Rat Snakes are found from the eastern through the south-central United States and northeastern Mexico. They are easy to handle and care for making them an excellent beginner snake. Widely bred in captivity, they come in an amazing variety of attractive color patterns.
Keeping Rat Snakes as Pets
Maximum size: 3'-6'6"
Life span: 12-25 years
Food: Appropriate size mice or rats.
Housing/Habitat: An aquarium equipped with an under tank heating pad at one end, with aspen or repti-bark substrate. Landscape to provide basking areas, climbing areas, and plenty of hiding places. Ratsnakes are great escape artists and a secure locking cover is very important.
Buy Baird's Rat Snakes
Baird's Rat Snake (Elaphe bairdi) is usually yellow or orange-yellow. It has four stripes along the body. The underside is gray or yellow, darkening near the tail. Hatchlings are about 30cm long and have gray and brown bands.
Buy Emory's Rat Snakes
Emory's Rat Snake (Elaphe emoryi), also known as the Great Plains Rat Snake, is light gray or tan in color, with dark gray, brown, or green-gray blotches down its back. It has stripes on each side of the head that meet between the eyes.
Buy Common Rat Snake Morphs
The Common Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta) is one of the largest snakes in North America. It has a slender body and a wedge-shaped head. The Common Rat Snake is non-venomous and usually non-aggressive. If cornered they will shake their tails and strike. Rat snakes are popular in the pet trade. They are fairly docile in captivity and popular with novices and reptile collectors. There are a number of color variations:
- The Black Rat Snake is all black except for a white chin and throat; hatchlings are pale grey with black blotches along its back.
- The Yellow Rat Snake is yellow with four brown stripes along the back, and has a black tongue; hatchlings are similar to those of the black rat snake.
- The Everglades Rat Snake is orange or orange-yellow with indistinct gray stripes along the body, and has a red tongue; young snakes are pink.
- The Gray Rat Snake is pale gray with dark gray or brown blotches.