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When I was a youngster I used to belong to Cub Scouts.  I only have a couple of memories of that experience but of course there was a snake experience that stands out most vividly.

Our pack had gone to a nature center in northern Virginia and after a tour of the center, we went outside for a hike on the trail.  We had only gone 100 yards when I spotted a very large, black snake wrapped around a boulder not far from the trail.  My first instinct, of course, was to go in closer but I was stopped by the shrieks of my Den Mother.  She was hysterical.  She ordered all of us back on the trail and she followed her order with a stream of threatening language.  I complied.  But that was one big snake!

It wasn't until a few years later when I realized that the only black snake that could get so big in that area was the black rat snake.  I am sure that the one that I saw was at least 5 feet long and based on some of my 6+ feet snakes now, it could have been 6 feet.

I think that black ratsnakes are difficult to photograph.  You have to choose just the right backdrop for them and as you can tell from these photos, I haven't found it yet.

This photo shows all three huddled together.  If you look closely, you can see that the one in the bottom, right part of the photo still has some of its juvenile pattern showing.

It took me a while, as an adult, to find black ratsnakes in captivity.  In fact, I am only aware of one or two people who regularly breed normal, black ratsnakes.  There are several people breeding various morphs like albinos and brindles but I am interested in the pure, undefiled version of this snake.  Fortunately, a friend in Virginia caught some and sent them to me.

One other observation - and you could be completely blind to notice this one - these are smelly snakes.  At first I fed them mice and I was hoping that they wouldn't smell so bad when I switched them to rats, but even after the switch, the odor didn't change in type or strength.  With all three snakes together and with their feces having such a strong odor I found that I was changing their cage 4 or 5 times per week!  I had to keep them in an easily accessible cage just to accommodate this special need.

Here's Crackle, one of my females, settling into her hibernation box for the "winter".

I have not found a good source of information about ratsnakes on the Internet, but I know that there are several books on ratsnakes in general.  Their requirements are similar to all other North American ratsnakes.

Unless otherwise credited, all photographs and text are my property and may not be used without my permission.  World maps courtesy of The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.  I don't claim responsibility for the content of any of the websites that I link to.