coulld any one tell me what a black snakes winter shed looks like? i found today, a 5ft. snake shed on a walk

Question

i live in ark. it is pale yellow beige in color..the eye ball sockets were still intact

Answer 1

The shed of most snakes will be yellow - tan - grayish. From the size, it's a possibility for a black snake. If, when flattened out, the skin is about 2 inches wide or so (this is assuming the skin is doubled and not split in half), another sign it could be a black. Do the centers of each scale have a ridge through the center from front to back - again, something a black rat snake has. If smooth, it could be a black racer which is similar in appearance.

If you can find the vent opening (on the bottom, near the rear), see if the scales from the vent to the tail are all in a in a single row, or if they are paired with the center about the middle of the tail. If they're single, another sign leading toward black snake - if double, this would be an indication of a poisonous snake, at least in the eastern US.

That's about all I can give you without knowing more precisely where you're located or the snakes of your area. You can try googling the name of your state and "snakes" to get a list to see what else might match the size and scale descriptions.

Answer 2

A Black snake shed skin will be a dark color when held up to a light source. Look for body markings on the shed as well and sometimes you can identify the snake by the shed skin. The hard way is to key it out with scale counts..(from a taxonomy book).

Answer 3

Awesome. My king is black and yellow, and his shed comes out beige with some blackish areas around where his blotches are. The ball python is black and brown and his shed is all beige.

From the size, it sounds like a blacksnake, but it would really be hard to tell from the shed alone, unless you could count the ventral scales, etc.

Answer 4

just look up snakes on the internet for your answer.