Florida Native Snake Rehabilitation & Rescue

Florida Native Snake Rehabilitation & Rescue Our facility in NE Florida specializes in rehabilitating sick or injured venomous & non-venomous wild snakes native to the Southeast United States.

We are fully permitted by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission.

05/23/2026

Checking in on Miss Aceso, she is adjusting well to her new extra large condominium. Here she’s letting me know that she’s not a fan of having her basking time interrupted. We do love her sass!
Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes are classified as a vulnerable species and have been in steady decline throughout their range. This is mainly due to habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, road fatalities, and direct persecution. They are currently up for consideration to be added to the Endangered Species list. If you see an Eastern Diamondback in the wild, give the snake at least ten feet of personal space. They are shy creatures that prefer to stay hidden and typically retreat back into the woods if you give them the space to do so.

05/23/2026

Update on the Yellow Ratsnake that swallowed the ceramic egg; he’s still with us. Every day he’s a little bit more alert and inquisitive. (The egg was manually removed with the careful guidance of our veterinarian.)
In the video, he is investigating me after he’s had his medication injections and some salve applied to a cut on his left cheek. We will continue to monitor his progress over the next couple weeks.

05/21/2026

Courses are filling up and seats are limited! Register now!

Are you a land manager, environmental consultant, first responder, homeowner, zookeeper, veterinary professional, biologist, herpetology enthusiast, photographer, or anyone looking to learn how to safely handle venomous reptiles while receiving a professional certification? This course is for you!

❤️Marjorie & The Old Man enjoy a cuddle 🥰 It’s been awhile since we checked in on our half-blind Florida Cottonmouth amb...
05/21/2026

❤️Marjorie & The Old Man enjoy a cuddle 🥰
It’s been awhile since we checked in on our half-blind Florida Cottonmouth ambassador pair. They look awfully cozy and sweet in there! Cottonmouth snakes are a highly social species and these two are a bonded pair. Life is always better with a best friend! 🐍❤️

05/21/2026

🎉Update! Miss Aceso the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake has come back to us! 🥳
After a few months spent in the care of our good friend Cory Woliver, DVM, this girl finally got her paperwork from FWC approving her non-releasable wildlife status as an ambassador animal. Shortly after, FWC approved her transfer back to us. We are so grateful to our assigned FWC investigators for doing allll the legwork on this case. Most of all, a huge thank you to Dr. Woliver for caring for her in the interim.

Yesterday morning Miss Aceso finally got to move into her new 6’ permanent enclosure here at our facility. Yes, it’s a little bare still, but we placed her familiar furniture in it to help her acclimate to her new surroundings. Soon she will be getting more furniture for added enrichment.

For those of you just joining us, you can find Miss Aceso’s backstory on our page. She had survived some very significant jaw and head injuries after being hit by a car and it took months to rehabilitate her. Unfortunately, she will never be able to survive in the wild on her own. But we do think she will make a very special captive ambassador for her species. Follow us for updates as she settles in!

*Our small snakes-only wildlife rehabilitation facility operates on an equally small budget. If you’d like to help us help more snakes like this girl, we appreciate you! We accept donations on the following platforms:

Venmo:

https://venmo.com/u/ShastaTsoukias

OR PayPal:

https://www.paypal.me/ShastaTsoukias

Monday evening we took in a Yellow Ratsnake that had eaten a ceramic egg in a chicken coop. Many thanks to our volunteer...
05/20/2026

Monday evening we took in a Yellow Ratsnake that had eaten a ceramic egg in a chicken coop. Many thanks to our volunteer Jason for his assistance with this case!

A situation like this is considered an emergency, as the snake will die if the false egg is not removed ASAP. A common myth is that snakes are able to regurgitate these on their own; this is not true. Without help they succumb to thirst, stomach rupture, and/or sepsis. While we were able to remove the egg, he is not out of the woods yet. He is currently still alive and receiving hydration therapy, antibiotics, and pain medicine. We are hopeful he survives this ordeal.

If you have a chicken coop, using fake eggs (wood, ceramic) are a major hazard to our native wild snakes. There are some ways to avoid this. First, you can use quarter by quarter inch hardware wire to secure your chicken coop instead of chicken wire. This prevents entry by hungry snakes. If you don’t mind the free rodent control for the price of a few eggs, you can alternatively screw down or securely glue the false wood or ceramic eggs to the floor of the nest box. Another option is to securely glue three fake eggs together in a cluster. The above actions will prevent beneficial rat snakes from consuming these fake eggs accidentally.
Last, if you find a snake that has accidentally eaten a false egg, place the snake into a secure, ventilated box and transport it immediately to a qualified wildlife rehabilitator or a veterinarian for assistance. DO NOT try to remove the egg yourself!

*our small facility operates on an equally small budget. If you’d like to help this snake and others like it, we do appreciate donations towards veterinary care, medical supplies, and laboratory expenses. We welcome donations to the following platforms. Thank you! 🐍

Venmo:

https://venmo.com/u/ShastaTsoukias

OR PayPal:

https://www.paypal.me/ShastaTsoukias

Update! Yesterday the large female state-designated threatened Florida Pine Snake had a small surgery under anesthesia t...
05/14/2026

Update! Yesterday the large female state-designated threatened Florida Pine Snake had a small surgery under anesthesia to have the wound on her side debrided and sutured. She is currently recovering and doing well! We will pick her up tomorrow and bring her back to our facility for rehabilitation and eventual release. Hopefully now that the wound is closed, she will heal up much faster! Many thanks to our supporters and to our marvelous veterinarian, Cory Woliver, DVM, for his help with all our wild snake cases.
*Our small snakes-only wildlife rehabilitation facility counts on donations from the public to help cover costs of medical care, supplies and laboratory testing. If you’d like to donate, we appreciate you! The following links are the current platforms for this purpose:

Venmo:

https://venmo.com/u/ShastaTsoukias

OR PayPal:

https://www.paypal.me/ShastaTsoukias

05/14/2026

Update! Release of the second glue trapped Scarlet Kingsnake 🥳This little one passed release criteria after a short stay with us. If you remember, she had been stuck to not one, but three glue traps and thus needed a little longer recovery. We are always glad for a happy ending! Many thanks to those who continue to support our endeavors in saving our wild snakes, and to our awesome veterinarian Dr. Cory Woliver for all his help on our rehabilitation cases. 🐍
*photo of the glue traps in comments *

Update! The Florida Pine Snake (a state-designated threatened species), is doing fairly well since we took her in a coup...
05/08/2026

Update! The Florida Pine Snake (a state-designated threatened species), is doing fairly well since we took her in a couple weeks ago for some injuries likely associated with her prey fighting back (she sustained some scratches & a penetrating bite wound). These large native constrictors typically prey on Pocket Gophers, squirrels, and rabbits; sometimes large prey like this gets the best of them.
Fortunately, this big girl here has been eating very aggressively for us; a good thing because she is currently underweight. Unfortunately, the wound on her side isn’t healing the way we’d like, in spite of being given systemic & topical antibiotic treatment, so early next week she will travel to our wonderful veterinarian, Dr. Cory Woliver. There she will get some surgical wound debridement. Hopefully this intervention will get her back on the correct path to recovery. Below are some pictures of her… she is a very cute & sassy gal!

*Our small native-snakes only wildlife rehabilitation facility runs on an equally small budget. If you’d like to help us help this beautiful Pine snake and other injured snakes like her, we appreciate you! We accept donations at the following platforms:

Venmo:

https://venmo.com/u/ShastaTsoukias

OR PayPal:

https://www.paypal.me/ShastaTsoukias

Update! Chicken wire entangled Florida Cottonmouth #2 that we took in two weeks ago finally shed her skin. We are very ...
05/07/2026

Update! Chicken wire entangled Florida Cottonmouth #2 that we took in two weeks ago finally shed her skin. We are very glad that the sloughing of the injured skin was not as severe on her as it was for chicken wire Cottonmouth #1. Below you will see her intake photo and how the wounds look after she shed her skin (and the dry eschar sloughed off with the shed skin). These now open wounds were immediately treated topically with SSD paste, a topical antibacterial. Hopefully the healing that takes place under the new skin will be adequate enough that she can be released after only one more shed cycle. In the meantime, she is eating like a champion for us, which is great because healing requires nutrition.

We rescued a second Scarlet Kingsnake this week, this poor girl stuck on not one, but THREE separate glue traps. Fortun...
05/07/2026

We rescued a second Scarlet Kingsnake this week, this poor girl stuck on not one, but THREE separate glue traps. Fortunately, we were able to get her un-stuck before she died of suffocation or dehydration. Glue traps are widely regarded as being inhumane devices that have enormous unintended bycatch of beneficial animals like snakes, lizards, birds, turtles, and sometimes small companion animals like puppies or kittens. Further, they cause the trapped animal to die a slow and tortuous death via suffocation and dehydration. Last, these devices cause an ENORMOUS time and resource suck on wildlife rehabilitation facilities as glue trapped wildlife often take hours to be carefully extricated. Additionally, these animals are sometimes seriously injured or suffer from capture myopathy due to struggling and therefore require anywhere from days to months to recover.

It’s time we ban these devices like other first world countries have. There are many humane ways to control insects and rodents that do not involve glue traps. For example, Diatomaceous earth (DE) is a non-toxic substance that controls insects, and live traps are an excellent way to humanely remove rodents.
As for this lovely adult Scarlet Kingsnake, it took almost two hours to extricate, clean, and wash her. She also needed subcutaneous fluids because she was very dehydrated. Last, she will need a minimum of 72 hours of close observation before she can be safely released.

Address

Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
32081

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Florida Native Snake Rehabilitation & Rescue posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category