Snake question

[Michael]

Yesterday, while doing some brush hogging, I happened upon two residents of the no-legged variety. Both with obvious triangular (venomous) heads and as the tractor tire hit one he did not hesitate to strike with a very open and fang bearing mouth. They both looked like eastern diamondback rattlers but had no rattles or buttons. My question is when do rattlers develop rattles or buttons? Both snakes were about 18-24 inches in length and pretty thick in diameter. They could be immature and the size threw me as I have a commercial poultry farm and rats and mice are plentiful so they could just be fat young snakes. I am no stranger to all varieties of snakes in South MS but these really have me puzzled. I spoke to my dad who, like me, has spent most of his life outdoors and he said copperhead. I told him that I know what a copperhead looks like and this morning he came to the farm and I showed him the chopped up remains of one and he agrees that it is marked like a rattler but the absence or rattles is confusing. All help is appreciated.

[weldingisfun]

Could it have been a water mocassin?

[jimbrown]

Eastern diamond backs ae born alive with a button rattle.
Look here. http://www.envenomated.com/readartic...?article_id=17

Here is a pic of a snake often confused with rattle snake but it is not.

[LazyJ_Arabians]

We have alot of Diamondback Water Snakes around my place. Diamond-shaped head and muted rattlesnake markings. This one got way too close to my house, note the cool divot the 12g left in the gravel.

[Michael]

By water moccasin, I'm guessing that you are talking about a cottonmouth. They were definitely not cottonmouths. I'll going to keep looking and maybe get apic of the next one as I have about 20 acres left to go.

[Michael]

After going to enature.com and putting in my zip code, I may have misspoken in my "it's not a cottonmouth statement". [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] The pic of their cottonmouth looks a lot like my visitors. However all of the cottonmouths that I have ever dealt with have had a very blunt tail and were a very drab almost black color. My farm is 10 miles north of where I grew up, could 10 miles make that much difference in the markings?

[cuzido]

Rattlesnakes can lose their rattles from injury and such. I have always heard that they get a button for every year, how true that is I don't know. However, there are other snakes that look very similiar to Eastern Diamondbacks. Either way you should be very careful. The front fangs are definitely an indication they could have been actual Diamondbacks.