Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm Looking for a species that grow large. New York State has passed a law banning all members of the Boidae family. It includes even sand boas and rosy boas. I wand to breed Rat snakes of a size to make the large snake keepers happy.

Any sugestions?

until recently called Elaphe taeniura friesi. Some folks now call it Orthriophis taeniurus friesi. The other taenura subspecies are mostly pretty large snakes too. Elaphe carinata is a pretty good sized ratsnake (6+ feet). The black ratsnakes (and other obsoleta subspecies) have the potential of being 7+ feet but rarely do so in the wild. It can get pretty bulky (for a ratsnake) at maturity. If you want to stray away from the strict definition of a ratsnake then a big bullsnake gets 8+ feet. Go to the pine/bull/gopher forum for plenty of info on those. And of course if you want the Cadillac of north american colubrids there's the indigo snakes. They're big, beautiful and pricey (and the eastern is endangered and hard to get). There are some more unusual large ratsnakes and other colubrids out there but they're harder to find and some are hard to keep.

Good luck.
John

Thanks, the NY legislature has thrown us all a curve. The pet stores are trying to figure out what to do to replace the void left by the ball pythons, red-tailed boas, and smaller types so popular with customers.