Newly Shed Spilotes

[alexandsnakes]

Since we're having a photo contest at school, I thought I'd take a photo of my darling right after he shed. He tried to eat the camera immediately after I took this...

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1362Freshly_Shed_Auryn-med.jpg

[HetForHuman]

Thats an awesome pic man.

nice lookin snake too.

[Simon R. Sansom]

He's gorgeous, Alex! Nice Pic.

How is he, temperament-wise?

Simon

[Invictus]

WOW! Absolutely screaming colors!

[CDN-Cresties]

Awesome pic!!!

-Steve-

[LdyDrgn]

Very nice. How big is he?

[marisa]

Great pic and snake!

Marisa

[alexandsnakes]

He's something over 4'... hard to tell with all the tail. Temperment wise, Simon, he has his good days (where you just move slow and it's fine) and his bad days, where I bleed and puff up and itch like crazy from bites... I can't wait for the colours to get more intense with this line. My boyfriend is in Brazil, and he didn't even recognise their Spilotes as the same species as mine...

[Colonel SB]

Killer spiloita :)

[Katt]

The jealousy is thick. Once I get my license Alex, I'm hunting you down!!!!

[Pitviper]

I have a couple of spilotes pullatus for about a year now. The female is about 7 ft. and the male about 6,5 ft. long. Do you mind sharing your details of keeping this marvellous snake with me? The only reliable information for keeping and breeding spilotes i have, is from the zoo in Cologne/Germany. The keepers of spilotes pullatus are extremely rare in Germany, so it´s difficult to chat with other enthusiasts. Your specimen is indeed a very beatyful one. Don´t let him get you when he reaches 6 ft... :o)

happy herping,
pitviper

[Pookie]

wow, great shot. Looks like he's puckering up for a kiss! lol, cute!

[TheRedDragon]

Awesome picture and gorgeous snake! :)

[alexandsnakes]

Sure Pitviper, what do you want to know? There's not a lot of info on them, I'm basically running off of the one reptiles magazine article on them, and it pretty much confirmed how the breeder of my snake kept them. Our local aquarium had some of the same line as mine, but the one time I saw them they were in a former dart frog aquarium and one had an eye infection, so I'm staying away from that. Otherwise, it's basic ratsnake care with a lot of branches... seems to like humidity more than my other snakes

[Katt]

Alex please post more pics of your spilotes.

[DarkHunter]

wow
REALLY nice colours!!!!!!!

[alexandsnakes]

If you're going to twist my arm about it, Katt... I don't really have any more nice pictures, these were both taken through the glass so it's smudgy and in one of them, he was doing that weird Spilotes headbobbing thing, so he's blurry.

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1362Auryn1_copy.jpg

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1362Auryn2_copy.jpg

But I think his colours and pattern come through nicely. He's going to be at Vetavision, I think, if you guys want to come out and talk herps with me. It's so lonely with all these freakin' cattle rancher kids.

How're the SCALES zoo ones doing?

[Katt]

They're doing good last I checked, which was today. Hehehe.

Your guy has some fatalistic colour!! OOooooohh..

Seen my russians? Ok, they may not have colour, but do they ever have huge heads.

Oh I got a tiny turtle to show you too... hehehehe. Email me.

Vetavision? When is that? We may be going to Prince Albert this week.

[Pitviper]

Hi Alex,

thanks for responding. Yes i know, there´s not much to read about spilotes, it´s a pitty. The basic ratsnake-care is allright so far, but how are the climatic conditions over the year (humidity/temperature/lenght of daylight) and do you have experience or knowledge of how to initiate reproduction? If you don´t want to blow up the forum with this you may post to my home-account. I´m very interrested in your opinion. Maybe i have some news for you, too.
Best regards,
pitviper

[Simon R. Sansom]

Great pics, Alex!

I love the enclosure. I wish mine was a bit taller - it's only 24" tall. I have the climbing branches attached to the ceiling of the cage with stainless-steel hook-eyes and thick,rough twine (disguised by fake plants). This way, when I change the newspaper all I have to remove is the water-bowl.

You mentined that your male does the "head-bob" thing. Is it like a slight, jerking vertical "nod"?

My female occasionally does this when I handle her. My male does not do this.

Interesting...

Cheers!

Simon

[Linds]

Awesome colour!

[alexandsnakes]

Aww man, I'm having one of those special weeks where I read these posts at six am but ain't coherent enough to remember who I e-mailed... Katt and Pitviper, have you gotten anything from me? Anyways, K, vetavision's the first thurs-sat of October.

Simon, he has two kinds of headbobbing. One is a bigger motion that means (I think) I'm looking for somewhere better to climb. One is a very slight nodding, like you say, that some people say is for triangulating, although he's so visually oriented and accurate when he doesn't do it that I'm not convinced.

You've got asian elaphines though, like your cavers... do they ever crawl backwards shaking their head from side-to-side when you suddenly put your hand near them? I think that's triangulation, since they don't see to accurately right in front of their nose. My climacophora spend a lot of time moving backwards, so I'm curious as to whether it's their own special trait or if it's more widespread

[Pitviper]

Yeah, i know those days, they are the same here in germany... No, i´ve not received anything of you yet. I am very interrested in any information of keeping and breeding spilotes because you don´t see spilotes here to often, and there are no other keepers to exchange experiences with. I estmate the number of spilotes being held in germany is less than 30 snakes...

Looking forward to your reply,
Pitviper