Snakes

[cgmccary]

The size and the dull brownish color with diamonds sounds like a gray rat snake (aka chicken snake). The green stripe, I don't know. I don't believe garter snakes have diamonds but they do have green and even blue stripes.

Garter Snakes are actually venomous. However their fangs are very small and located at the back of their mouth. They grab a toad and chew on it in order to inject the venom. They are nothing to play with. There is probably a slim chance of being bit with the fangs, but still a chance.

Not even a slim chance. There's more of a chance of being eaten by a shark (which isn't even a slim chance). I have handled many garter snakes and none of them have ever bitten me, much less put a rear fang in me. At any rate, the venom, as I understand it, is weaker than a bee sting (which I incur from time-to-time since I keep bees). Hognose snakes are likewise endowed with rear fangs for the toads they eat. I have never even seen one of them bite or strike. You would have to be feeding it and holding the prey they eat to accidently get bitten. Who does that?

I agree most likely a rat snake as they are common and often eat eggs.

 

[cgmccary]

Speaking of snakes, do pit vipers like the cottonmouth moccassins and copperheads eat eggs? I assume they do, but I am hoping for some reason they don't. I have a coop that has a poorly desinged door through which you acccess the nest box, so when I reach into the box it is a bit of a blind reach, unless I get down real low.

Thanks,

Mark

No, they do NOT eat eggs. Cottonmouth (Water Moccassins) eat fish, frogs, birds and other snakes. Copperheads eat mostly mice but will eat small birds, lizards, other snakes and insects & frogs & salamanders.

 

[animals1981]

diamonds can be part of the bull/pine/gopher snake family these are also called chicken snakes they are rodent killers also


I have seen some strange looking ones with stripe on them in california


yes garter snakes are the most picked up snakes on earth by kids I have never heard of anyone getting hurt everyone gets bitten.

 

[chickenlvr4]

I have snakes where I live n keep relocating them as they steal eggs but I always thought chickens killed snakes. My hens just look at it, they won't go near it. Do I have chicken chickens or is this normal?

 

[6of6chicks]

Not even a slim chance. There's more of a chance of being eaten by a shark (which isn't even a slim chance). I have handled many garter snakes and none of them have ever bitten me, much less put a rear fang in me. At any rate, the venom, as I understand it, is weaker than a bee sting (which I incur from time-to-time since I keep bees). Hognose snakes are likewise endowed with rear fangs for the toads they eat. I have never even seen one of them bite or strike. You would have to be feeding it and holding the prey they eat to accidently get bitten. Who does that?

I agree most likely a rat snake as they are common and often eat eggs.

I recently had a snake in my run, so I bought the Lone Star Field Guide to Texas Snakes to try to ID it. The book was enormously helpful because it had a picture of every snake found in Texas. I was able to go picture by picture until I found an exact match. I couldn't tell if my particular snake was a cottonmouth, but the book helped me ID it as a blotched water snake (to my relief, since I shooed it away rather than killing it).

Anyway - I was curious about the garter snake debate over getting bitten, so I looked it up in the book. This is what the guide said:

"Most small garter snakes are reluctant to bite, but if grasped some of the larger ones can nip vigorously (though garter snakes are nonvenomous, bites sometimes have caused mildly adverse reactions)."

To me "nip" and "bite" are pretty much the same thing. I don't get close to any snakes - venomous or otherwise. There's always a chance that any animal with teeth will bite if sufficiently provoked.