Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i just cought a texas rat snake in a bayou and i was wondering if i should feed him rats or mice. he is 4 foot 1 inch long. any info would be great. thnx

mice or small ratts are fine... he should take them without a problem.

thnx

Tx rats LOVE birds. If it won't eat, try chicks or try dipping mice/rats in chicken broth.
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

Many, if not most TX ratsnakes make terrible first snakes. I don't know if this is your situation, but don't expect it to be much like a cornsnake in temperament.
In many cases, even regular handling won't make them less nervous.
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

Do you think that is the case with captive bred TX Rats? Mine are great (although my leucistic was a biter when he was younger), and a friend of mine who breeds them seems to have mostly calm, easily handled ones. I would think that a wild caught texas rat (which is the subject of this thread, I know) might be a bit of a handful as a first (or even second or third), but I feel that with proper, regular handling, a c/b tx could make a great first snake. Just mho.........Duffy

well this is my 4th snake and it seems to have a great temperment. i hold it for an hour or so every day. i have 2 ball pythons and a ribbon snake. they all are great except the ribbon snake. cant even touch it. i also have a beardie, 2 leos, and a spiny lizard (i think... not sure its wild caught). i can handle all of them. ill be putting more pics up soon. thnx for the info on the food.

If that is a picture of your texas rat that you are holding, you may have a prairie king snake instead.

Could you post another picture of a close up of your animal?

At any rate, nice snake!

I concur with the poster that ideed that animal as a prairie king snake. The body structure, the color, the head pattern, even the behavior of it while being handled says king snake, not rat snake.

That's not a TX rat, nor a prairie king. That's a cornsnake.
Elaphe guttata. I know, I know, its not orange and red. That's what the corns in TX look like.
Its also possible that it is an Emory's ratsnake, or great Plains rat, but I don't think they extend that far east. Even so, Elaphe guttata emoryi tend to look nearly identical to E.g. guttata from this area.
Reason I can tell its not a king is that the edges of the belly scales come to more of a corner than being rounded. Ratsnakes all have that flattened belly for climbing.
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

i breed these [for some reason] and they are nasty from day 1 though will calm down after a year or so. i don't handle them except to clean so that's why it takes so long i suppose. however, i have snapshots of them emerging from their eggs, mouth agape, tongue draped, striking and ready to kick ass and take names....all this in the first few seconds of their little lives! their reputation as mean snakes is pretty well deserved but like i said, they will eventually drop the attitude in captivity.

Yup...Like I said, mine was the only one of my snakes that started out a biter. Almost every time I went to pick him up. I even used the latex glove trick to break him of it...I actually think that helped quite a bit.