Sushi time! - Japanese Rat Snake

[Sylphie]

Well... we went to reptile expo to just look at snakes, as we don't have spare space and money. And there was our local reptile store (which is great, really!) with Japanese Rat Snakes. And someone recently said that I can't buy single snake because then we'll have 13 animals, and that's bad number...

Yes, yes, we bought a new snake... or should I be more specific and say that we bought 3 Japaneses (E.climacophora)? :D I'm a bad, bad person! But hey, we gave for them only 70$, so that's a good deal, right? And that way we don't have an unlucky number of animals, that's important too!

Some pics, not too great but they are so curious and fast that it's hard to take good one.

For now we call them Sushi 1, Sushi 2 and Sushi 3 as they are all so similiar.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d177/SylphieW/hGiIQWX_zpsfmjl0asr.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d177/SylphieW/cINoV2a_zpsia8iuqhu.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d177/SylphieW/itjDZPg_zpsbnqz5upw.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d177/SylphieW/RSXWTAL_zpsw7kersip.jpg

[Klaire]

Aww bless their cute little faces they are adorable!! congrats on your new additions :)

[Sylphie]

Thank you! I'm having the best man in the world as he already gave mi firefly ball for xmas and now he bought that babies too! :D

[Minkness]

Lol wow. You sound as bad as me....my last expo I wasn't supposed to get any new snakes...cane home with 2 lol.

I lack self control so will not be going to an expo again until I am fully prepared for another animal to add to my life lol.

Beautiful snakes you got though. I am curiius why you got 3 that are so simmilar looking.

[Sylphie]

Well, they were the last 3, that's why we paid for 2 and get the one for free :D And they are unsexed so that way there are bigger chances for at least one female... and we can always sell one male or something. And they can change veery much, so it's likely that they will be three totally different snakes as adults. (Hope at least one will be nice green one <3).

And yeah, we decided that we won't go to any expo until we move to the bigger house.

[Minkness]

Oh cool. I didn't know they changed that much. Hope you get what you want! =)

[Albert Clark]

Nice pickups Sylphie! Fantastic deal on them. Try to get someone to sex them for you.

[Sylphie]

Here are some crappy pics of my new desk lamp :)

And Albert, thank you! We'll probably wait till they are bigger and then will go and try sexing them.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d177/SylphieW/Sushi/PICT3872_zpsi6q9mquh.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d177/SylphieW/Sushi/PICT3873_zpsdl1i4wnc.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d177/SylphieW/Sushi/PICT3874_zps9aaktcre.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d177/SylphieW/Sushi/PICT3877_zpsji3dxsjx.jpg

[Slithersaurus]

Lovely snakes! I want them so badly but having no space for even just one!

[Minkness]

You keep them together?

[Sylphie]

Yeah, they are like Russians, can be kept together if feed separately :)

[EL Ziggy]

Congrats on the cute new critters Sylphie. I look forward to seeing more pics as they grow.

[toddnbecka]

Good looking young ones, and you definitely got a great deal on them. I paid nearly $300 with shipping for my pair of blue phase. Greens or mixed aren't quite as pricey, but still much more than you paid. I had been housing them together since they arrived, but last weekend I moved my little female into a good-size (75 liter) tub of her own. I noticed she was twitching along the whole length of her body when the male came in contact with her (they liked to occupy the same "shelf" under the lid), and she seemed reluctant to eat, while the male's feeding response was as strong as ever. After she was given her own space her feeding response is back to normal, and I haven't seen any more of the twitching. Not sure why, but she doesn't seem to tolerate him any longer.

[Sylphie]

EL-Ziggy, don't worry, you know I love to post a lot of pics, haha!

toddnbecka, I want one blue phase too, but that will wait till these three will be older and I'll see what they really are. I hope one of them will be a green one, but we'll see. And I know that they don't always like being together, that's why I'm watching them to see if antyhing is weird. In case of my Russians my female is better kept with male, as she's more brave with him (when she was alone she was really shy one).
At this moment they were kept together by previous owner, and seems to get along really well, so I will leave them that way.

[Humble308]

These things are cute little babies, I looked up pics of adults and WOW, talk about a transformation!

[Sylphie]

These things are cute little babies, I looked up pics of adults and WOW, talk about a transformation!

Exactly! :) Russian Rats (E.schrenckii) are having big transformation too, but in their case you knows from the beginning how will they look (brown&cream baby will be black&yellow, black&white baby will be all black, and blackish-grey with white will be black&white). Japaneses are more unpredictable, and that's the whole fun!

[Sylphie]

Today was first feeding day for them. They were feed live prey so we were sure that it will take some effort to make them realize that f/t is food too. Well, it was'nt necessary, they ate without hestitation :D I guess we're having the next generation of Artemis (our female Russian Rat Snake) as they ate one pinkie and were looking for more.

For now two of them are really curious and brave, while the third is always hiding. We named one Li, as he's having a marking on his head in the shape of LI. The other two are still just sushi, as they are both having "v" shape so we can't recognize them.


And that's how they spend most of the time watching me. Really great snakes, very similiar to Russians, always observing and moving a lot:

(phone pics, so not the best, but still cute!)

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d177/SylphieW/Sushi/WP_20151208_10_50_45_Pro_zpsz2julde3.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d177/SylphieW/Sushi/WP_20151208_12_46_55_Pro_zpsxovtudg9.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d177/SylphieW/Sushi/WP_20151208_16_51_45_Pro_zpsowpzqz3b.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d177/SylphieW/Sushi/WP_20151208_16_52_02_Pro_zpsxnwyzhqb.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d177/SylphieW/Sushi/WP_20151209_09_57_32_Pro_zps8e4yj24r.jpg

[Sylphie]

Uhhh one of our babies escaped today from his feeding box... I hope we'll found him, but we never had such a small snake escaped, so it can be hard. Good thing that it's winter so all the windows and doors are closed all the time.

[toddnbecka]

Oh no, good luck finding the rogue worm. I lost the okeetee corn and diamondback water snake last summer, never saw either of them again. I suspect they found their way out under the basement door, there's a gap large enough for snakes that small to fit through. Even with screen tops locked down they managed to get out, now I use pegboard to prevent wee worms from accessing the tank rim.
I had 3 of the large Dominicans (1m/2f together for breeding) on the loose last week, apparently they are able to open sliding glass doors from inside the enclosure. They all turned up again over several nights, the first one the same night they escaped, balanced on a water pipe overhead in the basement. I suspect the other female spent some time soaking in one of the 90 gallon aquariums because there was water overflowed onto the floor. I found her on top of the tank the 2nd night. Didn't locate the male until Thursday night, he was curled up and resting, didn't even protest when I picked him up.
The glass doors are now secured to prevent them from repeating their trick.

[Sylphie]

Thank you! When our snakes escape I'm always mostly worried about them getting into trash can. We always check our trashes before throwing them out if one of the snakes is out, but with so small hatchling... if he curls we can easily overlook him :(

[toddnbecka]

Check your laundry too. It's surprising how easily a 2 meter boa or python can hide, small snakes have too many more options. Rat snakes are fairly active though, so you have a fair chance of seeing the escaped one moving around sooner or later. Just make sure there's access to water, dehydration is a bigger threat than starving.

[Sylphie]

I know, there are at least two point in home when he can find water, one being our dog water bowl, second being the bowl under one point of our window when the water is droping fairly often. I'm also thinking about putting small pieces of bamboo tubes here and there, and put inside a piece of mice smelled paper. I'm just soo worried because of his size :( With bigger ones we are just waiting till they throw something from shelves, fall from something or just simply show up somewhere. But that small snake won't easily do the same mistakes the bigger ones are doing.

[Sylphie]

We are still looking for our little escapee, but in the meantime the other two are growing like a weed. What amazes me are their climbing abilities. That's how I often see them (I know the pic is not the best), and I wonder how strong they are to hang upside down only with their muscles "holding" between two glasses, or on glass rails...
http://i.imgur.com/Wd562me.jpg

Considering that russian rats are fairly strong as an adults, yet Artemis as hatchling was unable to "stand" in the corner, while these little ones are doing all the weird "I'm a lizard" things I'm curious how strong they will be.

[Herpo]

I wish we had these in Oz, I love the idea of rearing a family of snakes together! Stunning creatures!

[Herpo]

Hope you find the escapee!

[Sylphie]

WE FOUND HIM, ohhh, I ąm so happy! He's little dehydrated and skinny, and half the size of the other two (a month without food at that age makes a huuuge difference), and he has mites, but it'll be good now, since we can finally take care of him. He's in a tub with a water bowl at the moment, and will get a super small newborn mouse soon too.

[macandchz]

good luck with the new ones!

[Sylphie]

He died... I guess the shock of being in warm and with water again was too much, but I'm too devastated to think clearly now.

[dannybgoode]

So sorry to hear that Slyphie. You did all you could though...

[toddnbecka]

I doubt it was shock, more likely the mites and dehydration were too much for him. Really sorry to hear he didn't make it, but at least you found him.

[Sylphie]

danny, thank you for kind words.

toddnbecka, yes, I'm glad that we at least found him, that way I'll no longer had false hopes and I won't worry that he may still live somewhere and needs my help. There is possibility that I spotted him in a flower pot because he was already looking for a place to rest too.

One thing that we learned is that you can't be too paranoic about snake escaping even the super locked tank/box, and we will definitely check the security a lot before putting our snakes somewhere...

[AlexCrazy]

ohhh.. gee.. so sorry for your loss. :(

[LouB747]

I travel to Japan every month. I found 2 Japanese Rat Snakes this last summer. One was yellow, the other blue!

Here's the yellow one.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R7-03vGOA4

Here's the blue one.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Uj9Rn2CfzM

[macandchz]

congrats on the great new snakes. how large will they eventually get?

[toddnbecka]

Max size is around 5', but it takes 10 years to reach that, 3-4 years to reach breeding size.

[LouB747]

Climbing Japanese Rat

[Sylphie]

Today pic ;) They are starting to be more and more green, so I'm happy.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d177/SylphieW/Sushi/PICT4026_zpsk0lmuzwt.jpg

[Albert Clark]

Today pic ;) They are starting to be more and more green, so I'm happy.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d177/SylphieW/Sushi/PICT4026_zpsk0lmuzwt.jpg

Wow Sylph, so sorry about the escapee. Hopefully the remaining two are male and female. They really do look fantastic. You have me thinking about getting a pair. Lol. I don't need one other snake either. Haha. :crazy2:

[Sylphie]

Thank you Albert! We'll get a blue phase one too, but that must wait for summer ;)

[EL Ziggy]

Sorry you lost one Sylphie. The remaining pair look great!

[toddnbecka]

I saw a pair of green ones at the show last weekend, hardly recognize them as the same species by the colors, but the pattern is still there. My pair are showing more color now, not as gray as they were, but still have a long way to go to complete the transition. I just moved the male into a 20+ gallon tub, same setup the female has been thriving in.

@ Albert, nobody really NEEDS another snake, but thats no reason not to... LOL.

[Sylphie]

Wow, I was super busy the past weeks with all the hatchlings, renovating the tanks etc. Soo, quick update:

We checked the genders and got two ladies! I'm super happy as this way I only need to find one blue male and we'll have a nice breeding group.

Both of them went off food for two months and only yesterday they decided to take pinkies, so yeah, slow grow for us.

Unfortunately no pics, as they are little devils with all the fun of wiggling tails, striking and hissing :D Taking a pic is super difficult. But we both like the ladies really well, as they are rather cute in full "go to hell" mode.

[Albert Clark]

Thank you Sylph! Great story and greater update.

[toddnbecka]

My pair slowed down on feeding, the male stopped while the female just skipped a meal now and then. They're both back on track now, taking 2 hopper mice each week, though the male is in blue and tucked up in his cave so I didn't offer him any this week. Both are easy to handle, usually quite happy to come up out of their tubs when I open them, and don't seem to mind being picked up when they do. I have seen the odd tail buzz, but never hissing or striking from either of them.

On the subject of escapes, I came home from work Friday night and found my little female carpet python had squeezed out under the screen top on her tank. Sooo much stuff in the basement and too many places for a small snake to hide. I put a 10 gallon tank in the middle of a table, put 2 mice in, and placed a large rock on the screen top. Turned off the lights and left the basement for about 2 hours or so. When I went back down she was just starting over onto the table where the mice/tank were. Her screen top is now secured with 2 straps on the ends rather than just one in the middle.

[Sylphie]

toddnbecka, glad you found her! After our escaped hatchling died I'm now super paranoid with checking all the tanks after each time I'm opening them...

As for eating from what I talked with breeders climacophoras are rather prone to going off food, especially the males. I'm not afraid about longer periods as long as they are not losing aby weight (which fortunately our girls did not). But with hatchlings I prefer them to eat, as I feel the first two years are most important for growing... well, it's just great that they finally decided to eat again!

I also noticed that girl snakes are more prone to be grumpy from time to time, at least in our collection. Maybe when they are older they will feel more secure and stop all the drama... if not, then it'll be fun, haha!

[macandchz]

nice looking new additions. like the idea of a real tree branch in the enclosure. might try that. mac knocks those fake bamboo logs down all the time.

[Sylphie]

As my sister visited me, we got some nice pics of both our Japanese Ratsnake girls!

They are soo similiar that I call both of them "Sushi":

http://i.imgur.com/JR1JmjP.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/7BH0PYp.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/A5W5ZKZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/jxK0mD2.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/9pMARAE.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/jcMm3Lm.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/jvezVZj.jpg

[Sylphie]

http://i.imgur.com/GnEltMc.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/LbVNVd0.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/2Gf24gq.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/mamRBiy.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/DyMt0G5.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/IgUtlSi.jpg

[toddnbecka]

Growing nicely, I like the odd pattern on that one. My pair both have more regular patterns, and aside from size (male is a little larger) look pretty much the same. Different shade of green, but that could be due to lighting and camera/monitor differences. My pair are getting 2 hopper mice each week now, should probably move them up to 2 weaned mice, but they're both pleasingly plump, lol.

[Sylphie]

These two ate their second pinkies yesterday, so I think that they finally decided to start eating again! I'm really glad, couse 2 months of not eating at that age really slows down their growing :(

And toddnbecka, you really should post update on yours! I'd love to see some of their pics <3

[toddnbecka]

My post from when they arrived is a year old, so the thread is now closed, so here's some pics of the male I snapped when I saw he was hanging around out in the open this afternoon. I'd estimate his length at close to 1m now, and plump from plenty of food. The blue color on his head is starting to show up. The flash seems to wash out the green color, he doesn't actually look quite so metallic to the eye:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/Snakes/P1070002_zpspzjl3cgc.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/toddnbecka/media/Snakes/P1070002_zpspzjl3cgc.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/Snakes/P1070006_zpsx5xe4vi9.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/toddnbecka/media/Snakes/P1070006_zpsx5xe4vi9.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/Snakes/P1070008_zpsaxpxzhrx.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/toddnbecka/media/Snakes/P1070008_zpsaxpxzhrx.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/Snakes/P1070007_zpsybrclqeq.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/toddnbecka/media/Snakes/P1070007_zpsybrclqeq.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/Snakes/P1070009_zpsldtyovhn.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/toddnbecka/media/Snakes/P1070009_zpsldtyovhn.jpg.html)

[Sylphie]

Nice! <3 Remnind me, how old is your pair?

[toddnbecka]

Something over a year old now, not exact on their ages when they arrived, but I think they were 2015 hatchlings. They were from differnt pairs, not a sibling pair. and the male is a little older and larger than the female. Less difference now than when they arrived, the female ate a few more meals than the male over the winter.

[Sylphie]

Huh, mine are from around 06.2015... and are like half the size of yours... I hate when they go off food at that age, it slows their grow terribly.

[toddnbecka]

They didn't stop eating like the larger Dominicans did through the breeding season, but they skipped a meal occasionally. Looking at the pics of yours, I don't think they're really that much smaller. I just fed my pair a weaned mouse each earlier tonight, that's the largest size they've been given. I was feeding them 2 fuzzy then 2 small hopper mice, but all I have now are small pinks, weaned, and adults. The weaned mice left a very visible bulge in them, as well as the thayeri kings about the same size.

[Sylphie]

Maybe you're right... mine are both on pinkies still, but if they keep up with the eating I think that in a month we'll move to fuzzies. For now I'm feeding them every 3 days to use their willingness to eat, haha!

And I'll be having a pair of blue kunashirs in a few months as a trade for a pair of my baby russians! That way I'll be having 1.3 breeding pair of climacophoras <3

[Sylphie]

Update time! It won't be long as we decided to sell these girls and are looking for new homes for them. I don't know why but we didn't really liked them too much (yeah, they are good looking but too, idk, impersonal to us), and since we decided to work with the species that we really love, these will go to someone who will appreciate them more.

[Sylphie]

Diabolical Sushi Sisters are my most complicated animal relationship. I decided to sell them 4 times now, and each time after few weeks I'm like "no, maybe I'll let them stay with us"...

So, these are updated pics, they start to be really nice green. At the moment they live in tube since their glass enclosure was really high and they couldn't see us at all. Now they will get accustomed to people moving near their box and we'll slowly work with handling too. If they leave the tube on their own then it's all good and cool, but if we try to pick them up then the devils are born ;)

We are also still looking for high blue male for them.

http://i.imgur.com/undefined.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YrMc4eE.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/GzQ2BzZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/xotGBR5.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/mb6BSCF.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/643DnhY.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/A70uwOH.jpg

[jay's reptiles]

cute snakes. i really like the patterns!

[Scubadiver59]

Sounds like my juvenile Corn..she gets possessed when I try to handle her.

[Sylphie]

Today was the last photo session for these two. One will tomorrow go to her new home, the other is reserved too. For now we prefer to work more with our favorite species, but who know, maybe in future we will come back to E. climacophora too!

These two were the slowest growing snakes I ever had! At two years old they look like on year juvies... but even though they only started their color change both already look very good. I'm sure their future owners will end with stunning snakes when both sister will reach adulthood <3


http://i.imgur.com/5YNA2tX.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ylRPjJj.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/WM5RuyN.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/X9TfbgU.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Vovd18X.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/WwFgEAs.jpg

[Sylphie]

http://i.imgur.com/bYQeVgp.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/oes348B.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/PraaQuX.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/m8C5gSz.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/uwuB1QG.jpg

[dannybgoode]

Beautiful snakes Sylphie. The slightly more unusual, less common rat snake are really growing on me partly inspired by you. I could happy have a sub collection of rat species

[Sylphie]

Beautiful snakes Sylphie. The slightly more unusual, less common rat snake are really growing on me partly inspired by you. I could happy have a sub collection of rat species

Thank you! And that's really lovely to hear! I would love to have many colubrids in my collection too, but sadly we don't have enough space at the moment. Maybe in a few years we'll be able to have more species, both me and you <3

[toddnbecka]

They are a bit slow growing, but they don't grow as large as most of the faster-growing species as adults. My pair are sill in tubs, don't take up loads of space, but they could certainly use larger enclosures soon.

[jjhill001]

Really cool Sylphie. How old are they now?

[dannybgoode]

I have one! Found a breeder with some for sale and bagged the last one. Pictures to follow... :)


Thanks Sylphie for the inspiration.