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(Pituophis catenifer annectans)

I received a pair of albino San Diego gopher snakes from a friend of mine during the summer of 2001.  These originated from some that Bob Applegate (who happens to live near San Diego) bred many years ago.  (Follow the link at the bottom of the page for more info on Bob's experience with the albino morph.)

These snakes are very voracious feeders.  When I feed them, I defrost a rat and hold it by the tail with hemostats before opening each cage.  The snakes are always alert even before the lid is off the cage.  I look to see where the head is first and then open the cage from the other side so that I have time to lower the rat into the cage before it is struck.  If I don't do this, sometimes the snakes are so aggressive that they dive out of their cages, lunge for the rat dangling in the air, grab it, and fall several feet to the floor below coiling around the rat in a twisting, writhing, feeding frenzy.  It's pretty funny!

When I first got these snakes they were exactly the same size and it was pretty difficult to tell them apart.  After a few months I realized that their heads are different colors - one has a yellow head, the other has an orange head.  Now I know that the yellowish one is the male and the orange the female.  They were just baby snakes back then but they are now each over 3' long and very thick.  Their scales are rough and it's a good thing because when they are trying to get away - which is often - it's nice to have the rough body to grab onto.  Despite their threatening hisses they have never struck at me at all.

Here is the male when he was just a few months old.  At this age, he was just a small pinkish-orange "worm" with plenty of spunk.

Here are some places to look for more information on San Diego gopher snakes:

• http://www.applegatereptiles.com/species/annectans.html - This is the website that Bob Applegate keeps describing the albino San Diego gopher snake.

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.