beauty snake help [Archive] - sSNAKESs : Reptile Forum

gonesnakee

03-26-05, 08:35 PM

Check out Joe Birch's site I think its slithering serpents or something. He is on this site anyhow & has a really good caresheet on his site (can't find the stupid link LOL) Also try running a search of this forum on Beauty Snakes & you find lots of old thread discussing them & their care. Mark

EDIT thats Burch BTW whoops & its http://www.slitheringserpents.com/bluebeautycare.htm :p
Similar husbandry for most all types of Beauty snakes ;)

hunter

03-27-05, 12:27 AM

sorry about that i made about 4 posts with all the details but my internet kept messing up so this was sort of a test post...any ways i have an (Elaphe Taeniura taeniura) was sold to me as a taiwanese beauty, i believe that scientific name translates to chinese beauty however. she is great. thx

Bram

03-27-05, 04:41 AM

Well taeniura taeniura is one of the smaller beauty snakes... 1.5 meters or 5 feet max. while there quite active animals they need some space, so a large vivarium is needed! like almost all asian ratsnakes they prefer more smaller prey than 1 large prey. Many climbing possibilities and hiding spaces at different temperatures.

occasionally spraying with water is good for shedding and a moistbox is very welcome!

Hope this helpes... this is what I know about beauty snakes and asian snakes... I've got radiata and a couple helena helena. Still I'm searching for genaticly clean taeniura taeniura!

Bram, the dutchman

hunter

03-27-05, 08:52 AM

i must have wrong info, the breeder i got her from has 3 full grown beauties and i have one of their babies and his female is almost 7 feet. i must have another genus species. the one i have is supposedly the biggest rat snake out there (again sold to me as a taiwanese beauty snake). thank you for the info, she is doing amazing so far. i was more or less curious if anyone has been struck by one.. i found one french website (as i couldnt find a whole lot of info at all on these guys, a few german sites as well) that said they could be quite sketchy, but i geuss even corns can be sketchy. thanks again guys/girls

hunter

03-27-05, 08:56 AM

as well the breeder was telling me he has seen the same genus i have get as big as 10 feet in captivity, he saw a few 10 foot monsters at a southern us reptile show (i forget where exactley) again thanks alot

Bram

03-27-05, 02:25 PM

well then it aint taeniura taeniura but taeniura freisi! those are huge but taeniura taeniura surtenly not!

Bram

lolaophidia

03-27-05, 11:00 PM

Does your snake look like this?
http://photos.herphost.com/albums/userpics/Taiwan%20Beauty%20body%20shot_704.JPG
This is my Taiwan Beauty, a taeniura friesi. He's about 12 years old and close to 8 foot long. Great snake, was a little squirmy as a hatchling, but once he got over 3 feet he calmed down somewhat.

He eats f/t large rats and is a voracious feeder- tongs are a must. The only time I've ever been bitten by him was during a stupid feeding accident where I was throwing a p/k mouse in his cage and he missed. He would rush the top of the tank during feeding and after the bite, I started using hemostats to offer the prey item. It's helped a lot, and I haven't been bitten since (knock on wood). He gets very excited when he smells food, so I just have to be extra slow when placing the prey and watch for the lunge...

I keep the largest size water bowl in his cage over the under tank heat source to maintain humidity at around 60-70% and this keeps his sheds perfect. Temps on the cage run 82 for the hot side and 73 on the cool side. He spends most of his time on the cool side other than during digestion.

They are very inquisitive snakes and mine constantly watches me when I'm in the room (hoping that I have a fat rat for him I guess). He will tail rattle and strike if startled, so I use a hook to manuver him out of the cage. Once out, he's a big, strong, snake but not agressive in the least.

Hope that helps. Here's a care sheet with more information for you also.

friesi care sheet (http://www.snakemuseum.com/ratsnake.htm)

hunter

03-28-05, 08:34 AM

that helps an unbeliveable ammount thank you soo much. the pic didnt work for me but the caresheet link did work and my snake is the same as the one pictured there as far as i can tell, check back later today ill try and post a pic of her...im feeding her today so i will have to see how she does before i will take pics. thanks again.

gonesnakee

03-28-05, 03:50 PM

I used to have a big Taiwan male that would be as gentle as can be until he was hungry. When he was hungry he would bite the crap outta me thinking I was food. They are usually pretty good otherwise & are usually bitey as babies if at all. I used to breed Vietnamese Blue Beauties & find them to be more agressive & have dealt with extremely aggressive adult specimens of them on more than one occassion, Mark

hunter

03-28-05, 05:57 PM

what is an adults bite like???
i imagine quite strong eh!!

lolaophidia

03-28-05, 09:34 PM

When my snake bit me (it was probably 7 or 8 years ago) he broke off two teeth in the knuckle of my right middle finger. It was pretty bloody, but he didn't chew or bite repeatedly, nor did he try to wrap my arm or any of that. It's not like getting hit by a large boa- they tend to bruise due to the force of the strike. It was one of those- oh you're not a rat, where's the rat you were holding- sort of bites, not defensive at all. With the broken teeth, I did check his mouth to make sure I hadn't injured him by pulling his teeth when I jerked away (he was fine) and I only found one tooth in my hand at the time.

The bite healed relatively quickly with the help of neosporin but I still had a small lump at the joint. A year later I'm at work, an notice my knuckle is red and really itching. So I scratch it and lo and behold out comes another centimeter long tooth. My co-worker thought I was nuts trying to show him this tooth that just came out of my hand (I worked in a call center at the time and no one there shared my interest in snakes). Kind of silly story...
See if these pics work for you- hosted on a different site.
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/photopost/data//522/Taiwan_Beauty_9.JPG
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/photopost/data//522/TBS4_031404.JPG

Invictus

03-28-05, 11:50 PM

This is by far my favorite colubrid. I have like... a whole bunch of them. :) I won't say how many right now, but suffice it to say that I've only ever been bitten once, and that was by an adult. As described above, he embedded a tooth in my knuckle. My babies have yet to nail me. Even as adults, these snakes seem VERY timid. Keep them cooler than most other colubrids - I find anything over about 81-82 degrees, and they are trying their best to stay cool, even if it means soaking. Their cool end should be room temp. Vietnamese blues seem to like much higher humidity and cooler temps than Taiwans. Other than that, ENJOY.. this species is just plain incredible to work with.

hunter

03-29-05, 05:12 PM

thanks guys i just took pics of mine today, i hope i dont get bit any time soon, i just love her and im thinking about getting another.....we'll see hahah.
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/7819tb2-med.jpg

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/7819tb1-med.jpg

i took it with the stick to try and show her size she is still less than a year old i think, im getting more info about her tonight, i am so pleased i cant wait till she gets bigger!!

lolaophidia

03-29-05, 05:26 PM

She looks great! And she should grow like crazy over the next year. Looks like she could handle a small adult mouse with no problems as a meal now and at that age, they are almost always hungry... Be prepared to move up in cage sizes as she grows too. Lot's of feeding and cage cleaning in store for you! ;)

Invictus

03-29-05, 06:08 PM

A small adult mouse? I was feeding my Taiwans 100g small rats at that size, which are easily double the size of a jumbo adult mouse. My current adult males get medium - large rats.

lolaophidia

03-29-05, 07:14 PM

You are right Invictus, that the snake can take larger prey than your average small mouse. I was "guestimating" based on the thickness of the dowel in comparison to the snake. ;)

I usually start off a little small with the prey size, and if the snake still looks hungry, offer another small item. It's a lot easier to deal with that way for me, than when you've given the snake something that was a little too big and you're worrying about a possible regurge situation. My adult male would eat a football if it smelled like a rat, but I'd hate to deal with a regurge from a meal that size... so I stick with large rats to be on the safe side. Since these guys don't like warm temps (like a lot of Asian rat snakes), I don't like to overload them with food. But it's just my opinion...

ottawaguy

03-29-05, 07:32 PM

Very Nice......

lizardo

03-29-05, 08:52 PM

ive fed her a small-medium rat, about 1.5 times bigger than an adult mouse and she took it fine, i fed her 2 days ago an adult mouse and couldnt even see a lump in her barley...no more mice for her!!lol yeah i am most likely getting a male before i thought i would, i have go to school next year so i only want one more snake until my 1 year course is done (i have 2 corns and a tb now)i am just so please with her they are awesome...i havent been bit yeah though LOL.

lizardo

03-29-05, 08:52 PM

btw im on a different pc i am hunter on my usual one

Invictus

03-29-05, 10:37 PM

Lora - You should have seen this other male that I had once (and am getting back in a trade) - when he was about 3 feet long, he took down 6 adult mice! I couldn't believe it... 3 days later, he pooped it all out and looked like he hadn't eaten a thing.

hunter

03-30-05, 07:04 AM

hahahah gross!!!that musta been a huge dump!!

lolaophidia

03-30-05, 07:35 AM

Invictus,
I believe you! The snake I have has eaten up to 10 mice at a sitting. It was a situation a few years ago where I had a freezer full of mice and there were no rats available at my local store. They do digest a number of smaller prey items a lot faster than one big one. I'm guessing its because the bones are smaller and easier to break down. Compared to boids, a TBS even at low temperatures has a speedy metabolism.

And Hunter- just wait till you get to clean up after a meal of a large rat. Get your shovel out... ;) Big colubrid poop is usually a lot messier than boid poop. I used to keep a Cribo- talk about a mess!

Invictus

03-30-05, 08:56 AM

Yup, Drymarchon from what I hear are *almost* as bad as beauty snakes. :) My adults currently need to feed about every 5 days. Like you said, for a cooler-temperature snake, their metabolisms are just ridiculous. And yeah, 300g rat = 275 gram poop. :)

gonesnakee

03-30-05, 04:28 PM

Beauties usually love to poop in the water too making for a very unpleasent soup. In reguards to the Drymarchon, their poop especially when fresh is way nastier than any other snake IMHO Nasty Nasty Nasty LOL Very distinct odor & not at all pleasent. Its always "fun" cleaning Indigo poo. In reguards to prey size I found (with the VBBs anyhow) that they preferred multiple small prey items over 1 or 2 larger ones. Good luck with your baby there Hunter, next year it will be huge compared to what it is in size now (as will be its poops LOL). Mark
P.S. cleaning up a huge Boid poop is a "cake walk" compared to cleaning up after a large Colubrid anyday!!!

hunter

04-04-05, 06:33 AM

heres a pic of my male.i took this pic yesterday, wearing the same shirt as in the last pic i took LOL!(it was over a week ago!!)
http://www.reptilescanada.com/gallery/data/500/medium/tbgood1.jpg

i love these snakes i want 100 of em!!!!well maybe 3

lolaophidia

04-04-05, 01:48 PM

The male looks great too! Before you run out and get a 100 TBS- save a little money for some nice big display cages and plenty of food... ;)
Out of all my current snakes, my Taiwan has always been the best display snake, very interactive and interested in what's going on outside the cage. All my other Asian rat snakes are more of the timid sort (Mandarins, Coxi, Rhychophis).

Hopefully in a year or two you'll be posting pics of a bunch of squirmy Beauty snake hatchlings!

hunter

04-04-05, 02:34 PM

how big of an enclosure do you have for your adults, thats something ive already thought about, it'll be cool to have them in a nice big display cage.

lolaophidia

04-04-05, 02:44 PM

48 long by 24 deep by 17.5 high- though if I had the space, I'd give him more height since these guys are good climbers. I'm really at the lower limit of cage size for this snake, he'd use more room if I had it.

I prefer to house all my snakes in separate cages- makes feeding and health issues much easier to deal with. With two snakes in a cage, you can run into issues with stress and competition over the best hides and basking spots. Plus with this guy- he's a handfull. I don't know if I'd want to deal with two hungry TBS at the same time when I opened the cage door...

Invictus

04-04-05, 03:41 PM

My adults are also in 4 x 2 x 1.5 cages, but I'd love to give them more space. I know they will use it.

SnakeyeZ

04-04-05, 10:40 PM

Great looking snake you got yourself, Im also a big fan of beauty snakes...only ones I have are the veitnamese blue's, GREAT intellegent snakes. Id love to get some chinese and macaudi's aswell.

Here's a few photo's of mine.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/snakeyez/Colubrids/DSC00412.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/snakeyez/Colubrids/DSC00615.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/snakeyez/Colubrids/DSC01084.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/snakeyez/Colubrids/DSC01381.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/snakeyez/rreptiles.gif

Invictus

04-04-05, 10:58 PM

Gorgeous!!

I'm excited, I just got an adult pair of blues in a trade. I'll post pics as soon as I can.

SnakeyeZ

04-04-05, 11:00 PM

You'll love them man...cant imagine there much different than any other beauty, but there still a nice addition to the collection.

hunter

04-05-05, 06:30 AM

it looks like they have bigger heads, cool snake, how so they calm down compared to taiwanese??i heard blues and taiwans have relativley the same temperment

Invictus

04-05-05, 08:00 AM

i heard blues and taiwans have relativley the same temperment

You heard wrong. Blues have the worst temperament out of all of the beauty snakes, but many believe that there is just no managing them. I disagree with this, and I believe that like any snake, they can calm down once they know you're not a threat. Taiwans on the other hand, are usually born VERY reluctant to bite, prefering to flee instead.

SnakeyeZ - I've had blue beauties before, so they are nothing new to my collection at all. These are just my first adults. Admittedly, when I got my first pair, I really wasn't ready for them, but now that I have a lot more experience, they don't intimidate me.

Katt

04-05-05, 01:25 PM

Ken, I am going to have to differ on you with this. Chinese beauties can be quite aggressive, and cave dwelling rats are known to be very pensive. I have owned blues, taiwans, chinese and cavers, and they are all pretty equal, with taiwans being marginally better than the rest.

Quit giving blues a bad rep!!