Pine Snake ?s

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black_sun

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jul 31, 2008
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New Jersey
I was at the recent White Plains expo and I saw (and held) a pine snake that I absolutely fell in love with. However, I had no idea of the care requirements, cage size, etc and didn't have time to chat with the vendor (they were starting to close up when I got to them).

So, I have a few questions...

1.) What type of pine snake was I looking at (it was just labeled "pine snake" but it doesn't look like what I've seen available online)? It was a light mustard yellow with red blotches/striping sporadically down it's body.

1a.) If you know what type of pine snake this is, how readily available is it and where can I find one?

2.) What are the cage requirements on pine snakes?

3.) What are the care requirements on pine snakes?

4.) Anything specific or note worthy I need to know about them?

Thanks!
 
It could be a phase of northern pine or it could be another type of pituophis (bull snakes, gopher snakes, fox snakes, etc...) which generally have more color than pine snakes but are very similar otherwise. They are pretty easy going when it comes to care but they get pretty big. I have mine in a 4'x2' cage but I think a 75gallon would be fine for most. Keep the hot end around 80-85ºF and give them a bowl large enough to soak in and feed them an appropriately sized rat once each week. If you have a picture, I will be able to ID it for you.
 
The snake you described sounds like Pituophis deppei, but to be quite honest the high level of selective breeding that has occurred in Pituophis means that it will be hard to nail down a definite identification from the information you have provided.

Husbandry for these guys is very straight forward. I have always maintained Pituophis in the same manner as large cornsnakes or California kingsnakes. They are great snakes but if you anger a large one they can look and sound quite nasty. Still a good choice for a "pet" without too many concerns.
 
I forgot to mention as Rmorrow did that they do hiss very very loudly and are very intimidating. Many will strike readily but mine will only hiss and on occasion "false strike" where her will lunge forward with his mouth remaining closed. They are not for the faint of heart.
 
Yeah Thats about all I know about em.... they hiss... VERY loudly..... We had one when I used to work for Tarpit... a black pine... and every time someone walked passed her cage she would go off... it was a mix between a very loud hiss and growl that made her sound like a damn motorcycle. Very few snakes can intimidate me but that little girl was one of em
 
I don't have any photos of the snake I was holding, but I found some that look similar in appearance to it:

P1170011.jpg

KathyN2.jpg

Similar coloration and pattern to these, but not as frequent or uniform.


P1170004.jpg

More like this.
 
I may not be able to find the exact snake I was looking at. But aside from the pattern/coloration, I loved how it just had this intense stare and the size of it, it was a big snake without be "chubby". It was a really good looking snake, but all the pine snakes I'm finding are "blizzard" or black, and I'm not horribly keen on either look.

Maybe there's a similar species I can look into that's not so drab if I can't find the one similar to the one I saw at the show? Although, the loud/hissing and growling seems pretty awesome (not that I want to go out of my way and anger an animal, but still pretty cool description).
 
I don't remember if it had white spots, but that looks very close. What's that one?
 
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