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venimous or not!
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by Bre on January 18, 2009
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How can you tell the difference between a baby great plains rat snake or a rattle snake. if they just infants is there any trait to tell them apart? the ones found in my house were about 10 in. in length, graish color with olive blotches with a darker outline around blotches, they head had a racoon bandit going from eye to eye. the tail showed no rattle at the end but you could see they were babies. I found 5 of these sametype snakes in my house and on my patio. Please help me. I want to know what Iam dealing with the next summers. I live in Grand Junction, CO thanks for any information you can help me with.
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RE: venimous or not!
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by thenewdisciple on January 18, 2009
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A rattlesnake will have what we call a button on the end of its tail, even at birth. I tried to dig up a picture for you to see, but I could not find one. It pretty much looks like it sounds, it is just a single segment of the rattler.
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RE: venimous or not!
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by Rob_Carmichael on January 18, 2009
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You might see a few things that can help you out:
1) On great plains ratsnakes you will see a dark stripe extending from the corner of the back of the eye towards the neck. On a prairie rattlesnake, there will be a thin white stripe extending from each corner of the eye with a darker shaded area in the middle all going torwards the neck.
2) ratsnakes have very smooth, shiny scales whereas the scales on a rattlesnake are keeled which makes it look raised and rough looking. On babies, this is a little harder to see.
3) The tip of the tail on a ratsnake will be very pointed but on a baby rattlesnake, it will have a ligher sometimes yellowish hue along with a tiny "button" which is the start of the rattle. You may also see a faint "coon" tail look with white and black alternating bands - sometimes hard to notice on a baby rattler.
4) When confronted, a baby ratsnake will probably dash for cover...a baby rattlesnake will too but will also coil tightly. Both will vibrate their tail so don't use that as an indicator.
If you can provide a pic please post here. Baby rattlesnakes are not that much of a concern but obviously, if you have them around your house, its something you will want to address. There are ways to make your house unappealing to snakes - personally, I would love to have some free roaming rattlers around my property but no go so far.
Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
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RE: venimous or not!
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by Cro on January 18, 2009
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Brenda, you mentioned that that the snakes you found "had a racoon bandit going from eye to eye."
That tells me that they were Great Plains Ratsnakes.
Take a look at both of these links, and you can easily see what a big difference there is between a Ratsnake and a Rattlesnake.
For the Ratsnakes:
http://images.google.com/images?ndsp=21&um=1&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&rlz=1I7GGLJ&q=great+plains+rat+snake&start=42&sa=N
For the Rattlesnakes:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&rlz=1I7GGLJ&resnum=0&q=prairie%20rattlesnake&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
There are hundreds of photos on both of those pages.
Once you see a few hundred pictures of these animals, they should become much easier to recognise.
Note that the Ratsnakes are have long, thin bodies, while the Rattlesnakes have shorter, fatter bodies.
Note that the tip of the tail of even a baby Rattlesnake has that wide, rounded pre-button, and the Ratsnake tail tapers to a point.
Note that the Ratsnake has Round pupils in the eye, and the Rattlesnake has Elliptical pupils (cat’s eyes).
Note the smooth looking skin on the Ratsnake, and the rough looking skin on the Rattlesnake.
Also, note that Ratsnakes are good climbers, and will sometimes be found up on walls, or off of the ground. Rattlesnakes do not climb nearly as well, and will most often be found on the ground.
Hope this helps. Study the photos, and I think you will see the differences it the two animals.
Best Regards
John Z
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RE: venimous or not!
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by Buzztail1 on January 18, 2009
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Rattlesnakes specifically have a rattle.
Even when they are born, their tails do not come to a point as do other snakes.
They are born with a button which gives the tailtip a rounded stubby appearance.
Here are a couple of good representations of what their tails look like:
http://sdsnake.com/Snake/rattle_2X.jpg
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/grinnell/images/fig64.jpg
The Great Plains Ratsnake's tail comes to a fairly sharp point as in this picture of one:
http://www.snakesofarizona.com/gprrusco.JPG
Hope this helps.
R/
Karl
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RE: venimous or not!
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by TheFifthDay on January 18, 2009
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Here is a picture of a baby rattlesnake: http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/grinnell/images/fig64.jpg .
I am not sure what species it is, but I think it is either a Western or an Eastern Diamondback. You can still see the button, though.
I hope this helps,
Jon Short
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RE: venimous or not!
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by TheFifthDay on January 18, 2009
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Sorry, not that one... Here is the picture I was trying to show you: http://www.lightofmorn.com/photos/rattlesnake30607_5w.jpg
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RE: venimous or not!
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by tigers9 on January 18, 2009
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How come if a man joins this forum and doesn’t fill our the profile, all venom men are all over him:
Dude, fill out the profile or u r a history (baritone deep SNL voice) <paraphrasing, having fun>
When a chick, or somebody who is maybe chick joins, nobody asks ‘her’ to fill out the profile.
Anyway I think the best way to tell if the native snake is venomous (other than the obvious tail tale sings) is after they bite you, non venomous you live, venomous, we will see how good your immune system is ;-)
Z
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RE: venimous or not!
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by Cro on January 18, 2009
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As far as the profile thing, if someone, male or female, asks a question like "what snake is this," they will probably get an answer here, despite wether they filled in the profile or not.
If someone asks a question, like "my Gaboon viper will not eat, what do I do? They will probably get a request for them to fill in their profile, as we will want to know just how much experiende the person messing with the venomous snake actually has.
There really is a big diffference between the tow
Best Regards
John Z
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