Identify snake, help. (coop, house, law)

[xsloane]

Hi!
Will anyone tell me what kind of snake this little one is? We found it in our backyard today, and we let it go... It was badly hurt after wraping herself around the plastic basket my children had left outside (who would have known something like that could be deadly to wildlife!!) and spending probably the whole night trying to free herself out of it.

[AustinSpartan]

King cobra.. or a crocodile.

[TexasHorseLady]

Hmmm. I would have said a rat snake, but the head is sort of weird. Wait, I went and looked at my snake pictures and, yep, that's a rat snake.

[atxcio]

In the images, it looks like you freed the snake by cutting the hamper? If so, kudos to you man... not many would do that! +1

[Southern Phoenician]

That looks like a rat snake; one got in my house last summer so I know them very well now. Agressive suckers.

[TexasHorseLady]

I've not found them to be particularly aggressive unless cornered, and even then they'll do their deadlevel best to get away, and vibrate their tail against something like leaves (or the metal side of a chicken coop) to try to scare you away by convincing you they're a rattlesnake. Never had one approach me directly - they'd rather go straight up the side of the coop to try to get away. Now, that vibrating thing, that works so well in the wild - not so well against monkeys with guns that are convinced you ARE a rattlesnake.

[HappyTexan]

I say rat snake too. They are some of the "good" type snakes as they keep mice and rats away.

[xsloane]

Thank you all. We thought it was a rat snake too, and I guess we were right. Yes, we freed it by cutting the little basket, but do notice, it is a tiny snake and it was so tired or hurt or both... it hardly moved while my husband was carefully cutting the plastic around its body. I don't know what our reaction would have been with a full grown one. Yes, tree huggers here LOL. We try to respect and admire life as much as possible

[Southern Phoenician]

I've not found them to be particularly aggressive unless cornered, and even then they'll do their deadlevel best to get away, and vibrate their tail against something like leaves (or the metal side of a chicken coop) to try to scare you away by convincing you they're a rattlesnake. Never had one approach me directly - they'd rather go straight up the side of the coop to try to get away. Now, that vibrating thing, that works so well in the wild - not so well against monkeys with guns that are convinced you ARE a rattlesnake.

The snake that came into my house was cornered by my 12 pound ****zu. So he was curled up, trying to rattle like a rattlesnake, and was in "strike" position. Not being from TX and being deathly afraid of snakes, I believed him. My brother in law came to assist with getting the snake and he climbed my door and curled up on top of the door, striking brother in law. After being pushed off the patio, he came back up- twice! This was a huge snake though; about 4 feet in length.

[TexasHorseLady]

Yeah, the ones that I've dealt with have been at least 4 feet. Somehow, though, they manage to get into the chicken coop, and then when startled, try to go out through the chicken wire or whatever crack they've found, but they've now got a lump or three of egg and can't get through. It's sort of hilarious.

They do do a pretty good rattlesnake imitation as a survival characteristic.