen baby mouse, but he won't eat it (keep in mind she got him last Saturday and her grandma put crickets in the cage for two days, if he ate some is unknown). The lady at petco mentioned if its cool he might be in hybernation and not eating, and where he is the house and room is cold..... Anyway, I was wondering how to best take care of this snake. What does a baby gopher snake usually eat? What temperature should the cage be kept cage at? All tips appreciated.

if that is what your snake looks like i'd say it is a pacific gopher. p.c. catenifer. the pic is kind of blurry where(state) did you find it!

My girlfriend found it in her garage. She lives in Jamul near the government preserve (it's her front yard).

After the fire there was no weeds and walking the preserve was just beautiful. Now the grass is growing and the risk of not seeing what I am looking for (all snakes) is great. Wouldn't want to come upon a rattler without prior knowledge of it.

P.S. Not looking to kill snakes. She gave me this one for our 1 year anniversary (and let my giant hairy desert scorpion go, found that the previouse week under a rock on river bed). All others I'd simply like to observe if not handle for a moment (assuming its not venomous).

Is the snake in the photo the one you found?

It's certainly a gopher snake, but not a Sonoran.
You are in California, correct?

You'll have to be a little more specific, like county, etc.
...But it's certainly one of the CA subs of gophersnake.

If it's the one in the picture, that's no baby, and looks to be at least 3'. Stretch it out and measure it, it'll suprise you.

It's YOUNG, but not a baby, probably about 2 years old.

That snake is fully capable of eating adult mice. If you decide to keep it, educate yourself on kingsnake.com as to it's requirements for caging, bedding, heat, etc.

You're going to want to do this 100% right or release the snake.

Dean Alessandrini

No, I just used that picture for a reference to classify the snake. Mine is much smaller, about 11". His "girth" is a litte more than that of a straw, but smaller around the head and tail. Today I got him a rated 75 watt lamp and bought a day bulb and night "moon glow" bulb (day 60 watt, night 75 watt), I think they are called reptiglow or something like that. There are small crickets in his cage and my girlfriend said she witnessed him eat one, so I hope that is going to work. Also, the other day he crapped on her or something, so hopefully everything is working out. Personally I haven't seen him eat or crap, but I am not there at night when he is active most.

Tomorrow I am going to get a humidity guage and start regulating that. Until now his substrate has been pretty damp. I am still wondering just what it is small gopher snakes like mine eat usually since he's too small for a pinky mouse. Field crickets I find around there are way too big unless he found a small one. On my grandpa's farm in Oregon I once caught a garden (gardner?) snake that had just swallowed a earth worm about the size of himself (he puked it up during handleing), think gopher snakes eat those?

Also forgot to mention this is in Jamul, CA. That's in San Diego County (east county), very rural and where she lives very wide open with the animal reserve of many acres just across her street. We go out and (I) look for snakes but so far have foudn centipedes, millipedes, field mice, field crickets, desert gaint hairy scorpion, birds, etc. but no snakes yet (but with mice so abundant right now snakes are sure to start becoming a presence).

However, unfortunately, a casino is going to be build in Jamul on "indian land". Everything is going to change and it seems this beautiful desert is going to lose many of its inhabitants, because is addition to the casino there are plans to build 60,000 homes in the area (luckily not on the reserve for the endangered gnat catcher, bird). As of now the reserve is empty and I can walk it with my girlfriend in peace, but it's time is growing short. It's really sad to think about.