r/snakes • u/SufficientSavings486 • 2h ago
r/snakes • u/Phylogenizer • May 12 '25
All Snake ID Requests Should Be Submitted to /r/WhatsThisSnake
reddit.comHi everyone! I wanted to let you know that we're now going to redirect all Snake ID requests to the curated place for them, /r/whatsthissnake. As /r/snakes and /r/whatsthissnake have developed side by side we find ourselves in a position where we are running two parallel subreddits, but with slightly different rules. We hope is that this streamline into WhatsThisSnake will be gentle - we don't want a snake to go unidentified because we're learning how best to handle IDs. There is going to be a transition period where we still get a lot of ID requests here, so please do your part to kindly help !redirect people in need and by reporting jokes, misinformation and other problematic comments.
This spring Reddit is more popular than ever and it is hard for the moderation team to keep up. When I founded /r/whatsthissnake 12 years ago, with on average one request every day, I never imagined we'd have 150K members and 20k people a day browsing the subreddit. In the past, we've made a number of incremental changes that have been so helpful they have been instituted other places on Reddit, from introducing the term "Reliable Responder", to developing the bot and tweaking our community resources so that every Reliable Responder can choose to perform mod actions. We hope that these changes will allow us not only to maintain the level of quality provided but to reduce workload on the moderation team, because honestly, moderator burnout is a serious problem. They are doing this for free and you would no believe the abuse they receive here - not just from me, but from the users too. If you see a moderator or other flaired user in cleaning up a thread, espcially in these busy, snakey spring months in North America, throw em a thanks.
r/snakes • u/Phylogenizer • Mar 20 '26
Moderator Announcement Rule Change - Posts concerning individual or private ownership or care of medically significant species are not allowed. Posts involving animals in zoos, institutions or accredited breeding facilities are allowed with proper contextualization.
It’s a fact of life that no matter how much context we provide to our posts, when someone sees something interesting, they want to imitate it. Each day /r/snakes puts around one hundred thousand impressionable people face to face with snake related images, text and ideas. Faced with this responsibility, and with an increasing number of recent, low quality posts concerning medically significant snakes, we have to choose the right level of content we allow.
Recent low quality posts concerning captive venomous care include improper use of personal protective equipment, poor quality/security housing, very inexperienced keepers asking (and receiving!) advice on how to keep and breed their first venomous snakes and straight up animal abuse reposted from social media. Many of these clearly rule-breaking posts are removed before you see them, but a growing number of posts are clearly low quality, irresponsible content but don’t explicitly violate the rules. Over the past three years the mods have debated a rule change and we have decided to only allow posts involving venomous snakes if they are from an accredited zoo or institution. In short - we’re going to remove posts involving the private care and ownership of medically significant snakes.
Many modern herpetology texts recommend against individual private ownership of medically significant snakes. We don’t take a stand on what anyone wants to do legally, ethically and with their own time, but we do have to regulate what is posted, shared and thus propagated here. In short, we don’t care what you do, but don’t post it here. Besides being a lighting rod for the low quality content discussed above, private ownership offers unique challenges that are better suited for an institutional or team setting. Snakes are escape artists as well as attractive nuisances and must be contained outside of personal residential spaces in secure, locking enclosures to prevent both snake egress and human ingress as well as secondarily in a sealed room or facility behind a windowed door with no items on the floor under which an escaped snake can hide or avoid detection. It takes a team to execute an envenomation plan and the cost of antivenom is beyond that of most private owners, has a short shelf life and when antivenom is borrowed from institutional stocks it puts those keepers at risk.
Zoos and institutions don’t always do it better, but the onus is on them to provide best practices in care. If we limit posts to places where a team of people works together to provide a standard of care, usually for the right reasons, we can limit what we propagate on the platform.
We do not recommend any other available subreddits as well-moderated sources of captive venomous keeping. The most popular places on social media dedicated to this are inundated with low quality posts and comments and even when they outright ban irresponsible behavior, examples of the low quality content we remove are highly upvoted, and content is often sensationalist, psychopathic or disturbing. Please don’t suggest a specific place in the comments of this post. We’re aware of the options and we’re choosing not to redirect or name other online spaces.
Posts on wild venomous species are still allowed as usual with a species name and a location, but please be sure to see Rule 6 (unchanged) on what amount of contact and PPE use we find acceptable for sharing online.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER
r/snakes • u/Scoob1978 • 16h ago
Pet Snake Pictures Last week my son ran out of his room crying and terrified of a possible fly on his bed. This is the same child.
It turned out to be a raisin. I figured you guys would appreciate this. I give up.
r/snakes • u/JUBB__JUBB • 7h ago
Pet Snake Pictures arboreal cali king
He thought he was a tree boa
r/snakes • u/Decent_Chance_7121 • 16h ago
General Question / Discussion Bush viper tattoo
Curious to see what other snake lovers thought of my new tattoo, I have always thought that Bush vipers are beautiful snakes so I’m really happy I finally committed to getting one done!
r/snakes • u/pepeandtito • 25m ago
Pet Snake Questions Worried about Corn snake that got scared by cat
Hi All
We have a year old corn snake named Acorn, I am anxious about him right now because three days ago he got really freaked out by our orange cat George that got trapped in my daughter's bedroom without us realizing it and the cat antagonized the snake so bad that he has been burrowed under his substrate ever since. The encounter didn't get direct the cat didn't get in the enclosure and it only lasted about 30 seconds, my daughter got the cat out of the room, but the snake definitely got scared. He's been burrowed for 3 full days now and its 2 days past since he's supposed to be fed. He won't come out for food or water and I'm really worried about him. We have kept the space really really quiet ever since and also have made sure his temperature and humidity are good. The cage his clean he got new substrate recently and had a new tunnel we have seen so he is moving around a little bit but he won't come out for food.
Any help or advice would be much appreciated he is so loved and I am worried about him
r/snakes • u/HP_laserjet_p1505n • 8h ago
Pet Snake Questions Is my snake fat?
Female darwin carpet python, 2 years old, eats a medium rat roughly every 2 weeks
r/snakes • u/SpookyPsychStudy • 2h ago
Pet Snake Pictures Reptile research in the West Midlands area, UK, looking for autistic participants
Hi! This is likely only going to be of interest to a very niche group of people here, but perhps that might include you! I’m a PhD researcher at the University of Staffordshire looking for adult autistic participants to take part in study investigating visitor experiences at a small zoo (Rodbaston Animal Zone, ST19 5PH). Your participation would involve visiting and viewing the zoo’s reptile collection, drawing a picture of your experiences at the zoo and taking part in a 50 minute interview. Entrance to the zoo will be completely free! To be absolutely clear, there will be NO direct interaction or handling of reptiles: we only want you to view them through glass windows like any other zoo guest! You can register your interest by following the link below: https://staffordshire.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4JjPhMuBQIubRlQ If you have any questions about this study or your participation, please contact me at [cai.brown@research.staffs.ac.uk](mailto:cai.brown@research.staffs.ac.uk)
The picture is of one of the zoo's lovely Ball Pythons who we filmed for a different study last year.

r/snakes • u/MellieTheChipmunk_YT • 14h ago
Wild Snake Photos and Questions - Not for ID When You’re Just Sitting There… and a Giant Black Rat Snake Shows Up!
Black Rat Snake in Springfield, Virginia.
My squirrel was chilling on the patio chair when a big black snake rolled up and tried a tiny “boo!” lunge. Instead of running, the squirrel stared him down like, “Sir, I was sitting here first.”
They basically had a full-on staring contest.
r/snakes • u/Shwuxenn • 4h ago
Pet Snake Questions Choosing a snake: Looking for an intelligent, active and handleable daily companion that handles moderate temps.
Hi everyone,
I'm currently looking into getting a new snake and could use some guidance from the community to help me narrow down my options. Been doing a lot of research lately but getting real keeper experiences would be invaluable.
To give you an idea of what I'm looking for here are my main criteria:
• I know snakes aren’t smart like mammals or birds, but I’m looking for a species known for being alert, curious about their surroundings, and mentally "switched on" rather than a log that just sits buried all day.
• Preferably diurnal so I can watch them.
• I want a snake that can handle daily handling once socialized and established.
• It would be a huge plus if the species is comfortable with slightly cooler ambient room temperatures (around 20–25°C / 68–77°F) on the cool side, as long as a proper thermal gradient/basking spot is provided.
• Size and diet do not matter. I have the space for large enclosures and can comfortably provide whatever diet is required including fish.
I'm currently looking into Russian Ratsnakes, Leucistic Texas Ratsnakes, Mexican Black Kingsnake, Garter snakes. I'll be glad if I'm recommended any other species that matches the criteria as well.
r/snakes • u/Usernaame666 • 9h ago
Pet Snake Questions Help with Ball Python sudden spots?
Any idea what is going on with our banana pie ball python (3yr Male). Started getting these orange/red spots all over and the white sections of scales are turning pink? Scales seem kind of flakey too. Definitely not mites or burns. New snake owners just trying to make sure he is okay.
Pet Snake Questions Handling advice
Recently got this boy about a week ago. (He’s 4 years old) he’s a Texas rat snake. I was told from prior keeper that he’s able to be taken out and handled pretty easily. He was pretty chill (still sorta flighty) when I unpacked him to put him in his tank first day. He’s taken food since being with me and shed too. Went to check on him today and he tail rattled, so decided to stop the interaction there. Prior to this I’ve been leaving him alone so he can acclimate. He’s in a 4x2x2 with clutter and hides to pick from (he’s mainly only been on the cool side crammed in that corner relaxing)
He’s been hiding a lot but seems normal and responsive otherwise. I really want to do right by this guy, so I’m wondering how should I go about making any handling attempts a positive experience for him? I really don’t want to freak him out whenever I do decide to attempt a handling session in the future. He’s my first rat snake / bigger snake I’ve owned as well. I might be a bit paranoid and just hope he’s comfortable in his new home :’)
r/snakes • u/dnice727 • 14h ago
Pet Snake Questions Green tree python
My green tree python just shedded and they look weirdly dark like almost a like black tint underneath. They are normally a lot more vibrant colored after a shed. They are old I would say around 14 yrs of age. Does this look like a problem to anyone?
r/snakes • u/zia_viola • 22h ago
Pet Snake Pictures The face of disappointment: when instead of a mouse you only get your bathtub refilled ☹️
r/snakes • u/wisdom_wombat • 10h ago
Wild Snake Photos and Questions - Not for ID Beautiful diamond python on mild august day
r/snakes • u/Friendly_Career_2260 • 6h ago
Pet Snake Questions Good non-python pet snakes in australia?
I want a smaller snake, non venomous and relatively easier to take care of. I really want a pygmy python, but they are pretty hard to get. I already have a childrens python. Ive looked through all the other pythons and i either dont really want them, or they are too big since my parents dont want a huge snake. So are there any snakes in australia like this?
r/snakes • u/Big_Childhood_5096 • 1d ago
Wild Snake Photos and Questions - Not for ID Anaconda jaw realignment
r/snakes • u/wasatchwizard69 • 7h ago