Coelognathus radiatus. Copperheaded Racer / Radiated Rat Snake
This one was sent to me from Ron Green in Bangkok, Thailand. He caught a rat snake up in a tree. I guess you can find them almost anywhere. They are definitely one of the most common Thailand snakes you could see if you visit here.
Here is a fact page about Coelognathus radiatus.
Send your Thailand Snake Photos in, and we’ll publish them here.
This link implies that Radiated Rat Sankes, and many other Colubrids, are actually more venomous than previously thought, just lacking Fangs.
Any insight into this issue?
Any good links for research?
A researcher did tests on radiated rat snakes specifically. He found that they had the same three finger toxins common to cobras. However, they do not have fangs for injection and their venom is far more dilute. From what I recall he posited that if they envenomate you won’t be happy, but you shouldn’t need anything more than antihistamines. The main thing with these types of snakes is that they seem reluctant to envenomate. I used to have a blue beauty that could put down a rat almost instantly (it typically stopped struggling inside of about five seconds) and she never envenomated one of the guys from the pet store who she tried to make sure to bite and have a good chew on at least once a week before we bought her. All in all, if you run into major problems from the venom of these snakes you probably shouldn’t be handling any kind of snake at all. Be calm, don’t push yourself on the snake, learn to read its body language and you won’t have issues.
“they seem reluctant to envenomate”
Are you saying you think rat snakes have a choice whether they envenomate or not? I mean, with fangs, a snake can choose whether it injects venom. Without fangs what can it choose? To bite more thoroughly, or maybe chew, and produce more saliva with venom in the hopes that some finds its way into the wound?
Yeah, good point.