What kind of snake?

Young Bull snake, about 90% sure. Some have more distinctive lines than others. Good snakes, eat mice, other rodents, even supposed to eat rattlesnakes. I've seen them in various colors around here (Abilene, TX.) They usually parade around pretending to be rattlesnakes, even shaking their tails.

I guess an easy way (and I'm not saying to do this!) is to pick it up and look in its mouth. If it has many thin long teeth it is a bull snake, if it had two fangs you're holding a rattlesnake... Ooops!


It is the time of year here in Tejas where the snakes will be on the move, need to watch out, not stick your feet or hands where you cannot seem them, etc. I've seen several bull snakes, racers and quite a few rattlesnakes in the last two weeks.

Rowdy


Edit... though I guess it could be a rat snake, I've not seen any around here in a long time, so did not think of them... I think the bull snake has a speckled belly, and the rat does not.

Is it not true that poisonous snakes have a triangular head and non poisonous a more rounded head? That's the key I've always been told, and as that little fella doesn't appear to have a triangular head, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Although I'm not a fan of snakes of any sort, I do recognize that some come with "benefits"!

Tracy

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That's a Texas Rat Snake.

SteveD is correct. That is a Texas rat snake.
Grannie had a good guess, as it is basically a cousin to the Black rat snake.
As far as I know the black rat snakes don't make it all the way down to Texas.
Anyway, it is harmless. I know some folks don't like any snakes on their property, but for the most part they do more good than bad. They don't call them rat snakes for nothing, and this is the time of year rats and mice start working their way closer to your house, attic, barn...etc to prepare for winter.

Giacomo

We killed probably a dozen big ones around the chicken house before I saw one swallowing a mouse. They cleared all the mice out after we stopped killing them. I just step around them when I see them, now.
I had never seen a young one, though, & they don't look anything like the grown ones.

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Be glad you don't live in south florida, or you'd be posting pics of pythons. Evidently they are quite busy breeding in the everglades. Just the thing for keeping the rats out of the chicken feed, eh?

OD,
I should have qualified that by saying "at that size it is harmless".

I don't have chickens at this time, and would like to say it slipped my mind about not mentioning their love of eggs/baby birds, but the truth is I just really like snakes and find myself defending them on forums (just for fun and to educate folks when I can).

I couldn't tell from your post if, those times in the past, you caught the snakes eating something, or just suspected? If you were just guessing, it was a good guess, as I have found plenty of rat snakes eating baby birds. They have an uncanny ability to locate them, and the only thing that will stop them (short of killing them) is to make sure your coops, or wherever you have eggs/chicks, is surrounded by some wire with SMALL holes. If you can't find some small enough, you can overlap two rolls of wire and draw it tight. They could have just as easily called them "baby bird snakes", but I guess that doesn't sound good.

Anyway, just remember they can't eat big chickens, and if you can find a way to protect the little ones until they put some meat on them, the snakes will go back to hunting rats/mice and do more good than harm.

Giacomo