Red Phase Rat Snake?

[Rikki]

My pet store has a Red Phase Rat snake for sale for $39, does anyone know anything about these guys?

[lolaophidia]

Well a "Red rat" snake is a Corn snake. Using the term "phase" is just a descriptive, it doesn't tell you anything about the actual species of snake (kind of like saying I'm a brunette phase). There are a number of rat snakes that could have a reddish phase, like Texas rats or Black rats for example. What colors are the snake (besides reddish)? What's the pattern like? What's it's place of origin? Is it an adult or juvenile? The pet shop should be able to give you the latin for any animal they carry as well as a common name.

If it's a Corn snake, they come in many colors and patterns at this point due to selective breeding. There's tons of care sheets out on the web for Corns as they're a very popular pet snake. If it's a Texas rat snake, you pretty much keep it like a Corn snake. However, if it's a Texan, be sure that it's captive bred, otherwise you're looking at vet bills from the get go for parasite treatment. The last wild caught Texas rat I had was a very defensive animal who bit and musked me at almost every handling.

Let us know what you find out, and do a google search on rat snakes to read up on them. I've been keeping rat snakes for about 16 years so if you run into questions about conflicting care sheets, I can try to answer them based on my experience.

[gonesnakee]

As stated Red Rat Snake = Corn Snake unless the petstore is realy confused & chances are they are, sad but true, Mark

[Rikki]

Well it is obviously red, with grey scales all over him too. He is about 20 inches long and two inches thick. How large would he grow?

[Ciddian]

Too bad you cant get a photo.. :/ Think you can Landon?

[lolaophidia]

I have a feeling that it's a Texas rat snake that just has a reddish cast. The last one I had had grey saddles and orange in the interstices between the saddles. Make the pet store identify it for you. They are the ones trying to make a profit off the animal, and they shouldn't be selling animals that they don't know anything about in my honest opinion.

North American rat snakes tend to range from 4 foot to 7 foot depending on the species. I understand that you are interested in the snake, and I've bought many a creature from my local pet store that they didn't know exactly what it needed in care, but I had some good experiences and bad experiences making purchases that way. I always got as much information from them as possible (including breeder information or if it was an animal that had been "dropped off" who to contact for history). They know who they purchased the animal from and should have gotten basic care information from whoever they received the animal from.

Have you tried google.com searching with rat snakes yet?