Meet Stormy, Spilotes pullatus

[Will0W783]

I have had Stormy about a month now, and she has gone through her quarantine well. She will still be quarantined for another week at least, but I wanted to get some pictures of her up to show everyone. She has been a very friendly and curious snake, albeit a bit flighty. She gets rather defensive in her cage, but calms down once out. Stormy has been in captivity a little over a year, and she was owned by a veterinarian who fully dewormed her and treated her for all internal parasites, so Im hoping that she does well for me. Spilotes are very rewarding, but they can be heartbreaking when things dont go well- there are very few people who have had success breeding them, so most are wild caught imports.

[marvelfreak]

She sweet looking Kim. :) How big will she get?

[presspirate]

Nice looking girl Kim! Whats the common name?

[Will0W783]

She is probably over 7 feet long right now. They have been known to top 8.5 feet to 9 feet long, but they stay very slender. She will not get noticeably thicker than she is now. The common name is "tiger rat snake" or, as they're known in their native South America, "Thunder and Lightning snake". They drum their tails loudly when they are startled or angry, and the black base with white or yellow banding makes them look like flickering lightning when they rush through the trees.

[Reptile_Reptile]

wow i'm jealous she is beautiful are you going to try to breed? or is she just going to be an a pet?

[Will0W783]

I doubt that I will ever try to breed her. I've kept Spilotes before, and they are very delicate. Since Stormy was already acclimated and treated by a competent professional, I hope that she will do well for me. I intend to just enjoy her for the amazing, intelligent snake she is.
The first two weeks she just hid in her hide whenever I was in the room, but lately she's been coming out and sitting on her water dish to watch me while I'm on the computer. In another week, she'll be finished with the full Nix treatment cycle, and after I get results from my retic's necropsy back from the vet, provided everything is ok, Stormy will be moved down into a 6'x2' cage in my snake room, with branches to climb and hides in several places. Spilotes like to climb and are very active. It is a bit unnerving to have a snake that tracks your every movement with HUGE eyes, though. lol.

[shaunyboy]

first time ive saw these kimberley

they look lively big guys

look forward to hearing more about them as you let us know what they're like to work with

very nice

cheers shaun

[Freebody]

very nice kim, i have not seen one of those guys before either, thx :)

[deighaingeal]

Very nice. Thank you for sharing. I must familiarate myself with this specie, although I'll most likely never own one. I really like the looks of your snake.
What are the fragilities? Anything beyond breeding trouble?
I must say it is also nice to see someone holding their snake and smiling while doing so. So many pictures of snakes are not being held and those that are the people look like they are attempting to impress everyone by looking like they are on the album cover for some rapper.

[percey39]

Looking very nice Kim, you have a great collection going now which will get us all jealous.

[BlindOne]

Congrats Kim, I have 3 Spilotes myself, 2 females and a male....all CB! My largest female will be 5 this year and my younger pair 4, I'm very very hopeful that I can breed them this year. Almost impossible to find good info on how to breed them though.....it seems to be a wet/dry cycle.

Anyways, congrats on a nice animal.....they are like no other snake that I've ever kept. My animals are all at least 7 feet and the biggest may be close to 9 but they still eat weanling to very small rats, they refuse anything larger. They also eat faster than anything I've ever seen.

[Will0W783]

Oh my gosh, can Stormy eat! She inhaled two mice and a rat weanling the last feeding. She can get one down in under a minute, lol. I also love the keeled scales...they truly are unique. BlindOne, if you have breeding luck and decide to sell any babies, I'd love to buy one from you. I'm trying to think of who I know that breeds them. The only name that comes up is Freight Freitas. He's a good guy; I talked to him about breeding file snakes via Kingsnake.com and he was really helpful.
I'm going to try to get some better pictures of her, but it's hard. She doesn't hold still for a second. I really want to get a close-up of the scales; they are almost like leaves covering the snake; very much unlike any other ratsnake I know of.

[Reptile_Reptile]

yea if you get any breeding luck i would too they look like beautiful snakes and i love the long slender look.

[Aaron_S]

I know a guy up here who had too many babies coming from his group! He decided to sell the adults as he couldn't keep all the babies he was having!

Good luck with her.

[Will0W783]

Wow, lucky guy! Stormy is chowing down while I type. She's on her 4th mouse. I have never seen a snake eat as quickly as she does- she just inhales them!

[Ch^4]

Congrats! Great looking snake-she sounds very active and inquisitive. Food inhalation is always nice as well! ;)

[Will0W783]

Thanks. I made a typo though- she will be in quarantine for another month, not another week. I was thinking another week until I feed the snake in my other quarantine room- that's what I get for thinking too many things at once. Due to the scare I had with my SD retic, I'm quarantining everything for 3 months from now on.

[Steve'O]

Nice specimen, congrats on such a beautiful snake. Good luck with her...

[Will0W783]

Thanks, Steve'O. She's a handful, but a good girl. She musked me the other day when I had her out...blech!

[Reptile_Reptile]

dang i bet that sucked. does she musk often?

[Lankyrob]

Ahh the smell of musk!!! Think we may have finally got that smell out of our house after me trying to "tame" the corn we rescued. He would musk EVERYtime i picked him up for about three months. Thankfully he is now a sweetheart and seems to like to be handled.