Some cottonmouth and watersnake photos

[BlackAdder]

No problem, I enjoyed writing that. It's good to hear that the fallen trees are useful for at least one animal, probably more, and not completely destroyed. Good luck to you on your water snake search in the spring. In the meantime you should check out some of the internet classifieds, or maybe local reptile stores and expos if possible.

 

[Nanci]

Hey is this one??

Great story, Blackadder. That's kind of how I got back into keeping snakes as an adult who hadn't had any for years- found Maizey right in my front yard, then a year later a friend gave me Choco, and it's been all downhill from there...

I saw this snake while riding my bike in the middle of the Green Swamp in central Florida. It's a very wild place. I _thought_ it was a watersnake of some sort. I'm a snake capturer, I can't help it, but this guy was too scary looking for me. Just watched him cross and disappear.

I'm going to see if I can post a cool video from that day, too.

Nanci

 

[Nanci]

Hope This Works!

I never tried posting a video before- if it doesn't work, I'll put it on youtube and link to it.

 

[Nanci]

Ok, I guess that worked. Blair Witch Alligators! Don't you love how they sound, calling for mama? She was there, but stayed under water. Every once in a while she'd peek out with just her eyes to see if we were still there. The babies don't know how to hide under water yet- they just run away on the surface. One of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Nanci

 

[SkyChimp]

Great story, Blackadder. That's kind of how I got back into keeping snakes as an adult who hadn't had any for years- found Maizey right in my front yard, then a year later a friend gave me Choco, and it's been all downhill from there...

I saw this snake while riding my bike in the middle of the Green Swamp in central Florida. It's a very wild place. I _thought_ it was a watersnake of some sort. I'm a snake capturer, I can't help it, but this guy was too scary looking for me. Just watched him cross and disappear.

I'm going to see if I can post a cool video from that day, too.

Nanci

Florida Watersnake, a subspecies of the Banded Watersnake. Beautiful. Thanks for posting.

 

[SkyChimp]

I never tried posting a video before- if it doesn't work, I'll put it on youtube and link to it.

Great video. Bet momma was somewhere nearby . Unfortunately, we don't have any alligators in Virginia, except for the occasional summer visitor that swims up the intercoastal waterway. Our closest alligator breeding population is around Elizabeth City, North Carolina - about 70 miles from where I live. We occassionally see them on Boy Scout trips to parks in that area.

 

[BlackAdder]

Nanci - That is a nice picture, that water snake has some pretty cool markings. Looks like a big one as well. I can definitely see how a snake like that could easily be mistaken for a Cottonmouth, judging from pictures I've seen. I'm sure they are easily distinguished after closer examination though. Unfortunately, I am on dial-up and can't view the video right now, maybe I can let it load over night or something.

I just recently found a copy of National Audubon Field Guide to North American Amphibians and Reptiles in my bookshelf, I recommend getting a copy, It would certainly come in handy identifying any herp you come across. I can't wait until summer to go out and look for some snakes, I used to think there were only 3 or 4 different types where I live, but now I know of some new ones to look for and identify.

SkyChimp - Out of curiosity I did a search on the fauna classifieds for water snakes, and there were quite a few results. I also found a site from Florida that had a whole bunch of Banded and Brown Water Snakes for sale, let me know if you're interested.

 

[Nanci]

Too bad you can't see the video. What a pain having dialup.

I _do_ have the Audubon Field Guide, given to me by the same person who gave me Choco, Addy and Krusty. And Snakes of Florida, which is awesome. And just today, The Art Of Keeping Snakes arrived. I didn't have a nice general snake care book.

Skychimp, momma was definitely nearby! She looked to be about eight-ten feet in length. The water was so murky she could be just below the surface and you'd never know. She kept coming up to check on us, though. Totally non-habituated to humans, which is a good thing for her.

I was very nervous, and always had an escape route planned! She never did more then peek her eyes out, though. The only time we saw her was when we initially approached the gator hole- she was at the surface.

Nanci

 

[snakemom1961]

Nanci,
That video of the babies was sooooooooo cool. Sure don't get a chance to witness something like that up here in Michigan. I'm envious of you who live down south and can see all kinds of critters I'll never have a chance to see in my life....Like WC corns.lol

 

[Nanci]

Snakemom, I used to live up in Snow World (Minnesota)- I escaped!! It cost a lot, family and friends and job- but I love it here.

Nanci

 

[SkyChimp]

Blackadder, you mentioned that you feed your snake rosy reds. I saw this on Kingsnake.com. It's about feeding turtles, but also applies to snakes. Maybe something to think about. I don't know if its true or not.

http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1215060,1216895

First off, I doubt copper accumulates in goldfish. Copper sulfate is used to treat food fish and the FDA gets a little concerned about things that can accumulate. Now malachite green can be used on "bait fish" and it can be absorbed by fish. This substance is an organic coal tar dye, whose color resembles the color of copper mineral malachite but it does not contain copper. It also is a nasty chemical but I don't think it's used routinely in gold fish production. Common salt would be the most likely treatment.
So what is the problem with goldfish? It is something that is natural in them. This is the enzyme thiaminase, this enzyme breaks down the vitamin B-1. This most likely the culprit in deaths of animals fed goldfish as a sole food. Fish in the minnow family share this enzyme, ie rosy reds, smelt.
So what to do the obvious simple thing is to gut load the gold fish with food high in B-1. The other would be to use non-goldfish. I found this list on a website see the link: http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Articles/Thiaminase.htm
Note Sunfish do not contain this enzyme and would make a more natural diet. As for as crayfish go you might check seafood stores for live crayfish. Doing a web search for live louisiana crayfish turns up a lot of people that ship live crayfish from bait to super jumbo size. 5lbs of crawdads should last you awhile. Sachs Aquaculture sells small quanities of cray fish see: http://aquaculturestore.com/index.html

HTH
Thiaminase

 

[Drucifer]

That water snake is absolutely fascinating.
The UK kinda sucks for wild reptiles, although we do have these:

Grass Snake, non-venomous, feigns death when highly stressed.

Adder, venomous, illegal to keep in captivity

And the smooth snake which is highly rare and illegal to capture.
(No photo of the smooth snake because it is that rare)

We also have an abundance of lizards. (Mostly the slow worm, mistaken for a snake.)

I'd love a watersnake. But I doubt you could get them (CB) in the UK, I wouldn't import.

 

[SkyChimp]

They're both beautiful snakes.

The adder is fascinating. I think the colors are --- striking.

How common are they in the UK? I noticed in another thread that the photographer was holding a small one by the tail near what appeared to be some kind of bog. Are they partial to watery areas?

 

[Drucifer]

Quite common, sometimes they are found near watery areas, but you're most likely to find more Grass Snakes near the watery areas.
Grass Snakes are kind of like water snakes, they love to swim.
Shame you can't catch and keep them though -sigh-

 

[BlackAdder]

SkyChimp - Thanks for the links, they have a lot of good info. I had only read a bit about thiaminase and only recently found out that rosy reds contained it, and I immediately switched to scented pinkies.

Where I live, in Ontario, Canada doesn't have too many common types of reptiles either. I can only usually find Common Garters and Northern Red Bellies, and although we have other species such as Eastern Milk Snakes and Smooth Green snakes, they're not very common, or at least not where I live. In some parts of extreme southern Ontario, such as Pelee Island, we have species such as Eastern Rat Snakes and Blue Racers as well as a subspecies of Northern Water Snake called the Lake Erie Water Snake, which I believe doesn't have any markings, just pure light gray. The only lizard we have is the Five-Lined Skink.

 

[Alien Zulu]

And the smooth snake which is highly rare and illegal to capture.
(No photo of the smooth snake because it is that rare)

more info about the Smooth Snake
http://www.wildlifebritain.com/thesmoothsnake.php

 

[BlackAdder]

I recently took some pictures of my Northern eating, so I thought I would share them on here. She is now taking normal unscented pinkies, which means I don't have to rub smelly fish onto the pinkies anymore!

Enjoy

I also recently bought two Cali Kings to add to my collection, and man their feeding response is amazing. I put them, my corns, and my water snake into a new 5-enclosure cabinet I built, and now I have 3 empty 15 gallon tanks just sitting there in my room. Not a good thing to have while I'm hopelessly addicted to buying snakes, lol.

 

[SkyChimp]

Gorgeous snake, BA. Look at it's mouth! So clean and healthy looking.

By the way, I know about cali-king's feeding responses. Last weekend I was tending to a milksnake. I made the mistake of placing it back in its cage and then picking up a cali-king about 5 feet long without washing my hands (a big no-no). I went to support the king's head and it flicked its tongue over my left ring finger, then locked on. I tell you, they can bite like hell. Not only that, but they chew once they latch on. I held its head under a flow of cold water and it wouldn't let go. The owner said in the calmest tone, "That's highly unusual." Yeah, and it hurt like hell, too. We had to "credit card" it off (slip a credit card under its upper jaw to disloge its teeth). It left 4 neat rows of teeth marks.

It doesn't look like much now, but this is 1.5 weeks later:

 

[BlackAdder]

He must have really been convinced you were dinner! I actually got bitten by one of mine last night for the first time, it was also the first time being bitten by any of my snakes. I had just handled him for a bit, and he was being really nice not musking and not even trying to get away, so I put him back in his enclosure after a few minutes. After I put him down I sorta brushed against his side and he turned around really fast, and went into a defensive posture, musking all over the place. Then I decided that I shouldn't let him think that he's scaring me off with this attitude, so I tried to pick him up again to calm him down. I was so scared to get bitten for the first time, I wasn't sure if I would be able to pick him up, and he struck at every movement I made. After about 10 strikes I thought I should just get over it and pick him up, and he must have bitten me 3 or 4 times, only one of which I actually felt for more than the duration of the strike. It made the tiniest bit of blood come out, and it didn't even hurt at all. At least now I know what I'm dealing with, but he's only a few months old. I'm sure an adult would hurt a lot though. My arms are already shredded up by my crazy cat, so its not the pain of being bitten that really bothers me, its more the shock of it and not knowing when its going to happen.