Black Rat Snake

[hoo-t]

How long has it been now since you got the one from the grocery store? Can you post a pic? I'll post pics of a black rat snake (prbly the same one) that my husband put in the woods a few years ago (the one by the sand box).

I didn't know how friendly they were as adults. Do they attempt a strike when you pick them up? Did the one at the cabin hiss? I swear the sandbox one made an ungodly noise that I never knew could come from a snake.

I caught the one in the grocery store on July 10 of this year. There is a pic in the "Herping in the local grocery store" thread. I didn't get any pics of the one I caught at my uncle's cabin. I wish I had, he was impressive! Rat snakes are generally pretty defensive in the wild. They will put up a big show, posing to strike, hissing, rattling their tail, and generally won't hesitate to bite. The big one that I caught never did any of that. I even thought maybe he was an escaped pet, because he was so calm. The little one from the store, though, was a different story! He did (and still does) it all, tail rattling and hissing as loud as any of my bps! You probably already know this, but corn snakes are actually rat snakes, just a different subspecies. I've heard they can be pretty nasty in the wild, too. I had a corn snake for several years and was only bitten once, and that was a stupid feeding error. The other subspecies of rat snakes, from what I've heard, are more unpredictable in their behavior. I really haven't spent a whole lot of time trying to "tame" the grocery store snake, as I've always thought I'd return him to the wild.

Steve