Snake ID

[Spepper]

What might this little guy be? The cats found him/her this morning, and another family member thankfully rescued it before the cats could do much, if any, damage. I've never seen a snake that looks like this around here before, and I'm guessing it's pretty much a hatchling because he/she is tiny. LOL Could it be a young rubber boa? I only guessed that because it's brown, but the faint red lines on either side of its body confuse me. I live on the west coast. Also, you can't see it in the picture, but it has a little tiny spike on the tip of its tail.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/114543195@N07/14856809691/https://www.flickr.com/people/114543195@N07/

 

[Biollantefan54]

Carphophis vermis?

 

[Python]

Looks like Diadophus punctatus to me but without better pictures of the whole snake it's hard to say.

 

[Spepper]

I'll try and get better pictures, thanks. But both of the snakes mentioned have brightly-colored bellies... this one is just white on the underside. It doesn't have a ring on its neck either... but maybe the coloring could come with age? It seems like a hatchling to me. Tell me if I'm wrong with any of this.

 

[pitbulllady]

What you have there is a young Sharp-Tail Snake(Contia tenuis), a small, generally-secretive species. As soon as you mentioned the tail spine, that was a dead give-away, lol. These seldom reach over a foot in length as adult, and feed on slugs and other soft-bodies inverts, much like the Brown Snakes and Earth Snakes back east.

pitbulllady

 

[Spepper]

Well... here's more pictures, if it changes anything. Thanks pitbulllady.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/114543195@N07/14674980557/https://www.flickr.com/people/114543195@N07/


https://www.flickr.com/photos/114543195@N07/14674829960/https://www.flickr.com/people/114543195@N07/

 

[Shrike]

What a beauty! Nice find.

 

[Spepper]

Thanks Shrike. I was beyond excited when I found out about this little guy/girl, since I haven't seen a snake at my house in probably more than 5 years... an unfortunate side effect of having 3 cats. The last one was a giant California king snake that coiled and struck at my ATV as I rode past. He thought he was a rattler, and with that attitude I didn't stick around for a closer look, haha. This little snake is a docile cutie though.

 

[XeNo]

Either a contia tenuis or a contia longicaudae. Or a sharp tailed snake for short

 

[Spepper]

Found another one today... funny how I went for so long not even knowing they exist and then suddenly finding two in a short period of time. This one's just a baby. It's probably the tiniest snake I've ever seen. LOL So cute. I found it in the middle of a wide gravel strip beside my house this morning. It was laying so still I wondered if one of my cats had killed it, but as soon as I touched it—nope—it started wiggling, haha. It was very docile. I don't know why it was lying there in such an open place though, unless it was to get warm (cloudy day), but it probably wasn't the smartest of places to do it. When I first saw it I thought it was a worm and since we haven't had any rain here for a while I was like, "What on earth is a worm doing aboveground?!" LOL It definitely wasn't a worm on closer inspection however.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/114543195@N07/14958606666/https://www.flickr.com/people/114543195@N07/

 

[Micrathena]

No idea what they are (besides the other comments) but they are gorgeous! I love the red highlights.

 

[Spepper]

Thanks, they definitely are. Very docile and smooth to the touch as well. (Both were released soon after capture though)