To answer a few questions: Snakes eat head or tail first, no rhyme or reason. Snakes can regurgitate for several reasons; handling after eating, temp too low, stress, etc. Most colubers can reproduce after the second year. Bull snakes and Racers are egg bearers. Racers do eat rattlers. Racers are constrictors but usually overpower with the jaws and neck to force down to constrict. Bull snakes are harmless, let them be.

Actually, Racers are NOT constrictors; they just overpower prey and either kill it by biting and chewing, or swallow it alive. Neither Racers or their close relatives, the Coachwhips and Whipsnakes, will constrict, though I have seen both use a section of their body to "pin" a prey item against an object while they get a good grip on it with their jaws. I have never, in nearly a lifetime of keeping snakes, seen a Racer, not a Black Racer, anyway, eat another snake, although Coachwhips will do so, especially in a captive situation, since they go into "feeding frenzy" mode at feeding time and will swallow anything that moves!The Green Racer will eat lizards, so it could have mistaken a baby Bullsnake for a lizard.

Both Pituophis(Bull, Pine and Gopher snakes)and Coluber(Racers)are egg-layers, though at two feet, a Bullsnake is WAY too young to breed. Bulls mature rather slowly unless "power fed" in captivity. A Bullsnake is a good 20 inches long right out of the egg, so a two-footer probably would not even be a year old yet, unless food has been really scarce. The earliest I've had Bulls breed(and this is in captivity, with better food and more of it than they'd get in the wild)is three years, and that was a male. I would not have considered breeding a female at that age. The two-footer seen by the original poster most likely had eaten a large meal.

Most of the time, snakes DO eat prey head-first, but not always. Fast-moving snakes like Racers and Coachwhips tend to grab and swallow any way they can. Snakes do vomit, often due to stress. A snake that feels threatened with regurgitate a recent meal in order to move more quickly, and sometimes, snakes swallow things that are just too big for them, and have to puke it up.

Bullsnakes often put on a good show of being fierce, and nine times out of ten, it's all bluff. Even if they do bite, they will do no more than leave a couple of pin-pricks, and I've been bitten by a big one!

Sharon McKenzie

They should rename it from Coluber constrictor to Coluber pindownus. ;)

Hi, it's me again--the original poster. Thank you so much for the info. I felt so bad thinking the baby bull snake got eaten--maybe at least now I can have a little doubt! ;) I always leave them alone when I can (and have left much of my property "wild" to encourage wildlife), but sometimes it's for their own safety I have to move them--like when I was having some tractor work done to my irrigation ditch. Is it better to try to shoo them into a 5-gallon container or something than try to shoo them along the ground? At least then I could put them in a more secluded area where they can hide better. I've been bitten by a garter snake and by my sister's boa once and I know it's not "bad" but snakes striking at me just give me the heebie-jeebies. Any suggestions for how to move them when I must would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

The best way to move non-venomous snakes, if you're not keen on touching them, is to purchase a set of snake tongs, which work like those things that road crews use to pick up trash alongside roadways, with the trigger-style handle. It's best to practice first using something like a balloon, so you can get used to putting just the right amount of pressure on the handle to safely restrain and pick up the animal without injuring it. Do a Google search on "Midwest Snake tongs" to find out how to order them. You can easily put the snake into a five-gallon bucket with a lid to transport it somewhere else, or you can just send it to me, LOL! Another way to restrain a "bitey" snake is to use a heavy towel, and simply cover the snake with that. Often that is like putting a hood over a falcon's eyes, in that it calms the snake down as well as putting a barrier between you and the snake. You can pick up the snake in the towel. Just keep in mind that Bullsnakes, unlike Racers, ARE very powerful constrictors; a large adult can easily kill a fully-grown rabbit, and when scared, they will wrap around and constrict anything handy, such as your arm.

pitbulllady

Wear a sweat shirt and simple cloth work gloves and you can catch just about anything.

Thanks! I'll look into the tongs. That sounds like a distance I'm comfortable with! I must have "snake vibes" lately because yesterday I was coming down my driveway and there was a big bullsnake crossing it--maybe 4.5 feet. It was about 7 pm and still quite hot--80 degrees or so--so I was surprised to see it in the open. I got out to watch from a distance. It was heading to the neighbor's but I warned her he kills bullsnakes and has dogs running loose. ;) Then she turned around and went back over to MY side of the driveway! Smart snake! When I first moved in we had a couple of HUGE bullsnakes, but the neighbor killed both of them so I was surprised to see one this big still around. Yes, I told the neighbor why they're good to have around. He doesn't listen. Anyway, thanks for all the advice!

Idiot neighbors! Why don't you go to the Classifieds on Kingsnake.com and show the fool how much large adult Bullsnakes SELL for, maybe THAT will change his mind...IF he has one, that is! Money will talk when nothing else will. I've converted a few folks like that myself, making them kick themselves in the teeth for all the opportunities to make a few bucks by killing the goose that laid that proverbial Golden Egg. I get $50.00 each for hatchling Bulls, right out of the egg, and they're just plain ole' Texas Bullsnakes-not even some fancy "morph" like albinos or anything. Even if people won't actually catch and sell the snake, they'll let them stay around as an "investment", so to speak, just like they'll hang onto old antique furniture that's falling apart. You'd be surprised how people's mind will function differently if they know that they have something of monetary value on their place.

Anyway, the link will also have a link to Midwest Tongs, if you want to go that way.

Sharon McKenzie

Here is a link that might be useful: Kingsnake.com

Always have big leather work or gardening gloves with you and just put them on and move the snakes with your hands. Even if they do bite they won't get through the glove. Racers will eat other snakes, so it is entirely possible thats what happened to the baby Bullsnake.