Reptile & Amphibian Forums

a friend of mine has a wild caught (what appears to be) miami phase corn....strange thing is that we live in northern pennsylvania.
his father reports seeing others in the area...my guess is that someone either dumped a gravid female, or maybe they are actually a corn crossed with a native black rat, but it looks miami phase; primarily gray, with blotches of red, faintly outlined in black. the stomach is almost black/white checkers.
despite the questionable origin, here's the real strange thing:
he's had it almost 2 years, and it eats consistently once a week, sometimes but rarely missing a meal. and it is only about 10" long. it is stout, and obviously healthy and well fed, but it hasn't grown past that. it's about the same length as an '04 we have, but considerably girthier.
is there any record of anything like this? could it be genetic? those that his father reported seeing last summer were about the same size. assuming that they all came from the same clutch, it would indicate a genetic situation.

go check a field guide at a book store. You sound like you're describing maybe an eastern milk snake. Even if it was a corn and obsoleta cross the result after two years most certainly would be longer than 14".

Post a picture of the snake please.

In fact there are defects in snakes that limit their growth. Most are visible when you look at the belly scutes. The belly scute should be symetrical and not spilt into two scutes in multiple places. Hard to explain but those who know what I'm referring to will understand.

Russ Bates

It is probably just a eastern milk they tend to stay on the shorter side and have very similar color patterns I see a couple every time i go snake hunting in the Poconos

Derek

yep, that's it. thanks.
i thought of that a few months ago when he'd first mentioned it (i never saw the snake until today), but his description didn't match with my field guide. actually, the guide was further off than ihs description...the snake pictured (illustrated, not a photo) in my guide looks more like a scarlet kingsnake...typical tricolor. when i looked it up on the net, the photos i found match with what he has.
i'll pass that along to him. thanks.
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currently have:
boids:
1.1 ball pythons (snake'n'bake, sally)
1.0 reticulated python (mousetrap)
1.0 children's python (a***ole)
1.0 macklot's python (shaft)
1.0 cook's tree boa (cookie)

colubrids:
1.0 leucistic texas rat (ice)
0.1 everglades rat (flame)
1.0 eastern coachwhip (waco)
1.1 corn snakes (on the cob, creamed)
1.0 albino striped cal king (183)
0.0.1 mangrove (fonzie)

venomous:
1.0 western diamondback rattlesnake (elvis)
0.1 albino monacled cobra (spot)
0.1 cottonmouth (elizabeth)
1.0 gaboon viper (muffin)
0.1 pope's pit vipers (cyclops)

lizards:
1.0 nile monitor (dick)
0.1 blue tongue skink (skinky)
1.1 mali uromastyx (archie, edith)
0.1 monkey tail skink (skinky v)
0.1 bearded dragon (stump)

turtles/tortoises:
1.0 common snapper (snapple)
0.0.1 sulcata (tortle)

inverts:
0.0.? black widows
0.0.1 deathstalker scorpion (fredo)