Nice work, JD! It is in fact Hypsiglena torquata.
I had a pair of these little guys that I got from a friend who couldn't get them to feed. Always a sucker for a challenge, I decided to take them in order to see if I could get them feeding on rodents.
I managed to get them to take guppies, believe it or not, and then it was fairly simple to coax them to take guppy-scented pinks. Eventually they were happily eating thawed, unscented pinks with no trouble at all and grew to about 14 inches in length.
Here's a pic of the female devouring a thawed pinky. It gives you an idea of the dimunitive size of these snakes...
I had them for almost a year, and was really looking forward to trying breed them, when the male suddenly and unexpectedly died, with the female following suit about three weeks later. I don't know what happened, but I suspect that it may have been a dietary deficiency due to the rodent diet (?). Rather a shame, as they are really attractive little critters and I would have loved to see what the babies would have been like - tiny, I'll bet!
Thanks for looking, everyone.
Simon
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