Ladder Ratsnakes

Ladder snakes are a rather uncommonly kept European Ratsnake of the Iberian Peninsula and southern France. They are medium sized snake, around 4-4.5 ft on average, they remind many of our American Pituophis with their build and ability to hiss. I have breeding groups from the central plateau of Spain and from the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in southern France.There is not much difference in appearance in animals from these locales. Hatchlings are boldly marked, such as this nice yellow individual from my Spanish group.
With maturity many develop the striping as seen in this individual.......
....while others reatain some of the juvenile blotches. Unlike many of the European Ratsnakes, this species prefers warm and dry conditions. After several years of working with this species I have found that adult captive born Ladder Snakes do become rather docile and are not the aggresisve animal as has been reported even though they are a bit on the nervous side..