How do you identify a baby rattlesnake?
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How do you identify a baby rattlesnake?
A rattlesnake’s most distinguishing feature is its rattles, but baby rattlers don’t have rattles until they shed their skin for the first time. Instead, the baby has a little knob called a button on its tail. When an adult rattlesnake feels threatened, it coils, rattles and hisses all at the same time.
How can you tell the difference between a baby gopher snake and a baby rattlesnake?
An adult rattlesnake will usually have a nice-sized rattle, so that’s easy, but a young rattlesnake may only have a single button. Look instead for rings at the base of a stubby tail (rattlesnake), or a long tapered tail which ends in a point (gopher snake).
How small are baby rattlesnakes?
Rattlesnake eggs will stay inside their mother until they hatch. Most of the time there are 8-10 babies born at once and are about 10 inches long. Babies are born venomous but cannot rattle and are often more aggressive than the adults.
Does a baby rattlesnake have rattles?
Baby rattlesnakes are born with a single rattle segment. That’s cute, but it won’t make a sound until its second shed skin, several weeks after it is born. It may try and rattle anyway, but you won’t hear it.