Odysseus and Penelope the Russian Rat Snakes

[SerpentineDream]

My first breeding pair of Russian rat snakes arrived yesterday. Both are from European stock and are unrelated to each other or American stock. It will be a long time before they are ready to make any babies of their own yet, so they will just be pets while they grow up. They look like they will have really nice, bold yellow markings. They are a lot of fun. Even though they are tiny hatchlings they seem to have missed the memo that they are supposed to be terrified of everything. They are super curious and super friendly. Usually I put new arrivals into their homes quickly and without much handling because they are stressed from their journey, but they each wrapped themselves around my hand and insisted on exploring me before they explored their houses. They have no fear at all. I already love them.

A couple of cruddy shots of Odysseus in his travel container. I'll get better ones, but my battery died on me in the middle of taking pictures.






Penelope is a little older and roughly double his size. She is starting to darken and yellow is creeping into the markings on her face.

[Albert Clark]

GORGEOUS! I love that they are from European stock. Congrats.

[Sylphie]

Yay, new russian fan! They are goregous, aren't they?

And yes, they are amazingly curious about everything, that's why a lot of people loves them even though their colours are not the most stunning. I would highly recommend japanese rats (E. climacophora) too, I have 2 hatchlings, and they are even more inquisitive than russians (yes, thats possible, haha!).

Can I ask from what did you bought them? Most of european russians are having a really high yellow markings, to be honest I didn't see any low yellows here.

[SerpentineDream]

I got them from Kevin Saunders, who had imported a bunch of them. He went through an exporter so he didn't personally meet the breeders. He knew the male was produced by Valentin Epp (I think he's based in Germany), but he didn't recall who had produced the female. I don't want to be a pest but I will see if he can find out just because I would like to know where my breeding stock comes from.

I've observed that a lot of American stock seems to have narrower and more subdued yellow markings but when I look at photos of Russian rat snakes from Europe they do indeed tend to have brighter, bolder coloration. Aside from liking the looks of these guys, there appears to be relatively few breeders in the US so injecting some new blood into the gene pool is probably a good thing. I'm pretty sure that people will want the babies and will incorporate their offspring into their own breeding colonies. These guys are almost as hard to find as black milk snakes (my other upcoming project).

Now I have to Google Japanese rat snakes. My husband will be sooooo thrilled. :P

[Sylphie]

Yeah, in Europe there is not many of them too! I only know about a few persons that are incubating eggs now (including one anery in UK and one het. melanistic in US). And I still got no lock from the pairing with second female, ehh.

And yes, google them, they are soo great! Their care is the same as russians, just different colors, and they are more slender than schrencki. It's so sad that I lost one of my hatchlings, but I'll get a nice trade in a few months and will get blue ones <3

[Tsubaki]

Beautiful! Congrats!

[SerpentineDream]

Odysseus and Penelope have a new friend, Circe. Her parents are the offspring of wild-caught specimens. More new blood... hooray!

She is only 9 weeks old and still has her drab baby colors but she looks like she will be boldly marked as an adult. She is ridiculously friendly. It was hard to get pics of her because she wanted so badly to investigate the camera.





As for Penelope, she is growing (already eating hopper mice!) and coloring up nicely. She is the least friendly of the lot. Not sure what happened there but she is surly and occasionally bitey. Hopefully just an awkward adolescent phase.



Odysseus is starting to color up. He is so curious and eager to be held that he'll come out of his hide and climb onto my outstretched hand. Circe will come out and allow herself to to be picked up but doesn't (yet) hop on by herself. While Circe is a perpetual motion machine, Odysseus will relax on my arm, limp as a strand of spaghetti, and just watch me. When I try to put him away he wraps around my wrist and I really have to work to get him back in. I'd never before met snakes that were this personable. Most of my crew politely tolerates handling. If I never handled them at all they'd be fine with that. These little guys are just awesome.

[SWDK]

They're looking good and coloring up nicely. Congrats on bringing in more fresh bloodline to add to the mix.