Yellow diamonds outlined with deep, glossy black. Background, pale gray-green with red speckling (fuchsia.) Sometimes the red speckling is so dense that it covers up the gray-green, background color. Head and face boldly painted in contrasting bright yellow and black, like Indian war paint. A very improbable snake? Definitely. Fortunately for hobbyits, this improbable animal is real and attainable.  The Mandarin Rat  Snake is finally extracting itself from the myth of its being of a delicate nature. Indeed, in our collection, this animal has proven itself to be practically bulletproof if only a few rudimentary husbandry requirements are provided. Mandarins are more kingsnake or even more specifically, milk snake like in their habits and handling nature than most other rat snakes. They even have the glossy look and feel of a milk snake. With that kingsnake look and feel comes the most outrageous, harlequin head and face found on any snake. This is an Asian rat snake with a huge natural range. Color and pattern variants abound and remain, for the most part, unexplored. We work with several Mandarin lines at Vivid Reptiles in order to exploit the entire range of color and pattern variability. Note: Save yourself a great deal of grief and purchase only captive bred Mandarins from a reliable breeder. Wild caught animals are sentenced to death long before they reach this country and have been responsible for the erroneous reports of the supposed “delicate” nature of this hardy species.

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