Two New Snakes!

[pitbulllady]

After years of searching websites, I finally got lucky and found a pair of pink-phase(also known as red-phase)Western Coachwhips(Masticophis flagellum testaceus) at the South Carolina Exotic Animal and Reptile Show today in Columbia! These snakes are really rare in captivity, as are most Coachwhips, owing to a bad and undeserved reputation that strikes fear into even venomous snake keepers. In some parts of the southern United States, there is a widely-believed wives' tale that these snakes will chase a person down, wrap around him, and beat him to death with their tails, and a LOT of folks believe that! Even people who know better still can't help but feeling a bit of fear when faced with one of these snakes, who also have a reputation(again, not deserved)for being nasty-tempered and difficult to care for in captivity. Only recently has there been any interest in keeping and breeding these non-venomous snakes, which can exceed 8 feet in length. Western Coachwhips normally are light tan in color, but sometimes can be pink or even red. The female, who is about six feet long, is in the first pic, and she's actually the more colorful of the two. The male, who is not as pink as she is, is in the second picture. He has a horrible and deep scar on top of his head, which shows up nearly black, and probably was from an encounter with a hungry bird, like a crow, which attacks snakes by stabbing at their heads with its beak. The darker brown snake at the top of the pic with the pink male is a male Eastern Coachwhip, but he's in shed and looks pretty rough, so I will have to get pics of him after he sheds his skin.





I also picked up two new tarantulas at the show, and will post pics of them later when one of them settles down. She's a HUGE Avicularia braunshauseni, large enough to cover a CD, and right now she's got a bit of an attitude problem, but considering that she was in a 3x3inch plastic cup when I bought her, I can't say I really blame her, either.

pitbulllady