• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Obviously not a cornsnake...

Racer maybe, but I've never seen a juvie black rat that looks like that.

Can you get a closeup of the head? Racers have pretty conspicuous features. Also, whats the temperment like. ;)

Its pretty whatever it is.


Here's a pic I found online, similar even to the head pattern:
blackracer-juvenile-full.jpg
 
I was thinking Black Racer or Black Rat...But I'm not sure...

He's not mean, hasn't tried to bite...but he's super fast!
 

Attachments

  • DSC01551.jpg
    DSC01551.jpg
    39.6 KB · Views: 430
  • DSC01560.jpg
    DSC01560.jpg
    38 KB · Views: 428
I'm going with Nerodia as well. The split color bands are common in most water snakes.
 
blckkat said:
Banded Water Snake was on my list too...

He has belly checkers (kind of)...
Click to expand...

I just noticed you live in PA. This means it must be a Northern watersnake (Nerodia sipedon sipedon.)
Banded watersnakes don't live that far north.
 
I could be wrong, but I think northern water snakes have keeled scales and racers do not. Can you tell if his tiny scales are keeled?

Put him in front of a bowl of water with a guppy in it. See what he does :)
 
Yeah, that's what he looks like. Bug eyes and everything. Before I was sure what he was, his bug eyes concerned me. Then I recalled that water snakes are supposed to have bug eyes.
 
My first thought when I saw the pics was northern watersnake. My northern at work just had 27 babies about a month and a half ago (which was amazing to watch), and they look very much like the picture you posted. But it looks like you may have already reached that decision yourself anyway.

I'm not sure if this will help you or not, but our babies are not quite coordinated enough to catch live guppies out of the water yet. I feed them teeny tiny guppies in a seperate feeding container with just enough water in the bottom so that the guppies can lay on their side half submerged in water - this makes them flop a little which drives the snakes crazy in terms of feeding response. Mine currently eat 3-4 guppies each, once a week (and they are just not interested in eating more often than that). I'm not sure this will help you, as I am no expert in watersnake care, but thats what I do, and it seems to be working fairly well.

Good luck with your new little guy/girl! It certainly is a cutie.:)
 
Come to think of it, my wild-caught adults weren't able to catch fish out of the water bowl either. :rolleyes:

A lot of people say that northerns are vicious biters, but I had one that was docile like a corn snake. If you decide to keep it, I bet yours would turn out OK if raised from a baby.
 
I we've got a bit of variety down here in East Texas. We've got:
Copperheads
Cottonmouths
Kingsnakes
Ratsnakes
(very small amount) corns
Coral snakes
:crazy01:
 
Pretty neat, I caught a water snake(hatchling) the other day and it was definately one that liked to bite. He bit me probably 4 times even though he wasn't big enough to even break the skin! :D I thought about keeping it but then decided the water/land set up in a tank would be a pain to clean and I would rather keep something a lil more rare(limited space in a dorm).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top