Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone! I'm new to the forums and I just bought my first reptiles- 2 beautiful young ribbon snakes from Petco. I did a lot of reading before I bought them and thought I knew exactly what I was getting. Petco had them labelled as ribbon snakes (thamnophis sirtalis) but when I looked this up discovered that T. sirtalis is actually a garter snake. When I finally got the little guys home I noticed that each has a small yellow dot on his head, right at the end of the central stripe. I'd never heard this as part of their description. Anyone have any idea what type of snakes I have exactly? Besides the dot, they look pretty much the same as T. sirtalis photos on the internet- narrow black body with three yellow stripes and greenish yellow bellies. Thanks for any imput!

The Eastern Ribbon snake is T. sauritus sauritus (ssp)
according to Peterson's Field Guide

They tell the differnce as the side stripe in the 3 and 4th row of scales

the Eastern Garter -T. sirtalis sirtalis (ssp)-as having the stripe in the 2nd and 3 row of scales

But if you have seen both-they are really easy to tell apart just in appearance. (at least I think so)

Do you have a photo?

Langly2112

Thamnophis proximus proximus have this. They are probably western ribbons as Petco always seems to have them. If not, they are most likely some sort of ribbon.
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Andy Maddox
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Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

And the sign says "No long hair freaky people need not apply." So I put my hair under my hat and I went in to ask him why. He said you look like a fine outstanding young man I think you'll do. So I took off my hat I said "Imagine that Huh Me working for you."

Yeah, I am quite sure they are ribbon snakes now that I have watched them for a few days. I'm going to post some pics this evening so maybe someone can verify their species. I've just gotta say-- these are some of the coolest snakes ever! They love to climb on the willow branch I put in the vivarium, and they spend a lot of time in the water too. They are just so interesting to observe- I'm glad I chose ribbons!