some new guy

Welcome Danz and nice snakes!

Hi all, yes Iris I understand where your coming from. Well, I'll have to say goodbye to one 29gal tank of fish. The Convicts I have are a pain anyways, and I can get store credit for them to use for rodents. Then I'll have one Corn in a tall 20gal and one in a 29gal and another 29gal for the Ball Python. BTW, I also have a breeding pair of Convict X Jack Dempsy. They are extremely agressive....

Last October I paid 45 bucks for one "Texas Rat X Leucistic Corn snake". Thats what the label said. I ended up with 2. I dont know if he gave me an extra or what but when I got home there were 2 (yes I feel guilty). There were quite a few babies in there, over 10, probably closer to 15. That was the reason I choose this snake, because it was a baby, it feeds, and its cheap. As of now I estimate them to be about 13 months old because he said they were born in July (they were bred right there at the store). The parents are still there. The mother was completly white with red eyes and the father was a big fat Rat snake (mostly rust colored with dark silver or charcoal). I'm 99% certain but I'll get clarification on this....I'll have to agree with the readers here: They look like Corns.

By the way, within the last month or so they have yellow color coming in around the bottom sides of their bodies. They look like fire when the sun is coming in the window. Really beautiful! I'll try to get some close ups of this.

I'm building a Pet Snake web page or two:
http://209.193.75.152/snakes
You can see pics of the Corns there. Please note that there is a picture where they are both grabbing one. That has been resolved so please dont tell me again.

I appreciate ALL advice and I'm sure I'll have more to share!

ps- If my pet store guy is reading this, sorry, I owe ya! Otherwise...BONUS!!

Hm...the mom sounds like it could have been a blizzard or pearl corn. Aren't they almost completely patternless and white with reddish eyes?
No clue what the daddy was though. Maybe just a normal corn?

We have a yearling Okeetee. When our neighbors first saw her they were shocked that we called that a corn snake. Texas country folk call corns rat snakes. I am unsure what they think a rat snake is.

Well, they aren't exactly wrong by calling it a rat snake. Corn snakes are a type of rat snake so by calling your Okeetee a rat snake, they're just being a bit more general.

Corn snakes are rat snakes, another common name is "red rat snake". I believe that all snakes in the genus Elaphe are called rat snakes.

Actually alot of people in the south call Ratsnakes Chickensnakes

You have very beautiful snakes, they have such vivid colors,....

I also have a jack dempsy fish, in with an oscar (big ugly ugly fish) in a 55 gallon, they are both super agressive fish so I am hopeing that they'll eat each other so I can convince my fiance (they're his smelly ugly mean fish) that I can have the tank for my two corns when they get bigger, because I sincerly don't want two 55 gallon tanks in my one bedroom apart. I need "me space" too...

Silvertounge,
Here in my "South" as you put it (Florida), a chicken snake is better known as a yellow rat snake. The name "Corn Snake" I believe came from the checkered belly, in a normal, it looks like indian corn. I think I read this somewhere so if anyone has better info, feel free to correct me. The name Red Rat Snake is also used, but I have found many people think these are two different snakes, mainly because there is so much variation in wild corns.

Matt L.

Danz,
I just wanted to comment on your snakes, they look nice, but about the cultivars>>> I have never seen a Leusistic Corn snake. I'm guessing that the mother was a Blizzard, the red eyes are a trait that leusitic snakes do not have, maybe a pearl, but I doubt it. The male could be a number of snakes, anery(you did say silver), emory's rat, maybe ghost--but thats a longshot. I'm not a hardcore "get lost with your Hybrids" kinda guy, I own several Creamsickles. and another pair of hybrids, but this is what causes all the problems, breeders breeding without a clue. I'm hopefull that you can get a positive ID on what the cultivars were, especially if your thinking about breeding. OH OH --and WELCOME! and please don't let any of this offend you.

Matt L.