Is this a Corn?

[dsmr5456]

Caught this little guy/girl about a week ago near my work. Still thinking about keeping him/her and maybe starting out on getting a few corns as I can have snakes now that I moved outta the house.

Anyways, still not an expert at identifying corns, but I think he is, just dont know because he doesnt have any head markings. Can someone help me identify for sure?

 

[strikerratt]

juvenile yellow rat snake

 

[dsmr5456]

will he/she be striped later on? I have never seen a non striped yellow rat, but I really appreciate your help

 

[strikerratt]

will he/she be striped later on? I have never seen a non striped yellow rat, but I really appreciate your help

no problem yellow rats are awesome snakes and yes as they get older you will see the stripes

 

[dsmr5456]

Yes, I definately like Yellow rats, but how do I tell the difference between the two at the juvenile age? To me they look very similar except for the lack of a pattern on the head

 

[chris68]

Between the two....what? Yellow, black and gray rat snake babies are similarly patterned as babies...

 

[dsmr5456]

I meant just corns and yellows as juveniles. But, since they are all similarly marked, are they all pretty much the same snake but with different patterns?

 

[strikerratt]

you can see the difference in them look at the head eyes and scales the really big difference in the two is size yellows can get over 7ft and most corns stay under 5ft

 

[strikerratt]

this is a young corn snake i found last year

 

[Nanci]

Yellow rats eyes, to me, look copper-colored, like a new penny. Corns have medium to deep brown eyes, usually. Are you going to keep him? I have only found older, not-so-friendly yellow rats. And baby black racers- now that is a bitey snake!! Any corns I have found have been calm, and the huge gray ratsnake I found was the most amazing wild snake I have ever handled. I still miss him!! But I didn't have room or need and a magnificent animal like that belongs out in the wild.

 

[WingedSweetheart]

Very cute! I agree it's a rat snake. I can't really explain it but their heads look different to me than a corn snake's. Wider maybe? I don't know anything about yellow rats but I have plenty of black rats in my area. The babies look just like anery corn snakes. It's so weird how much they change as adults!

I'm not going to tell you not to keep it or to let it loose. It's up to you. None of us can make you do anything you don't want to do. Just make sure if you want to keep it that you keep it well and understand they can get really big and rats usually don't have good attitudes. But since that one is small you may be able to tame it down.

Also if you keep it and it doesn't calm down or wont eat you should let it go.

 

[WingedSweetheart]

Forgot to mention I don't know if yellow rats are nice or not. But I've handled a lot of black rats that were really calm and didn't bite. The most bity rats I've handled were Texas rats lol. But from what I've read it seem most rats tent to have bad attitudes.

 

[dsmr5456]

I do plan on keeping him/her, and the snake is very nice. A little scared sometimes, but still curious and will move around my hand happily after he/she settles down a bit. If the snake gets too aggressive, I can still let it go again, right?

 

[DMong]

Corns will display pronounced belly checkering, whereas juvenile yellows and Everglades, etc...wil not. Also the ratsnakes will not have any of the defined head chevroning either. As the others mentioned, that snakes juvenile blotching will gradually give way to the typical longitudinal striping as it matures.


~Doug

 

[dsmr5456]

well, its been official for a while, but this ratsnake has a home with a friend of mine for the summer

He/She is a great eater and we named him Houdini. Here is a more recent picture of him