Quote:
Originally Posted by navy2kcoupe
THAT, is a very pretty snake! What does one of those prefer to eat? I expect that it'll eat just about anything if it's hungry enuf, but what would you expect it's normal diet to consist of? Any guess as to the length of that one?
Andy  |
Well they are from the family of snakes commonly referred to as "rat" snakes, so that can give you an idea. They will also feed on small birds and their eggs.
Of course, when they are small like this, they normally feed on lizards (which Connie doesn't like to think about). I would imagine they are terrors on the little moles, since they can be found actually in the burrows of moles. He actually looks a bit on the scrawny side, so I don't think he's had much luck finding a meal lately. Being scrawny, he was probably longer than he looks, maybe in the 24 to 28 inch range. I'm guessing he might be 2 to 3 years old, but snakes will grow in direct proportion to the amount of food they can find. In lean times, they will grow rather slowly.
These corn snakes (or red rat snakes) are what I used to work with when I had my SerpenCo business. Of course, I had all kinds of genetic variations, with colors and patterns completely changing the way they looked. Used to be a fun time at egg hatching time seeing what new that the world had never seen before was hatching out. One year I produce around 8,000 baby corn snakes. Now THAT was a rough year trying to take care of that many babies. Never wanted to do that again, I'll tell you.
This is the first corn snake we have seen around here in a while. Lots of black racers, however, which I don't particularly like. And a coachwhip every now and again. Coachwhips are a lot like black racers, but for some reason they just strike me as being much more personable and tolerable to have around. And of course there are always the gray rat snakes that show up in or around the bird feeders.
Haven't seen any diamondback rattlesnakes in a good long while. Also have seen coral snakes here every now and again, but not much lately. I would have thought all the rain we have had would have chased the coral snakes out of the ground, because that is where they are normally found except at night and during heavy rains.