Black Racer arrived!!!

[Loren]

yes they are cool, but it takes a lot of experience to successfully keep racers simply because most of them are still WC (no market for them yet) and they are extremely nervous snakes. I've got quite a few fresh bite marks on my hands today because of her :P

Yes they do like to bite sometimes. I have had my Western Yellowbellied Racer for about 4.5 years now, and he is one of my favorite snakes, but I pretty much just treat him as a display snake, rarely handling him. He's about 3 feet long now.
I brought him, and 20 or so other snakes, to a presentation I did at the local Church last week, and he bit and chewed the daylights out of me in front a of a large crowd, and drew quite a few drops of blood out of the 45-50 holes in my hand(dont worry, I didnt cry). Helped add some excitement to the show!
I would love to get a black racer someday too.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

where did you get your yellow belly?

[Loren]

where did you get your yellow belly?

Caught him myself out in central Ca. Had to crawl and jump back and forth through thistles for about 10-15 minutes to finally get a hold of him.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

thistles?!?! yikes!

[Loren]

thistles?!?! yikes!

No pain, no gain (no snake).
I'll dive into/around/onto about anything for a snake species I havent caught yet.
Other than that I am just a little bit wussy about poison oak yet.

[adamanteus]

I'm with you there, Loren.... once I have a snake in my sights, there isn't much I won't go through to catch it!
http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/gart...t=Grass+Snakes

[Zephyr]

I'm with you there, Loren.... once I have a snake in my sights, there isn't much I won't go through to catch it!
http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/gart...t=Grass+Snakes

Hmm... If I could ever get my vids on youtube...
I have movies of me hunting down 4-5 foot water snakes in dense reeds. Pulled out some beautiful snakes. Might actually keep some this year. >>

[Loren]

Still waiting for those pics shannon!
While we wait for Shannon's pics, I will hold you over with this one.

Here's a pic of my Western Yellow Bellied. This pic is almost a year old, He has grown a bit since then. Sorry, its a little blurry.

[adamanteus]

Blurry? That's a great pic!

[Loren]

Thanks.
the head is a little out of focus. That bugs me.