Some cottonmouth and watersnake photos

Hi. I'm new to this forum. Figured I might as well post some photos of some of my finds from this summer.

Found this little guy near a foot trail at a city park in Newport News, Virginia. Baby cottonmouths are just beautiful.

(BTW, don't do this unless you are extremely comfortable handling a snake that can cause severe injury)

And this guy, a Northern water snake. I found him basking in the Chickahominy River (eastern Virginia). He slipped off the branch as I got near, then made sveveral dashes for my boat. I then motored around to the other side of the tree where I found him. Pretty soon he disappeared. Just as I was getting ready to leave the area, my son told me to check the motor. There he was, climbing up my outboard motor an coming into my boat!

Great pictures. :wavey: I have to admit I would be scared to death to have that huge snake chasing me around and climbing in my boat. Ha. I thought that wild snakes were supposed to be shy and try to avoid people. Looks like you found one that was as mean as hell. Ha.

Colors

I love the beautiful colors of the baby cottonmouth. They look so much like a copperhead its stunning. Great finds :santa:

I see watersnakes a lot, but don't know much about them. You see them advertised for sale all the time. What was he like after you held him for a while? Did he calm down like most snakes do?

Nanci

Coming soon to a theater near you, Snakes On A Plane 2: Snakes On A Boat!

rofl I'll be quiet now.

Great photos.

Nanci

To answer your question about if they calm down. They do calm down somewhat but aren't really as easily to handle as corns and other rat snakes. These will roll and flop to try and get lose. Also, you do see these for sale sometimes, but most people don't keep them because they don't like to be handled alot and their poop smells really bad. I think it is because their diet consists mostly of fish. I have seen some neat set ups for these snakes with a half terrestrial half aquatic aquarium that has feeder goldfish in it and you can watch them hunt for their prey. To get rid of the smell, you need to have a bioactive substrate. See "The Art of Keeping Snakes" for both a set up for water snakes and for creating bioactive soils.

All I remember about the water snake was that it was brute-strong. I held it so it couldn't bite me. It's eyes seems to be a little clouded so it may have been ready to shed. It might have recognized my boat only as a piece of dry land - someplace away from the ospreys and bald eagles that congregate around this river.

Hmm, I think I will continue with my policy of admiring watersnakes from a distance, then.

Nanci

Oh yes, and as the other poster noted, it had extremely foul poop. Most watersnakes do. I've caught many watersnakes and they have a tendancy to regurgitate more quickly than more terrestrial snakes. The one the picture didn't, but most I have caught did. Not sure why. If you catch one, prepare to be shat upon and have a half digested frog slide out.

I'm with Nanci.

I see these guys all the time- they bask on vegetation within a foot or so of shore. Not really flighty- they must be very confident of their defense system! I think they are pretty, but in a sort of ominous way- they just _look_ like something to leave alone.

I just watched some Steve Irwin thing where he's kayaking down a river in SA, and twice Fer-de-Lances try to get in the boat.

Nanci

Northern water snakes are really neat. Surprisingly, two snakes of this species may look strikingly different from one another in terms of color depending on the water in their habitat. Tannins in the water seem to have a significant effect on lightness or darkness of the snake. I've found that snakes from water with high levels of tannin are somewhat lighter than snakes coming from water with low amounts of tannin. Northerns I've found in water with very low levels of tannins are almost black and, with their keeled scales and relatively heavy bodies, look very much like cottonmouths, which also experience the tannin/color phenomena. I've taken pause with more than one Northern that was mostly black until I determined it was safe to pick up. I’ve also heard, but have never experienced for myself, that some Northerns have a level of toxicity to their saliva. I don’t know if this is true, but I don’t want to find out. I like to be careful with Northerns because even if the toxicity issue is false, they are still aggressive and a big one could land a nasty bite.

Great pictures SkyChimp, that Cottonmouth looks nice from above, and beautiful Northern as well. In response to Nanci's question about Northerns, I actually have a juvenile Northern, and I will say it's definitely a snake worth owning. Mine is about 12 inches long now, and it looks amazing, with really dark black saddles surrounded with bright whitish-gray. It has never even tried to bite me, and has never pooped on me at all, although it has musked once or twice (which didn't smell at all, maybe because it is just a young one?). As for the smelly poop, that isn't a problem for me because it only poops in the water (I use a medium sized cat litter pan for a water dish), which is filtered, and I disinfect it every two weeks. I have been feeding it Rosy Red Minnows, but for the last two feeds I used fish scented pinkies, which she wolfed down excitedly. Whenever I go to take mine out, it does get a little freaked out, and it can move really quickly, but once I am holding it, it just soaks up my body heat and doesn't move at all. Anyways, just thought I'd post my experience with my Northern.
Thanks

I think a Northern would be a neat pet. I've never considered keeping one for any length of time because all the one's I've caught (all adults) were very high strung. But a neonate that could be trained (or tricked) to take mice would be pretty cool. I think a big aquatic turtle set-up with a suitable dry area would be an interesting habitat. Probably expensive, though.

Congrats on your pet. I've envious. If you can, I'd love to see a pic of your watersnake.

Here's some pics of perfect watersnake and cottonmout habitat. And a hidden prize.

Those are some really nice habitat pictures, I'm sure that's what heaven looks like for a watersnake
I currently am keeping my watersnake in a 15 gallon with a large water pan, which takes up about half of the tank. I do agree that when the snake gets to be an adult, it will require a large, expensive set up. I'm sure it will be fine as an adult in a 40-60 gallon tank with a large water area. The snake is really cool to watch as it quickly swims around in the water, and when it goes after minnows.
I have a funny story about mine when I first got the water filter. Right after I put it in, I turned it on, and and at the moment, the snake was nowhere in sight. As soon as the water started flowing the snake peeked her head up from the opposite side of the water pan, and immediately flopped over the side and swam full speed at the flowing water with its mouth wide open, only to get a face full of water. She then swam around a repeatedly attacked the water from different angles. After about 30 seconds of doing this, she stopped, looked around, and started attacking all the plants that were in the water pan. Luckily she calmed down after about a minute, but it gave me a good laugh.
Here are some pictures of the snake:



Thanks

AWESOME! Beautiful snake and neat idea for a set up. I have a few questions:

1) Is your snake wild caught or captive bred?
2) If captive bred, where did you get it?
3) If wild caught, did you do administer any meds for parasites?
4) What sort of water do you use? Tap? bottled?

You've got me thinking

Thanks, I'm glad you like her and the set up. The snake is wild caught. I had a job winterizing pools and I found it in a pool that was already closed, with the cover on and chemicals in, but we had to come back to fix something a week after winterizing it. When we lifted up the cover I saw the snake sitting there on the top of the water, so I took it out. It was really thin and extremely small, and I had never seen a snake like it before. There wasn't anything really in the pool for it to eat except a whole bunch of spiders, and a few worms at the bottom of the pool, so I don't know if it ate in there, or even how long it was in there. My work partner told me it was an adder, but I already knew we don't have those in Canada. The kind lady who's house it was took it inside and put it in a container for me to take it home, she also asked her husband what it was, and he thought it was an Eastern Hognose.

I took it home and put it in an empty 5 gallon tank and then a few days later I bought it some Rosy Red Minnows, which I had been feeding it until about a week ago. I found it at the end of September, and it was also the first snake I had ever owned. I soon bought a 15 gallon for it, large water pan and some fake plants. I was going to release it in the spring, but after doing some research I found out that the snake would have numerous problems after being released from captive care through the winter, and by the time I found that out it was already too cold out to release it.

I did not give it any sort of treatment for parasites, and I use regular tap water that is filtered with a submersible Hagen Stingray pump. The snake seems like it is really healthy with the current set up. I'm really glad I found this little snake, and if I hadn't I would probably never have ended up owning snakes. After owning her for a month I went out and bought 2 Corns and a Ball Python at a reptile show, which are really awesome as well. So there you have it, the whole story of my experience with snakes, lol.

I hope you decide to get one, it's a really awesome snake to own.
Thanks

That's a great story. Thanks for telling it.

The photos I posted were taken near the lake's edge (obviously). But what you didn't see, and I didn't photograph, were the huge number of "blow-downs" (uprooted trees) in the woods only feet from where the water was. We had several big storms this summer and the large number of blow downs create perfect den sites for snakes. The uprooted trees create virtual caverns where their roots were. This is good news for our snakes. Lots of good, deep, safe denning areas - and hopefully low winter mortality. And right near the water means lots of water snakes. And cottonmouths .

I'll be doing some swamp stomping this spring to see what's crawling around. Should have some baby water snakes by July. Maybe I'll find some.