Beauty Rat Snake

Beauty Rat Snakes are long, slender, semi-arboreal snakes that are native to Asia. Their average length is about 5-7 feet, with an unofficial record of slightly under 10 ft. In captivity some calm down to be nice pets, but others have been known to be quite temperamental even many years after capture.

Some sub-species of this group include the:

• Chinese Beauty Rat snake (Elaphe taeniura taeniura)
• Cave Dwelling Rat snake (Elaphe taeniura ridleyi) - This snake is native to Thailand and peninsular Malaysia, and as the name implies, lives deep within caves. Its diet consists mainly of bats. They have a yellow to beige background color that darkens to a grey-black towards the tail. A white to cream mid-dorsal stripe starts about half of the way down the body and continues to the tip of tail. Both sides of the head are marked just behind the eye with a black stripe surrounded by blue.
• Taiwan Beauty Rat snake (Elaphe taeniura friesi)
• Vietnamese (Blue) Beauty Rat snake (Elaphe taeniura ssp.)