Indian egg-eater (Elachistodon westermanni)

[reptiledude987]

Anyone know of a Canadian breeder of these guys. They've always intregued me but have never seen one for sale in stores or at an expo. Also details on keeping them beyond the wiki page info.

[pet_snake_78]

I browse all the rare classifieds and I can't say I've seen any up for sale that I noticed, but I haven't specifically searched. I think the best bet would be to contact importers and exporters from the natural known range. I think the odds of finding a CB one are almost nil. They are a nice looking snake, I hope that you can find some in good shape one day.

[reptiledude987]

Ya I considered importing wc but its best to order a few as they may not all survive the trip plus then theres the extra cost of treating the parasites they will most likely have. I may bite the bullet on the cost just to have something rare and unique. Plus if I end up with a pair could corner the market of cb for these guys.

[pet_snake_78]

Yep I hate that WC's come with bugs but we need more guys like you willing to work with something different!

Besides just washing my hands a lot, I've purchased nitrile gloves and booties for when I'm in the quarantine room to reduce the risk that I'll somehow drag feces infected substrate or something on my shoes. The room is carpeted so I cannot clean it as well as I'd like. It seems like without wearing gloves, something would get on my hand and then on the sink knobs and stuff when I tried to wash all the germs off.

Anyway, I know of people who import from Africa, South America, and East Asia, but I've never seen anything about a fresh shipment from India. I wonder if it's closed to the snake trade?

[reptiledude987]

Im not sure. I have a friend who imports things from time to time. I'll ask him and see what he thinks. Idealy I was hoping someone here would know of some of these in this continent.

[PsychoSnake]

Besides just washing my hands a lot, I've purchased nitrile gloves and booties for when I'm in the quarantine room to reduce the risk that I'll somehow drag feces infected substrate or something on my shoes. The room is carpeted so I cannot clean it as well as I'd like. It seems like without wearing gloves, something would get on my hand and then on the sink knobs and stuff when I tried to wash all the germs off.
I would just like to comment to be sure you know the proper technique for removing disposable gloves (I work in health care). Here's a video for anyone to watch if interested in preventing the spreading of pathogens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4gyNAsPCbU

When am cleaning cages I use a different pair of gloves for each cage, even for my established reptiles.

[reptiledude987]

I use laytex gloved and toss them after each new animal in quarentine. But when cleaning established collection I use bare hands and alcohol based hand sanitizer between each one. Should I be using gloves for all?

[PsychoSnake]

I use laytex gloved and toss them after each new animal in quarentine. But when cleaning established collection I use bare hands and alcohol based hand sanitizer between each one. Should I be using gloves for all?
That's up to you. I prefer to use gloves for everyone. That preference comes from my training as a health care provider. When dealing with poop there is always a chance of spreading nasty things.

[Zigoni]

Egg Eating Snake for Sale (http://www.backwaterreptiles.com/snakes/egg-eating-snake-for-sale.html)
found this site but doesn't say if its the indian egg eater and I don't know the sellers rep sorry

[Zigoni]

Egg Eating Snake - Dasypeltis fasciata, medici and scabra (http://www.exotic-pets.co.uk/egg-eating-snake.html)
and this one but sorry still not seeing indian :(

[reptiledude987]

I was talking to a friend whos putting an order to an indonesian seller next month and they have an asian egg eater on their list. they seem very similar and look cool as well so I may go that way. My also said he used to have an egg eater years ago. The one he had was a juvinile and was a royal pain to feed. Due to the fact that when theyre babies theyre too small to eat eggs available in retail stores (chicken and quail). So what he had to do was crack an egg open blend it and mix it into a paste with a bit of a protien powder (whey I believe but not sure) as well as some reptile multi vit powder and basically force feed the paste with a syringe. they also have a higher metabolsim rate than most snakes so that needed to be done a coule times a week. That being said what ever type I end up getting will be big enough for quail eggs at least.

[pet_snake_78]

The African egg eating snakes are common, but the smaller individuals need very small eggs like finch eggs. I was looking into getting some once and a few finch owners offered to mail me eggs for postage and I've heard of pet shops and local finch owners giving the eggs away for free. If you cannot obtain small enough eggs, then you'll probably have to syringe feed eggs. I think the larger ones can take quail eggs and the very largest can even take chicken eggs. I'm not sure about an Asian Egg eating snake, perhaps that's it.

[reptiledude987]

Ill look into finch eggs theyre a good idea. Thanks