Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Enquiring minds wanna know.

Mike B

Well, the photo is kind of blurry but it's definitely an "obsoleta" rat snake. Either a black rat or a texas rat, I would guess. Kind of looks like a Texas with all the yellowish color.

Texas rat..yeah, definitely....
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"Klaatu...Verata...Nicht--cough, cough, cough!"

Could possibly be a Gopher.

That is not a rat snake.

That is a gopher snake. The main detail you can tell a gohper snake from another snake, is the disticnt bar across its noce, and behind its eye.

Look at the snout of the snake just in front of the brow line (this is found by drawing an imaginary line from the front of each eye across the top of the head (These will be the first scales directly in front of the big scale on top of it's head). In Ratsnakes you will find two parrallel scales called Prefrontals. In Gopher's, bulls and pines there are four Prefrontals.

Aside from very rare execeptions,(inluding three species of Bullsnake from the Baja) this is a reliable means of determining whether it is a Pituophis (gopher) or a Pantherophis (ratsnake).

Another means is the scales themselves. In a Gopher the scales are heavily keeled (there is a sharp ridge running the length of each scale making the snake feel rough). In ratsnakes the keels are much less pronounced so it feels smooth to the touch.

The bar referred to is found on juvenile obsoleta ratsnakes so it is not a dependable means of identification.

When in doubt, pick up a good book. It is usually very easy to tell them apart.

Which brings up another issue. You did not say if you bought this or collected it from the wild. With the increasingly popular trend toward Hybridisation, there are plenty of snakes on the market that are ratsnake X Bullsnake crosses. In which case...all bets are off.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Wichita, KS. The colors are pretty true. It is not a Pituophis. It has to be either a ratsnake or prairie king. It has a single anal scale.

Mike B

That being said it is a Juv. Lindheimers Rat.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

looks just like my Texas Rat snake. another thing i have noticed is Texas Rat snakes have orange tongues whereas Bull, Pine and Gopher snakes tend to have black tongues.