Sid the Corn Snake

Nothing to do with N scale modelling, hence under other things category.  He's been nagging me for a webpage of his own for ages.  In 2007 he will celebrate his 12th birthday and is over five feet long, perhaps nearing six but Imperial measurements are too daft for me to understand.  Snakes, unlike the popular belief are in fact not slimy but dry to the touch.  Corn snakes, unlike the popular belief are in fact not venomous, have no teeth or fangs and are not dangerous in any way to humans.  They kill rodents and other small things by constriction in the wild, but in captivity the best they can do is practice on already dead food - it's very unusual for them to have live prey but probably very entertaining to watch.

Sid eats already dead mice and the occasional rat pup or chick.  I've always wondered if he would eat a goldfish or something like that if offered.  The mice are either the naturally occurring dead variety or are presumably gassed with CO₂ or frozen to death by the supplier.  I sometimes buy live mice and kill them by exposure to daytime television.  Sid lives a solitary life, but doesn't seem to mind and appears quite sane.  In that respect he's probably quite like me!  I enjoy showing him to visitors who are usually hilariously afraid of him at first, usually becoming pleasantly surprised at how docile he is and that he hasn't bitten their heads off or swallowed them whole.  (Neither of which is possible, see above.)

Below is a picture of Sid when he was about four years old and quite a bit smaller, his colours don't look so bright and his pattern is hard to make out in the picture because of a combination of poor photography and the fact that he was about to shed.  Corn snakes retract all the pigments in their outer layer of skin to the the new layer underneath before shedding so shed skins always look white or ivory in colour.  

NAME : SPECIES : WEAPONS : SPECIAL ABILITIES : PREY : IMMUNE TO :	Sid Corn snake (Elaphe guttata) Constriction, small but cunning brain Attack Mode, proficient climber, escape artist Mice  Daytime television