Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,
I posted this below, but didn't really get an answer. I'll try again. This is a headshot of what I have thought for several years to be a pacific gopher. Now someone has said it is a san diego gopher. Any expert opinions?? I'll post a body shot next. What would be the distinguishing characteristics to tell the difference?
Thanks,
Janel

Here's more of the body

Here is a pic of one of our San Diegos, note the "busy" pattern towards the head and the orange pigment toward the tail. See my other post for a Pacific description.

P&S Pituophis

This is an anery pacific so you can't go by color, but notice the pattern is much more regular and less "busy" near the head. The coloration is difficult to use to distinguish the two anyway, both have the gray along the sides of the body.

P&S Pituophis

just kidding. lol. good luck with it, and if u ever breed albino babies and think of sellin some email me i live near u u said u live near madronna marsh sooo... yeah, but also, if u neeed a studd or female sandiego i have a proven breeder female and some not0sure babies, so like i said if u ever think of breedin albino semail me, junior_herper@yahoo.com, nick.
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0.0.37-blue lab chichlids
0.1.6-sandiego gopher snakes
0.0.1-cal. kingsnake
0.0.1-anole
0.0.2-f.b.t
2.3-coturnix quail
0.1-cockatiel
0.2-s. black widow
1.1(fixed) cats-eddie/buzz

I swear when I bought that snake the vendor at the show told me it was a pacific gopher. All this time I thought that it was (but I guess in the back of my mind over time as I learned more I must have had doubts or I wouldn't have started asking questions). How do pacifics and san diegos compare in size? And is my striped albino really a pacific, or am I wrong about that one too?
Shaun thank you so much, I was hoping you would help me out with the ID...and you're 100% sure right? just kidding

Well if it was a vendor that doesn't specialize it Pituophis, they may have very well told you that. The albino is hard to identify in that pic, but it is most likely a Pacific. SDs with full stripes are very rare, they usually have only partial stripes and are much more orange than yellow, as yours appears to be. I will post a pic of one of my stiped(partially) albino SDs to compare.

nm

P&S Pituophis

Thanks so much. I think my albino is a pacific, definitely not a san diego. I'll try to take some better pics.

We have an albino striped Pacific, but I don't think I have a pic of it. I can send it to you when I get one, although it might be several weeks.

I would say you have a mix there. In the early days most albino were S/D and most striped were Pacifics and many folks crossed for the best of both worlds.

Later-Del

Hey Shaun
Thats awesome looking snake you got there .Very nice .

jason