Hey all,
I've kept corns and BPs for awhile now, and I'm picking up a couple Leucistic TX Rats in a week and a half. I've got a rack for my corns, and I will be building a rack to keep adult rats and pits in (~2x the floor space I give my adult corns). The corn rack (where at least these rats will hang out for a little bit until the get bigger) gets to ~85F on the warm side and a little over room temp ~68F on the cool side. I've heard that I should keep TX rats a little cooler than corns, but if they have plenty of room to move around it shouldn't hurt them to have access to 85F, should it? I ask mostly because my friend had trouble with a gopher snake staying too warm, even though she had plenty of space and opportunity to hang out in the cool end.
I've read up, and it seems that most of my husbandry should translate directly from corns... they are all rat snakes, after all. If anyone has any suggestions for someone moving from corns to TX rats that I haven't thought of, it would definitely be appreciated.

Also... I know some "mean" snakes get that reputation undeservedly. Is this at all the case with the TX rats? I assure you they will be handled on a regular basis, even if they're nippy babies. I've dealt with a mean hatchling gopher snake for awhile... how different should this be?

Thanks!!
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-Jaime Palma
Mad-City Constrictors

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