Please help us to identify a snake

10 years ago

Please help us to identify a snake. We found this baby snake in our garage. It is about 12 inches long. We live in Northern VA.

We are afraid that it can be a baby Timber Rattlesnake.

Here is a link that might be useful: link to another picture of a snake

Comments (3)

lazy_gardens
10 years ago
A baby Timber rattler would have a small rattle, or at least a button, on the tip of it's tail. Rattlers also have wider spacing on the blotches and a light head with a dark streak.

http://kylehorner.blogspot.com/2010/10/pit-vipers.html has a good young one.

I'm not familiar with the non-venomous snakes of that area, but it might be a juvenile ratsnake.

Here is a link that might be useful: Snakes of VA
User
10 years ago
It is a juvenile Black Ratsnake and completely harmless.
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Can you help identify this snake?
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Comments (2)
True, it may be a rat snake, but... do rat snakes rattle the end of their tails like a rattler would? That's what really threw me (after I thought about it). I mean... do ALL snakes do that when aggrivated? O.o?
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Comments (9)
It's not a copperhead. Pit vipers (all poisonous snakes in the US but the coral snake) have slitted pupils like a cats. Yours one definitely has round pupils. And you're right that it's not shaped correctly to be a copperhead. Just think of all the crickets that little beauty was eating in your garage! Try the reptile/amphibian forum if no one here can identify it. Here is a link that might be useful: Reptile forum
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Can anyone please identify this snake?
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Comments (5)
viridis - thanks for the info. I've seen many pictures of adult Copperheads and a couple in real life, but just wasn't sure what they looked like when very young. There is a park in the North Georgia mountains called Unicoi State Park where you can visit Anna Ruby Falls which is a nice, fairly easy hike, and very beautiful. About 20 years ago I saw a Copperhead sunning itself on the rocks at the falls with people all around. Recently someone told me that there is now a warning sign on the trail for Copperheads.
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Please help identify this snake
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Comments (3)
It's a baby "caramel-phase" Florida Banded Watersnake, Nerodia fasciata, a species that varies quite a bit in coloration and is found from Florida to the Carolinas. These lighter-colored specimens are called "caramel" because as adults they do have a coloration that resembles caramel, with darker bands. There is also a red-phase and a dark-colored phase, as well as albino and hypomelanistic specimens.
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Caveman01
10 years ago
The guess above is correct. It is a baby Black Rat Snake. I use to be a breeder but I have seen these snakes for most of my life. I have a photo of one on page 2 of the Nature Photos on my website Caveman's Nature Site http://wildcaveman.weebly.com/. The bands spread out with age and darken.

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Please help us to identify a snake

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lazy_gardens

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