Mandarin Rats

Well I've finally gotten around to giving myself an avatar for this site and it occured to me that I haven't yet shared the snake pictured.



I've always admired old world rat snakes, but never had any real plans to get one for a while. This one was just so unique that I didn't want the opportunity to pass by! In the begining, I called her Hsiu Mei (Supposedly a Mandarin girl's name meaning "Sophisticated eyebrows", I thought it was fitting since I love the markings on her face) but the family found it easier to just refer to her as "The Mandarin" since we only have the one, and somehow that got shortened to "The Mandy". I still like her original name best, but it looks like she's stuck with Mandy now.

I really love how Mandy's yellow bleeds in to her black, I wonder if it isn't a locality thing, but so far all the mandarin folks I've spoken to say that cleancut patterns with as few aberrancies as possible are the most desirable. I agree that "perfect" mandarins are gorgeous, but I still like the "special" ones and am keeping my eyes peeled for a similar male. To each their own~

She likes it cool and loves to burrow in the substrate. My favorite thing about her is the way she wiggles her tail when I feed her. I have gophers and bulls, so I'm familiar with annoyed snakes using their tails to express themselves, but she doesn't "rattle her tail when grumpy" so much as "whip entire lower half around wildly when excited". When she's actually upset, she postures and strikes, her tail doesn't move at all, but when she smells a thawed mouse, her rear end goes nuts! It's too violent to be caudal luring and it gets more intense if her food moves any. Supposedly, it's not so uncommon. The vet says she's just so passionate about her food that she breaks out in dance!

I've only had this one individual for a year and information on them is scarce, so I'd love it if other mandarin keepers would put their animals and thoughts out there. Thank you~





(I have some recent photos of her in a natural background, but I can't seem to find the card they're on, so all these crappy pics I'm sharing are actually from a cleaning day in February. Sorry!)

I have a mandarin named Nuriko. Adult male. He's a pretty good fella, but rather nervous. He's hit me a couple of times and, as of yet, I'm not certain if I've done something wrong or he just wasn't in the mood to be played with at the time.

Unlike yours, Nuriko vibrates his tail furiously when he's irritated. He's inclined to just watch his food for several minutes and then strike from an ambush position.

I've kept rat snakes for many, many years and I've come to the conclusion that, like cats and people, they are all individuals. I have yet to see any "rule" that really applies to most of them.

Nuriko sounds neat, I bet he keeps you on your toes!
When I first got Mandy, just walking into the room at the same time she was exploring was enough to set her off and she'd strike against the walls at me. Fortunately she grew out of that attitude. Now she's only cage-defensive if she's out and about when I first reach in for her, she'll coil up so many times that she'll lose her balance and fall over backwards, but then it passes once she's being held. I don't like bothering her if she's hiding, but she doesn't react as badly when I have to surprise her like that, possibly because she doesn't feel as vulnerable beforehand.
She still only rattles her tail when food is involved though. She gets so frenzied when she smells mice, I can't imagine her just watching it first like your Nuriko. Very cool. Like you say, they all have their own personalities. I love it!
Thanks for sharing!

Wow! She is super gorgeous! I agree, I like the high colored and aberrant patterned ones. We have two, a male, Malcolm and a female, Inara. Don't have any real great pictures of them.
This is the male.




And the female.
These are older ones.




And a newer one.


The male is the most food motivated, yet unaggressive about it snake we have! The female is a little moodier though.

What a beautiful pair you have, I love how bright and contrasting their colors are! Malcolm's head reminds me of a bumblebee, it's just the neatest thing! <3

Thank you for sharing your wonderful photos, I think the ones with Inara against the blue are especially pretty~

They are such neat snakes, I'm surprised there aren't more people keeping them.
Eventually want at least one more female, planning to breed them down the road a bit.

Inara is gorgeous. Nuriko looks a lot like her. He's a typical grey-phase, with a lot of contrast with the yellow and black. I'm hoping to post a picture or two of him in the next few days.

beautiful snakes everyone! always liked these

Thanks April! I didn't expect to own one so soon, but I've also always thought they were neat. Along with rainbow boas and such, they're one of those snakes whose natural colors and patterns seem unreal, no morphs necessary. It's awesome seeing photographs of them in the wild~

Speaking of photos, Nuriko sounds very pretty John and I can't wait to see him! I'm a huge fan of high contrast animals, one of the first things I hear nonreptile folk say upon looking them up is "It must be painted" (Followed by "It must be poisonous") lol There's still not all that much out there on them.

Which I'm guessing is probably one of the reasons they aren't as popular Amanda. It's too bad. Regardless, I hope you find yourself a real nice female someday and I'm wishing you the best of luck with your future breeding adventures! Please share how it goes!

Finally got a decent picture of Nuriko, not great, just decent. Hope you like him.