New silver phase red tailed green rat snake and question

babyboa97 · 06-29-14, 10:59 PM

I got a wild caught silver phase red tail green rat snake two days ago and I set him up and he's doing well. I even offered him a small meal that was a left over from another snake and to my surprise he took it readily. Anyways. I know this is a higher humidity snake so I anticipated an prepared for that. But I noticed he likes to spend more time than I imagined in his water bowl soaking. I just wanted to know if it's normal for this specie to spend time soaking. I was concerned and I checked for mites but nope he is nice and clean.
This is my first experience with this rat snake but I had experience with ball pythons. True red tail boas. Boa constrictors. Tiger rat snake. Yellow ratsnake, corns. King snakes. Vine snakes. Retics. And some amazon tree boas and local venomous snakes I've herped so I'm not a beginner snake keeper or handler.
Thanks in advance

marvelfreak · 06-30-14, 01:32 AM

Sweet fine.

jpsteele80 · 06-30-14, 08:05 AM

Love the colors on this little guy

pdomensis · 06-30-14, 08:26 AM

That is perhaps the most colorful and descriptive name I've ever seen :-)

sharthun · 06-30-14, 08:57 AM

Awesome snake!

UwabamiReptiles · 06-30-14, 04:35 PM

I used to work with these guys. They are super cool snakes and once acclimated, they are pretty hardy. With this one being a wc adult, I would leave him alone for a few weeks. They least amount of stress you can put on them. They aren't treated the best by importers because they are considered a trash snake by many. So just take all that into account. With all that said, he looks healthy from that pic. The silver's are known to spend more time on the ground so don't let that alarm you. Even my greens would spend a lot of time on the floor. I'd guess he is about to shed, so that could be why he is soaking. I've noticed from other wc snakes I've kept that they will soak then shed a couple days lat Just monitor his temps and humidity and make sure there isn't a mite problem and you should be fine.

Roman · 07-04-14, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UwabamiReptiles

I used to work with these guys. They are super cool snakes and once acclimated, they are pretty hardy. With this one being a wc adult, I would leave him alone for a few weeks. They least amount of stress you can put on them. They aren't treated the best by importers because they are considered a trash snake by many. So just take all that into account. With all that said, he looks healthy from that pic. The silver's are known to spend more time on the ground so don't let that alarm you. Even my greens would spend a lot of time on the floor. I'd guess he is about to shed, so that could be why he is soaking. I've noticed from other wc snakes I've kept that they will soak then shed a couple days lat Just monitor his temps and humidity and make sure there isn't a mite problem and you should be fine.

What UwabamiReptiles said is absolutely right. Don’t handle it if you don’t have to. Spray some water at least twice a day, because Gonyosoma is a typical arboreal snake and prefers to drink water droplets. My CB snakes ignored their water bowl completely for several months until they “discovered” what you can do with it. Now they are soaking in it quite often, not only before shedding, so I wouldn’t worry about that.

When you get the feces, send them to a vet or a laboratory for a complete screening. WC Gonyosomas have a wide variety of parasites, form lung worms and tapeworms to bacteria and other protozoa. They are no problem for a healthy animal, but due to the stress of being caught, the transport and the lack of water weaken the immune system and can result in a rapid growth of these parasites. The result is a dead snake, most often after several weeks or even months without any sign of any problems and from one day to another the snake is dead. So get this examination ASAP and if there is any doubt get your snake to a vet to do smear test of the mouth and the cloaca.

Roman

charlesc84 · 06-30-14, 05:46 PM

Very cool and unique snake.

franks · 06-30-14, 06:19 PM

Beautiful snake! Post more pics for us.

Marwan · 07-27-14, 01:55 AM

Had one for about 7-8 months now. Mine is a bit aggressive but apparently not all of them are. In regards to soaking, i've never had mine soak in the water bowl but i do spray 3 times a day.