Blue Beauty

[avelli2000]

I was at a reptile expo last weekend and a guy had a table full of neonate Blue Beauties. He had the mother in his hands and I thought the name of that particular type of snake was fitting. What's the deal with them:

Are they colubrids?

What's their temperment?

How big do they get?

[Beardonicus]

Yes, Blue Beauties are colubrids. They are asian ratsnakes in the genus Elaphe. They can be nippy or nervous as youngsters like any colubrid, but tame down with age. They get around 6-8 feet I believe, so they are a fairly large colubrid.

[avelli2000]

Thanks

I just did a google search and got a lot of great info. Really, a very pretty snake.

[Katt]

Just to throw something in, there is some noise to move Blue beauties from Elaphe and to Orthriophis. I'm one of those that support this move.

I have three blues, and they're all pretty touchy. You need to work with them quite a bit to get them to calm down.

They're quite wiry and yes, do get incredibly long.

[Beardonicus]

Do you know any of the reason(s) behind the proposed move? They don't seem too different from any of the other Beauty Snakes.

[Invictus]

I was under the impression that this move is in fact official now, and they are Orthriophis. I'll have to check when I get home, as I have a site bookmarked.

Blue Beauties are a challenge. I know of few people who have tame, handleable ones, or at least, ones that are like that all the time. This is the most aggressive species I've ever personally worked with.

[Katt]

I have a few sites bookmarked with references to papers that propose changes, however, quite a few have opposed these changes, so it's not as yet, official official.

[Scales Zoo]

All beauty snakes, not just the blues, are proposed to be changed to Orthriophis.

Ryan