snake ID please??

I'm not at all an expert in snakes, but it looks like a common water snake that I used to see in Missouri all the time.


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Grey rat snake

 

It is.....

It is a juvenile Black rat snake.



Kerby...

 

common water snake. I have several that live in my pond.

 

IT IS A....

It is a juvenile Black rat snake. That is not a water snake!



Kerby...

 

the black rat snakes live in water?

 

kerby you are right.

 

According to some of the guys I work with, its a rattle headed copper mocasin

 

Yupp, thats a small black rat snake. The water snakes I have seen tend to have heavily keeled scales and the belly pattern is a dead give away for me.

 

This can be one of several species...

1) Juvenile Rat Snake

2) Milk Snake- has a checkered belly, and on the back of the head would be a light colored "Y" or "V" shape right on the nape of the neck.

3) Corn Snake- marked identical to the milk snake with a few exceptions depending on the time of year. Early out of hybernation they are dark like this. later in the warmer
weather they turn light brown almost orangest. There is also no "Y" or "V"

4) Common water snake-

Either way its definately non-venomous

 

X2 thats what it is....

 

Common West Virginia Snow snake,

 

Looks like a perfect corn snake to me!

 

What Kerby says is what it is....he's forgot more about snakes than most of us will ever know!

 

Color and markings are off for a juvenile grey or black to me. Doesn't have the head of a juvenile either. Also appears to have the redish to yellowish eye more common to cornsnakes!

 

Ron....

Ron, I am not going to argue the point any further. It is not a cornsnake. I have hatched out THOUSANDS of cornsnakes. And I have hatched out hundreds of ratsnakes. It is a juvenile rat snake which looks very similar to cornsnakes.

Cornsnakes and ratsnakes change drastically from babies to adults.



Cheers everyone.

Peace out.

Kerby...