Cavers Mating "PIC"

[Simon R. Sansom]

Here are my Cave-Dwelling Rat Snakes (Elaphe taeniura ridleyi) copulating this afternoon/evening. They started at almost exactly four o'clock PM, and are STILL at it as I write this at five minutes to six.
Sorry about the crappy pic.

Simon

http://image.inkfrog.com/pix/simonsansom/698192picture.jpg

[Zoe]

Lucky you! Those are interesting look snakes... do their colours change down their bodies?

[Tim_Cranwill]

Cool. They look kinda like a striped cal king.

[silke]

cool looking snakes Simon ! do you have any more pix of them you can share?
tis the season....for this very special time of year i think Jeff S needs to open a new forum called Herp Porn

[gonesnakee]

Supercool Simon, Best of luck with them. Are they nasty like my blue beauties or are you blessed with a pair of decent temperment? Mark I.

[Matt]

nice, good luck with that simon....hatchlings gonna be available ??? :)

[Katt]

Fantasic. Cavers are the best that asian rats have to offer, ok, maybe bamboo rats are nicer looking, but cavers! Gotta love those sweet pastel colours and that stripe. Congrats! Let us know how the eggs and babies do.

[Simon R. Sansom]

Here is the happy couple again. Showing some of the powder-blue on their heads.

http://image.inkfrog.com/pix/simonsansom/343924picture.jpg

[Simon R. Sansom]

Here's the male. Not the best pic, but you get the idea!
The only way I can describe the adult colouration on these guys is "they're like five snakes in one", LOL!
My two are very tame. They are as tame (or tamer) than some corn snakes I've seen. They're very calm and deliberate in manner when in hand, although they can move very quickly when they want to. Their length makes them very impressive to see in person. The guy in the picture came out of brumation at seven feet and seven inches in length.
My pictures do not do proper justice to the beauty of these creatures.

Thanks for looking!

http://image.inkfrog.com/pix/simonsansom/275793picture.jpg

[Simon R. Sansom]

Thanks for the great comments everyone.
I'm pretty excited about the mating behaviour, but getting viable eggs will be the next hurdle to cross. Apparently this sub-species can be touchy, according to the research I've done and the advice of others more experienced than myself.
It seems as though relatively low temperatures may be required for females to produce good eggs.
We'll see what happens. I'm not counting my Cavers before they hatch, lol.

Katt; I agree with you about the Cavers and the Bamboos. Mmmm, those E. porphyracea coxi certainly ARE spectacular, aren't they? I would love to get some one day. Did you see the ones Dr. Phil produced? WOW!
One thing that I prefer about the ridleyi over the coxi is their nice large adult size, but that's just my personal preference.

Take care, best of luck this season everyone!

Simon

[Tim_Cranwill]

Wow, they look different than I thought they would from looking at their tails. They are really nice. :)

[Nanashi04]

wow! those are some seriously sweet snakes! ^^ how's the temperment?

[reptilez]

I love the look of there heads, there awesome.

[Simon R. Sansom]

nanashi,
They're as tame as a colubrid could possibly be. The male did threaten me once with the vertically-compressed neck posture when I first got them home, but that's it. Neither of them has offered to bite, except for the occasional, excusable feeding-time exuberance, lol.
My little grand-daughter even loves to handle them, under careful supervision, of course.

Cheers!

Simon

[silke]

beautiful little faces and their colouring is so diverse.....really nice

I don't think anyone else on this forum has any - thanks for sharing

[Simon R. Sansom]

They certainly are unusual and unique, aren't they, Silke? That's what attracted me to them in the first place. As far as I know, nothing else even comes close to being mistaken for Cave-Dwelling Rat Snakes, lol.
I really missed them while they were in brumation, and they still take my breath away when I look at them...
...Beautiful colouration, imposing size, elegant proportions, and a wonderful personality...can you tell that I kinda' like 'em?!

Thanks,

Simon

[silke]

me too.....can you please add me to the list for one of these too ?
LOL

[Nanashi04]

They are pretty... :D how much was the pair?

[Simon R. Sansom]

Nanashi,
I paid top dollar for the proven, adult pair. I believe that babies are going for around $150.00-$200.00 U.S...?

Simon

[Nanashi04]

wow... I guess I can dream, can't I? ;) someday, someday.

[ranmasatome]

Wow! all i can say is these guys are awesome...i had initially lived in asia b4 and so managed to get some WC stock of these from real caves....granted it wasn't too legal...but let me just say that even when they were WC and had temperment flares....they were amazing!!! i bet simon must be just smiling from ear to ear with tame ones...oh btw..i let my stock go back into the wild....i didn't feel it was right to deprive such an animal its freedom...it was born wild so i guess i should let it go back...but the experience had put this snake in my top 2 cloubrids. i bet simon would agree..:)
if you guys have time check out the ones from cameron highlands in malaysia!! they rock!!