10-09-2005 06:39									#1
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Our old and nearly senile cat just found a small snake on our porch. After separating the pets away from the snake, we tried to identify it before letting it go in a nearby field. It was too hard to match the pattern up with photos but something did catch my eye...or should I say my ear...

The little snake was rattling its tail!

But it had no rattles being less than a foot in length and I presume quite young. So I was hearing the tail swish back and forth really fast and took on a much greater respect

So, are there non-rattlers that rattle their tails?

Seems to me only snakes with the defense mechanism of rattles would react to a threat by rattling its tail, not snakes that never have rattles.

	10-09-2005 06:46									#2
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I've never seen a snake in my entire life. Except when visiting the zoo. We only have two kinds, one poisonous and one that's not. Both are rare, and they're never found anywhere near residential areas. I like it this way.

	10-09-2005 06:50									#3
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Kill it before it turns into this:

	10-09-2005 06:54									#4
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Well i dontknow much about snakes but if the tail looked liked a sort of honey comb and made noise it is most likely a rattle snake that is very poisionness

	10-09-2005 06:55									#5
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That's one fat snake

	10-09-2005 06:56									#6
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litle rhyme we learend bout the coral snake red on yellow kills a fellow
red on black is a friend of jack

	10-09-2005 07:54									#7
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It's probably harmless.

Many animals mimic their more dangerous cousins to ward off danger. My best guess is that it was merely doing an imitation of a rattlesnake.

If you have a younger sibling, test my theory out on the useless little twerp.

	10-09-2005 08:07									#8
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@ Verto.

	10-09-2005 09:11									#10
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Good thing I'm a Parseltongue

	10-09-2005 10:44									#11
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quote: We only have two kinds, one poisonous and one that's not.

What else is out there???

	10-09-2005 10:57									#12
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Species, then.

Learn how to read English.

	10-09-2005 12:26									#13
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Actually, Berz, except for a Coral Snake, all poisonous snakes in the continental US are pit vipers. They have that traditional "Heart shaped" head. Even if they are too young to have developed rattles, they will have that very distinct skull shape.



The little ones have less venom, however, at the younger stage they have a tendency to favor neurotoxins. The old info on neuro versus haemotoxins and snakes turns out to be incorrect, at least as of a decade ago I haven't researched it since. At that point they discovered that Copperheads/Rattlesnakes tend to alter the mix depending on age and prey.

The reason I know what I do is because I milked a young adult copperhead into my right index finger fifteen years ago (it was hiding under a concrete block topper I was moving from a collapsed inground pool) - I made a sandwich of it's head, my finger, and the concrete topper. I got very very very sick, and stopped clotting for three days. I have some weird scars from that. I also discovered that 100 mg of injected demoral doesn't make you hurt less, you just don't care that you finger is as big as a bratwurst and hurts like sh*t. It also made me lose one out of four days - I cannot understand why anybody would take that crap as a junkie.

	10-09-2005 19:00									#14
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It should be OK. I was watching a TV programme about snakes a couple of nights ago and they mentioned a snake that looks like a rattlesnake, without the rattle, but isn't poisonous and actually mimics the sound of a rattler with its voice.

Hopefully it was one of those.

	10-09-2005 19:04									#15
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If it was not a baby rattler, and it might have been, then it was probably a hognose snake. They rattle their tails against leaves and such in the forest to make other animals think they are a rattlesnake and are then given a wide birth. It's been about thirty years since I studied snakes though.

edit: nope, I'm wrong. What you saw was probably a Fox Snake. They are the ones that imitate rattlesnakes. Hognoses imitate cobras.

Last edited by chegitz guevara on 10-09-2005 at 19:10

	10-09-2005 19:06									#16
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quote: Originally posted by CerberusIV and actually mimics the sound of a rattler with its voice.

With its voice!? Hey, evolution is a lot quicker than I thought.

I wonder if they could be trained to do leading politicians also?

	10-09-2005 19:41									#17
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Hognosed snakes are cool

	10-09-2005 20:39									#18
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Make good pets too, despite the fact that they are venomous. Their fangs are too far back to bite a human, unless you stick your finger down their throat.

	10-09-2005 21:07									#19
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too bad that's not a hognose, IW. it looks like some kind of brooksii. it's too thick to be a cal-king.


that's a hognose snake. several species are native to your region.

che, the fox snake isn't the only species that rattles its tail. most colubrids (kingsnakes) do that, as well as many milksnakes. also, hognose snakes are only modestly venemous. i've been bitten by a couple and after some chewing, i had a riteous headache for a few hours, that's about it.

	10-09-2005 21:37									#20
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quote: Originally posted by self biased too bad that's not a hognose, IW. it looks like some kind of brooksii. it's too thick to be a cal-king.

It is. (For a broadish definition of hog-nose). It's a Leioheterodon madagascariensis, so I'll forgive you not recognising it.