"Gecko" snake????

[dance2water]

I just got a Taiwanese beauty snake. I put him into a 10 galllon aquarium with a standard screen top. I put his traveling container and the shavings in it into the tank to give a familiar place to hide.

I go to check on him after a while and I look around the tank and at his shippping container and don't see him. I have the top secured with clips and two bricks, so I am sure he couldn't get out.

I finally see that he is pressed against the top screen around the edge of his tank; seeming to defy gravity. I check again a little later and he has crawled a little further around the top of the tank. This is carrying aboreal behavior to the extreme!!!

I guess tomorrow I have to get him a branch<G>.


Has anyone else had a snake that can 'cling' to the screen top of its tank?

[The Gawd]

yup my baby corns are always climbing around there, pretty soon tho they will be to big to do this...

Al

[dance2water]

I guess I should have mentioned that the Beauty snake is 40 inches.

[gonesnakee]

It is checking to see if it can get out. Quite common for snakes in new enclosures to check the perimeter for possible escape routes. Speaking of new enclosures it needs one ASAP. A 10 g is no where near big enough for it. A 10 g is a tank for a hatchling Beauty snake, yours should be in at least a 33g or bigger RIGHT NOW being already 40 inches. When it is full grown it will require at least a 2 X 2 X 4 foot enclosure or better yet a 3 X 3 X 6 foot one. Beauty snakes grow upwards of 5 feet in their first year if fed properly (yours should be taking multiple large adult mice or a couple of small rats weekly) & it will get 7-8 feet very easily as an adult (3 years old). Also I should mention they require large water dishes (which they like to poop in too BTW), at least big enough to fully submerge themselves. Right now at 40 inches a gallon bucket 1/2 full would be the right size. Also Beauty snakes prefer their temps slightly cooler than your average Colubrids 70-80 F for coldside/hotside temps & you will find it on the cool side more often than not. In a 10 g you don't even have enough room to do this especially with a proper size water dish. You need to get an appropriate sized enclosure right away as the one you have it in is WAY too small. Its like you having a closet to live in instead of a bedroom. There is a good caresheet for Vietnamese Blue Beauties (same snakes basically) on Joe Birch's site http://www.slitheringserpents.com/bluebeautycare.htm I'd recommend reading it & looking for a new enclosure right away. Good Luck Mark
P.s. & yes I have kept & bred plenty of Beauty snakes myself over the last few years & am offering you facts about their husbandry not just my opinion.