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- Aug 20, 2002
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- 394
One of my babies...NEXT!!
C. atrox "red phase"
- Thread starter Swifty
- Start date
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- Aug 20, 2002
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- 394
Yeah, It's pre-killed. The snake had just bit it, he thought he killed it, and was just waiting for me to get the hell away from him : )
Swifty
Drakk
Arachnosquire
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- Aug 29, 2010
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- 129
Absolutely Gorgeous!
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- Oct 20, 2008
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- 3,346
Sweet, Kelly...reminds me of C. ruber, superficially.
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2002
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- 394
Well, You could be right, What happened is a few years back, I had some friends that were collecting drop by and stay the night on their way to Daytona. We were in my shop looking at the snakes, and I pulled down this baby southern copperhead (A. c. contortrix), and my friend saw it and said, "oh my god, thats the best looking one I've ever seen!" He then said, "would you ever consider trading it?" I had caught it in my back yard, so I said "sure, what ya got? Well, he opened up a 5 gal bucket with about 10 young rattlers, and when I saw them, my first thought was C. ruber, and I said to him, "oh, little Red Diamonds", he shook his head in agreement, but as it grew and started lightening up, I started thinking it was C. atrox because of the path these guys were collecting coming from Calfornia to here. C. ruber is only found in extreame southeastern California, so I wasn't sure, because I have seen reddish colored C. atrox before, and thought that maybe he wasn't correct about what it was. Now you have me thinking he was.Here is another one of my rattlers, sold by a completely different person as C. atrox. This thing from a fresh shed looks pink!
Swifty
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Never mess with a red head!
Mara
Arachnopeon
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- Aug 3, 2010
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Beautiful!
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- May 1, 2004
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I would have thought "C. ruber", too, upon seeing that first snake. I bet the personality is quite different, though! Every "Coontail" I've seen(which is a LOT), including the most-mutated of morphs like the melanistic scaleless specimens I saw at a show last year, were all-too-willing to bite and rattle, all attitude, all the time. In contrast, I've yet to see a Red Diamond even rattle at all; they are like huge lazy Mastiff dogs, lying around just chillin', while Western Diamondbacks are like my Catahoulas with a "shoot first and then ask questions" frame of mind. Do you know the locale on these, btw? I'd be curious to know if they come from the same locale that many of the red and pink-phase Western Coachwhips originate.
pitbulllady
pitbulllady
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- Mar 5, 2011
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- 84
That is a C. ruber for sure.
Tarantula_Tamer
Arachnosquire
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- Aug 23, 2011
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Definitely looks like a ruber. not much atrox range in CA.
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- Aug 20, 2002
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- 394
Yeah, I'm convinced it is too, but they were collecting along the way here thru Arizona, New Mexico, & Texas. I've heard of how mellow C. ruber is, but this one is insane crazy, which threw me off too. It's a great snake though.
Swifty
Tarantula_Tamer
Arachnosquire
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- Aug 23, 2011
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Yeah that does make it sound like an atrox, but that is a ruber, unless it is a hybrid, that kept the atrox attitude for how ever many generations and bred back to other rubers
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2009
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- 407
Been wanting a ruber in my collection for a while.Let me know if you want to turn one loose.I can buy or trade for other things in my collection.I have a possible gravid C. o. helleri
Kevin
Kevin
Tarantula_Tamer
Arachnosquire
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- Aug 23, 2011
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They are usually only found in extreme southern CA, more west than east, so that, and the attitude, is odd, but there's no way that that snake is not a ruber.
and the other picture you posted looks like an atrox X mitchelli. It's a pretty snake!
and the other picture you posted looks like an atrox X mitchelli. It's a pretty snake!