A small happiness

I swerved around a snake on the road last night then stopped and asked the boss if she thought it was dead just as she was asking the same question. I did a U, passed it, did another U and blocked the road as I got out to check. It seemed unharmed then slowly moved a little. It was about 2 feet long, a light blond color with uniform black speckles down it's entire length. I gently goaded it off the road then tossed it off into a ditch. Cold snap and it wasn't up for hibernation yet, trying to get a little heat from the pavement.

I've never seen a snake around N. Thai that color. Any guesses?

My good thoughts for it, that it goes to ground and hibernates.

Possible ID's
Boiga Multimaculata
Boiga saengsomi
Ptyas mucosa
Ptyas korros
Coelognathus flavolineatus
Coelognathus radiatus
Oligodon purpurascens
Psammodynastes pulverulentus
Cerberus rhynchops
Xenochrophis flavipunctatus
Xenochrophis piscator
Pareas carinatus

Most of these semi-fit the bill but you have to account for locality variance. But if you can recall the head clearly you can cross some of these right out as the Boiga in particular have large rounded heads. Hope it helps any of those would be really cool and non to mildly venomous colubrids. The two items I always have in my vehicle at all times is a snake hook and a nice clean sterilite for occasions such as that. Unfortunately most of my highway encounters are with DOR specimens or Rattlers.

Bingo. http://www.snakesoftaiwan.com/Psamm...ussi/species_psammodynastes_pulverulentus.htm
Just googled my way down your list TC. Pretty unique coloration for these parts. Cute little spud. Notice it's head is really unusual.

Gone are the days when I used to catch rattlers with a boot on them then grabbing behind the head.

You lucky bugger, I am a huge fan of Psammodynastes genus they are seldom seen in the US hobby for some unknown reason. I keep mainly African colubrids but these would be a great addition if I can ever find them anyway. Only Asian snakes I keep are Waglers Vipers and Cave Dwelling Ratsnakes though I have had Moellendorffs, Ahaetulla Vine snakes, Beauty snakes, Mangroves, Blacktail Racers and Red-Tail Green rats in the past which were very interesting/pain in the ass.

the toe cutter said:

You lucky bugger, I am a huge fan of Psammodynastes genus they are seldom seen in the US hobby for some unknown reason. I keep mainly African colubrids but these would be a great addition if I can ever find them anyway. Only Asian snakes I keep are Waglers Vipers and Cave Dwelling Ratsnakes though I have had Moellendorffs, Ahaetulla Vine snakes, Beauty snakes, Mangroves, Blacktail Racers and Red-Tail Green rats in the past which were very interesting/pain in the ass.

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This was the first I have ever seen one of these. In my local area we are up to our eyeballs in rat snakes and the assorted long green tree snakes. I can't keep track of their proper names since my poster got eaten. It's been a horrible year for snakes here. On our 3 mile stretch of road I've seen 300-500 road kills. Wish I could rescue more. Only saved a krate, a rainbow, a Hannah and this one this year. I don't see why they call this a mock viper. It's head is very vaguely viper shaped but obviously isn't if you take a good look.

BTW, what is that snake that looks black at a glance but is opalescent blue-green-purple in bright light? We call them rainbows. Get up to 3 1/2 feet long or so. Often considered sentinel spirits by the tribal people.

You may be talking about one of my absolute favorite snakes the Sunbeam snake or Xenopelti unicolor which is one of the oldest and more interesting of colubrid families comprised of only 2 species. I need to go visit you lol!

the toe cutter said:

You may be talking about one of my absolute favorite snakes the Sunbeam snake or Xenopelti unicolor which is one of the oldest and more interesting of colubrid families comprised of only 2 species. I need to go visit you lol!

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Sunbeam! That's the one. Around here they usually remain near black except in midsummer when they get a little tawny. Wife went ballistic when I rescued that one from the road. It was busy warming so I just walked up and grabbed it. So, of course, as I told her it was harmless, I dropped it in her lap:
"What am I supposed to do?!!!"
"Hug it. It's cold."

This was the night after I cajoled a 5 foot plus krate off the road with a 16 inch machete and a week after I put a 10 inch walking stick in her hair.

I also enjoy terrorizing my wife with animals they get so excited! You should post more pics of the snakes you find, especially any oddball colubrids like racers, ratsnakes, vine snakes anything really. I mainly breed African colubrids now simply because they do a little better in captivity than some of the Asian reptiles. I used to have a nice collection of Asian Ratsnakes, some Boiga and some awesome Ahaetulla vine snakes but I just never could get them to breed and abandoned the projects. Also vet bills for snakes get REALLY expensive really quick. I currently have some Leioheterodon geayi or Speckled Giant Malagasy Hognose eggs incubating which will be the first successful breeding/hatching(when it happens) in the US that I am pretty excited about. I love inverts but reptiles have been my passion since I was a kid. My mother was always seemed a bit hesitant when I came home and uttered the words "hey mom check this out!" But she was a good sport, wasn't until I brought home a baby Copperhead that I coaxed into a Gatorade bottle when i was 11 that she had to set boundaries for what I was allowed to play with!

I escorted a baby maybe a rat snake, about 1 1/2 foot long, off the road last night. Was a little too late to save what appeared to be a 4 to 5 foot Kaouthai. I never think of taking a camera with me. The weather here has gone completely crazy with our cool season warm and clement. A lot of snakes simply aren't hibernating.
It's weird. The Kaouthai is commonly listed as up to 150 cm long but up at the farm there are 7 that a far larger. One elderly mom tips the scales at a little over 9 feet. I should get a shot of her.

With your Hognose, I hope you have documented everything, habitat, gestation period, temp, humidity etc and will post it here????

A friend of mine managed to be the first in the US to breed Jackson horned chameleons.

I weigh and measure each egg every week as well as take heat and humidity readings 2x a day. I posted up the initial measurements and info here but no-one seemed to follow it so I didn't bother with updates here atleast. I do have updates on FB in the Arboreal Colubrids group which has some really great and knowledgeable people with some amazing animals.