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New Addition, Wild Caught

L

LoneArcher

New member
This is Crowley, the latest addition to our household. Crowley was caught in Terrell, Texas.
IMG_1203.jpg
 
Funny I spend a ton of time in the woods all over the state of Md. I have yet to see a corn snake in the wild. I have seen copperheads, Blacksnakes and a ton of water snakes and a one Garter snake. I don't hunt for them but given the amount of time I spend there I would expect to see one at least. I'd like to know what he is also
 
That was my first thought. There are so many ratsnakes in TX with similar-looking juvies!
 
I'm new to this but according to the markings that I've been able to see so far, I think it's a Texas Corn Snake as described in "Texas Snakes: A Field Guide" by James Ray Dixon, John E. Werler, and Regina Levoy; AKA: Slowinski's Corn Snake:

http://books.google.com/books?id=qR...AQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=texas corn snake&f=false

Crowley has the two long stripes on the underside of the tail which the juvenile Texas rat snake does not have. Also, the dark stripe behind the eye reaches backward past the end of the mouthline.
 
Not all corn snakes have those stripes on the underside of the tail, so I would be surprised if all texas rats did NOT have them. The eye band reaches like that on almost all the closely related species.
 
Ooh, it's a Texas Ratsnake! Nice find!

Here's an example of a juvenile TX rat:
txrat3.jpg


Taken from here.

And a young Slowinskii's corn
slowinskii06cross-fRH22608a1b_TC.jpg


Taken from this thread right here on CS. :)
 
That moderately muted head pattern puts him firmly into 'texas rat' rather than 'kisatchie' in my view. Plus the edges of the saddles follow the texas rat pattern more than a corn snake type pattern, with that point on the bottom of the rounded parts so that it makes the saddles look like they have 6 distinct edges, rather than the rounded shape of the kisatchie.
 
Yep, the incomplete head pattern seems odd. Like I said, I'm certainly not an expert, and so far trying to distinguish one species from another has been difficult. Trying to go by photos on the web only seems to add to the confusion. Currently, my only technical resource is:

http://books.google.com/books?id=qR...oQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=texas corn snake&f=false

I don't know if this is reliable source or not, but according to the book, a juvenile Texas rat snake has 27 to 37 middorsal body blotches where as a juvenile Texas corn snake has 44 to 59 middorsal body blotches. Crowley has 46 that I can see from one of the photos.

I'm wondering if the head pattern will change with the first shed.
 
LoL what a conundrum! Keep posting as he matures, please!! I want to see how he looks in a year. :)
 
Thanks everyone for all your help. I'll be taking more photos over the next couple of days as well as some of my daughter's Okeetee.
 
LoneArcher said:
Yep, the incomplete head pattern seems odd. Like I said, I'm certainly not an expert, and so far trying to distinguish one species from another has been difficult. Trying to go by photos on the web only seems to add to the confusion. Currently, my only technical resource is:

http://books.google.com/books?id=qR...oQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=texas corn snake&f=false

I don't know if this is reliable source or not, but according to the book, a juvenile Texas rat snake has 27 to 37 middorsal body blotches where as a juvenile Texas corn snake has 44 to 59 middorsal body blotches. Crowley has 46 that I can see from one of the photos.

I'm wondering if the head pattern will change with the first shed.
Click to expand...

Blotch counts are from neck to anal plate(s) or base of tail. Your snake has 32 dorsal blotches. Texas rat snake.
 
New Photos

Okay, here are some new photos. At this point in time, this is as close as I can get with my camera.

First, profile shots, as requested:
IMG_1207.jpg


IMG_1231.jpg
 
Next up, the stripes on the underside of the tail:

IMG_1209.jpg


And Finally, Crowley's new viv! We found this on sale at Petsmart the other day and couldn't pass it up.

IMG_1236.jpg
 
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