Highly keeled scaled snakes

[RAD House]

I have always loved the way harry bush vipers look. It as close to owning your own personal miniature dragon as one can get in my opinion. But I will never keep a venomous animal in home out of concern for my wife and dog children. Recently I discovered the Trachyboa genus or eyelash boa as they are commonly named. After doing a bit of research it does not appear that they exist in the hobby or are just impossible to locate. Also they are tiny little snakes, which is not ideal in my mind. Does any one know of any other non venomous highly keel scaled snakes available in the hobby? I have seen file snakes and am not a fan.

[FWK]

Water Snakes (Nerodia) seem to be about as heavily keeled as nonvenomous snakes come, particularly Diamondbacks. Western Hogs and Garters are pretty heavily keeled as well. I've never handled one but Rough Scaled Sand Boas look to have their name for a reason. Cape Files and Dragons Snakes are out there but not easy to get or keep.

[Jim Smith]

You might also want to look at File Snakes as they have rather pronounced scales and are readily available for very reasonable prices.

[EL Ziggy]

Garters and bull snakes come to mind.

[RAD House]

Thanks everyone for the input but I think I was looking for extreme keels. Animals that look similar to a bush viper or Trachyboa. There is a distinct possibility that the answer is just that there is not. On a side note I was definitely confusing dragon snakes and file snakes.

[jjhill001]

Solomon Island Ground Boa looks similar to that Trachyboa that comes up in google image.

[SnoopySnake]

Viper boa maybe? Hear they have a nasty attitude, though.

[reptiledude987]

I don't know what there is not to like with the file snake. This is mine. I love it. One of my favorites in my collection and the most keeled nonvenomous I can think of.

[ManSlaughter33]

Xenodermus javanicus :)
aka dragon snake

[reptiledude987]

Damn it manslaughter now I just added another to my must have list!!! lol

[ManSlaughter33]

I think they're fairly small, and not sure how popular they are in captivity :p

[reptiledude987]

Dosent matter Im on the hunt now. Ive managed to track down at least 1 exporter from every continent at this point lol

[ManSlaughter33]

Dosent matter Im on the hunt now. Ive managed to track down at least 1 exporter from every continent at this point lol

Holy wow you're determined :P

[Minkness]

Those are amazing! RD, if you get several sgipped in and find yourself with an extra, let me know =D

[RAD House]

I am starting to like the looks of the file snakes, but something about that dragon snakes face really bugs me. Can't trust em one bit.

[Jim Smith]

It's my understanding that Dragon snakes are not at all easy to keep. They burrow in mud most of the day and they can be difficult to get to eat. I have never heard of any CB Dragon Snakes and the WC tend to have a high mortality rate. Just something to consider when you get your next snake...

[reptiledude987]

Those are amazing! RD, if you get several sgipped in and find yourself with an extra, let me know =D

I am not an enabler and we're in recovery mink ;)

[Minkness]

D=

Well, you'll need to get it established for a but before sending it to me! Though it is exceedingly tempting to hunt you down and see your whole collection lol. I am clearly an odd ball lover as well.

[reptiledude987]

D=

Well, you'll need to get it established for a but before sending it to me! Though it is exceedingly tempting to hunt you down and see your whole collection lol. I am clearly an odd ball lover as well.

PM me your email and Ill start forwarding you some of the import lists I get

[DDW]

Xenodermus javanicus :)
aka dragon snake

Want this snake so badly. Saw it on pintrist at first but is now being added to my listXD (the filesnake looks interesting too.)

[reptiledude987]

Not having luck tracking down these Xenodermus javanicus online. going to have to review my import lists.

[SnoopySnake]

Not having luck tracking down these Xenodermus javanicus online. going to have to review my import lists.

Good luck finding them.. From what I hear they're extremely difficult to keep alive and supposedly only one person has been able to keep them in captivity.

[reptiledude987]

Good luck finding them.. From what I hear they're extremely difficult to keep alive and supposedly only one person has been able to keep them in captivity.

Who was that?

[Minkness]

RD is on a mission lol

[reptiledude987]

RD is on a mission lol

I am but this looks to be a challenging one. I will post updates if I have any success.

[Minkness]

Looking forward to it!

[prairiepanda]

I wouldn't bother with the dragon snake if I were you. I was in love at first sight, too, but after looking into them I realized they just shouldn't be in captivity. I read about one person's experience keeping them and it crushed my dreams. He kept several individuals of various ages and experimented with different methods to keep them well. In the end he concluded that if you want to keep them alive in captivity, you have to keep them in opaque enclosures and never touch them ever. Basically, you can never see or interact with them because the stress of the encounter will eventually kill them. They require very high humidity but are extremely sensitive to mold and stagnant air, and they seem to have particular dietary needs but it's not entirely clear as observing them in the wild is almost impossible.

Also, that guy was keeping them in the same region where they were captured so they never had to be shipped. I think a couple people in Europe have had them imported, but none survived long.


EDIT: I tried to find the report that I mentioned above but failed, however I did find some new information: they eat frogs exclusively and likely aren't able to handle anything else. Also this happened: https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/1377533_441869055924976_461716712_n.jpg?oh=4b4ee53 a47c0482181167fba882ed73f&oe=56D68F63
Unfortunately I don't know when it happened, or who did it, or what the outcome was. Looks like someone has (or had) a pair alive and well enough to breed!