How common in the wild?

[Tara80]

Definitely keeled scales. What a cutie.
I wish we had more wild types of snakes around here in Western Washington.
We've only got a few.

 

[Chip]

I am 100% certain that isn't a corn. I'm 99% that it isn't a constricting colubrid. Looks like a garter/ribbon/Dekay's/brown type.

 

[Guruofchem]

Found this pic of a Dekay's that's pretty red. Patterning is still weird, but I think it's more likely to be a Dekay's than a really aberrant garter. The head just wasn't that of a garter snake, and its disposition was really sweet...

 

[dave partington]

Storeria occipitomaculata ? (Dekay's Relation)
http://www.herpsoftexas.org/content/red-bellied-brownsnake
google images, and the natural range, and coloration of localities, are all over the place.
The range map looks like close to Houston (Cypress, OP's Location)

 

[Guruofchem]

Storeria occipitomaculata ? (Dekay's Relation)
http://www.herpsoftexas.org/content/red-bellied-brownsnake
google images, and the natural range, and coloration of localities, are all over the place.
The range map looks like close to Houston (Cypress, OP's Location)

Their range is a couple of counties east of where we found it, but close enough to be at least possible. I have the 2013 release of Dixon's book at home - he may have expanded its range since the prior edition. Biggest problem I have is the lack of a red belly; some do not have it, and this little dude definitely did not. The reddish brown coloration is a better match than the Dekay's, though. Think we can say pretty certainly it's Storeria, but without finding him again we may never be able to settle the species.

 

[dave partington]

One of the things I've noticed (here, Volusia County, FL) is that a lot of the retail nurseries buy in plants from several different, mostly South Florida wholesale nurseries. And in those potted palms and b&b mature palm trees, come all sorts of reptiles, everything from iguanas and geckos to corn and everglades ratsnakes. There's even a Caribbean island (can't recall which one) where cornsnake eggs came onto their island in potted plants, and even though fumigated, hatched and established themselves.

 

[tspuckler]

It's a Brown Snake. Their color and pattern can vary.

This link shows some of their variability:
http://www.texassnakes.net/TexasBrown.htm

I don't think Corn Snakes live in Texas and I don't think there has ever been a striped Corn Snake found in the wild.

 

[Guruofchem]

Corns are pretty common in southeastern Texas (they seem to like our piney woods), which was why corn snake was my first guess. The one we found was so red it didn't seem to fit the brown snake description, but I feel pretty certain after all the good ideas voiced in the thread that it was a Storeria of some species, whether dekayi or occipitomaculata. Definitely a cute little snake, whatever the species...

 

[michieldewit]

Still looks like some kind of garter snake to me. I have had both garter and brown snakes as pets before, and this is not a brown snake. closest you might get is a crossbreed between a brown snake and a garter if that is even possible.

It's really clear in the first picture that your snake has checkers on the side. brown snakes don't have those as you can see in the picture tspuckler showed. here is a picture of my garter snake. it is just a common eastern garter snake, they don't really describe them to have checkers but all eastern garters have some checkers in them. some more visual then others.

Also here is a good link to a lot of garter snake morphs, not sure if any of them are like yours but just like corn snakes they have a lot of different paint jobs. And there is probably even less known about garter snakes then corn snakes.

http://snakesnmoresnakes.blogspot.ca/2008/10/garter-snake-morphs-and-species-photos.html

hope this helps

 

[Chip]

Garter mutations are not (often) found in the wild, either. This doesn't appear to be a mutation, but just a red colored animal. I'm personally leaning Storeria (brown/DeKay's snake) over Thamnophis.

 

[the_edsta]

I don't know. I think most of Scott Felzer's garter morphs were wild caught. I keep thamnophis and that is absolutely what it struck me as... but then again... I thought the first storeria I saw looked a heck of a lot like a garter!

 

[michieldewit]

Ok, I think I'm leaning more towards brown snake now....have been looking a lot at pictures and I did find a few with light checkers on their body. so....having said that, it looks like you have a pretty young brown snake their. which might explain the more reddish color. but i'm not sure if that would make a difference.

 

[Guruofchem]

Ok, I think I'm leaning more towards brown snake now....have been looking a lot at pictures and I did find a few with light checkers on their body. so....having said that, it looks like you have a pretty young brown snake their. which might explain the more reddish color. but i'm not sure if that would make a difference.

Pretty close to full grown, I suspect - it was a good 10 inches long, and most browns don't go much more than a foot. Pretty little snake, and it was probably eating slugs from our landscape plants.

 

[michieldewit]

they do eat slugs yes, but they get much bigger then 10"

The Dekay’s brownsnake is relatively small and grows to just over 50 centimetres in length.

http://www.ontarionature.org/protect/species/reptiles_and_amphibians/dekays_brownsnake.php


I find them all the time around here and decided to take one inside for a day this summer to show my kids, it decided to give birth right that day and leave me with 17 babies. all at about 3,5" (put her and the babies back where I found her).

 

[the_edsta]

I am just about certain it thamnophis. The clear, distinct dorsal stripe is, well, distinct, and the checkering pattern just below it along the sides is typical as well (see the wandering garter (t. elegans vagrans) the plains garter (t. radix), and of course the checkered garter!). Parietalis are found in texas -- the red sided garter (pics below). It doesn't have to be parietalis just because it is red, though; 'flames' is a common garter morph among easterns (sirtalis), and could hence show up among the texas subspecies as well.

I own a pair of parietalis myself... great little snakes! But not the only match, which is why I'd still consider it a possibility that it is a 'flames' or other such morph of a texas eastern... in which case it should have been a keeper!

 

[Guruofchem]

they do eat slugs yes, but they get much bigger then 10"

http://www.ontarionature.org/protect/species/reptiles_and_amphibians/dekays_brownsnake.php

I find them all the time around here and decided to take one inside for a day this summer to show my kids, it decided to give birth right that day and leave me with 17 babies. all at about 3,5" (put her and the babies back where I found her).

All the references I've read (including Peterson's and Dixon's 2013 Texas tome) put normal adult size at 10-12 inches, with record sizes at 19 inches.

 

[Guruofchem]

I've got it solved - it was Storeria dekayi limnetes, the marsh brown snake. Found some pics of this subspecies in one of my books, and they match very well - head is right, the color ranges to rusty shades more than brown, the lines match, and the light checkering does too. Even the range matches...

 

[michieldewit]

awesome, I knew they had some subspecies, but didn't know much about them.

glad you figured it out

 

[anerythristic/okeete]

wow that is cool

 

[BulkMice]

I caught a snake very similar to this last year in the backyard of our Houston home. I wasnt too sure what it was either, we re-homed it to the bayou next door.