For those of you out there that hate King snakes (black snakes)

[StrawberryHouseMouse]

It is indeed a hognose snake. They look a lot like vipers or rattlers. Really cool snakes actually. I use to have a pair of western hognose snakes and a tri colored hognose. They will eat your chicks but they are not that harmful to humans. They have rear fangs which are mostly used for popping frogs and toads. That's what they mostly eat (frogs and toads). If you ever need some removed let me know XD

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[rodriguezpoultry]

What's this type of snake:

It was just a baby, and I wanted to keep it so bad! I knew it wasn't venomous so I moved it across the road into a field.



Black rat snakes only get killed at my property when they are eating my eggs/birds. I have strawberry netting in/on the coops. If they get caught in it, they're dead. I've lost too many birds to them.

 

[animals1981]

are u trying to say geroge is a rat snake? he sure looks like an indigo snake to me


the above snake looks like a bull snake

rat snakes and bull snakes are harmless but they dont serve a good purpose like a king snake does they dont eat other snakes and dont eat rattle snakes they eat birds and mice

 

[newchickmom09]

I love king snakes! Around here in southern AZ they are treasured because we have so many different types of rattlesnakes.

 

[TwistedSerpent]

Ah that makes more sense, so used to the westerns here I forgot completely about Eastarns.

Chances are George is a black rat without even seeing his picture. Indigos are a rare thing to come across and rats are everywhere.

Rodriguez that is still a young prairie king.

 

[klutzyruth]

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My guess is that it's a corn snake.

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

I'm really not sure what George technically is. What I do know is that he and the two females that I see him with are a-lot slimmer than the other blacksnakes that hang around here. His head is also no bigger than the end of my thumb. I took this picture just after he had swallowed a small copperhead. As I stated in my previous post, I tried to get the camera of him in action, but by the time I got back outside with the camera, he had swallowed it.

Here is a close up I took of his head.

 

[chickenwhisperer]

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I figured that wasnt a "natural" pic . . .

Its actually surprising to me that a speckled king would eat another snake . . .
I know that "kingsnakes" have the reputation of being snake-eaters, or ophiophagic, but its usually only the Desrt Kings, L. g splendida, that are true snake-eaters as thats a major foodsource in a desert.

I have tried numerous times to feed xtra baby rattlers to my kings, and only 2 splendidas ever ate them.

I have about 40 king/milk snakes that includes 13 species.

Edit to add- the more I look at the original pic in the original post, the more I think it is, in fact, a splendida- which is a more common pet and also easily confused with a speckled. Much cheaper to buy also.

 

[chickenwhisperer]

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That is a corn snake fo sho!

 

[Thamnophis]

Chook-a-holic, the snake in the photo is a black rat snake. You may also have black racers in your area. Our rat snakes are characterized by a "bread loaf" shaped body, ie, in cross section they have strait sides and a distinct angle from the sides to the rather flat belly. They're built this way to facilitate climbing - as seen in the previous post of a big black rat climbing strait up the side of a tree.

Racers come in a variety of colors, some even speckled. The typical black racer is dark grey to black, but there are subspecies that are greenish, tan, blue(ish) or gray. Both racers and rat snakes have blotches when new born that fade to patternless adults (except in the case of grey rats, texas rats and buttermilk racers.)

rodriguezpoultry's photo is of a young prairie king snake, as someone already mentioned.