The Sept. 12th show was great and I picked up four new snakes... 0.1 Albino Bull snake, 1.0 Mud Snake (Eastern?) and 1.1 Macklot's Python.
I got the '04 albino bull from Jonathan Crowe and it's huge; I haven't seen many you pits but at nearly two feet it's much bigger that I would expect at only a few months old. I'm not normally a fan of things with red eyes but the yellowish-orange colouration is simply irresistible... and it looks much better in person. At the show it looked great but I didn't truly appreciate its colour until I got it out of its container. This girl's (my guess, not properly sexed) great to handle and I can't wait for my bank account to recover from the show so I can find her a mate.
I got my new mud snake (I think it's an Eastern?) from PCPC. These guys have a reputation for being very difficult captive, partly because of their exclusive diet of Amphiuma and Sirens (at the show I thought they ate eels but that's the closely related Rainbow Snake), and partially because of their tendency to blister from soaking too long.
PCPC kept him on moist sphagnum for a month or two but after reading a bit and talking to another fellow who's kept them healthy for a good length of time (I've looked everywhere and only found one person!!), I've decided to house him differently. He is in an aquarium with about 8" of water and a large floating platform. On the platform is a bowl of peat moss and a dry hide. The pH of the water has been lowered to 6.5 using peat moss; muds tend to blister if the pH goes to high.
Right now I am heating the water with an aquarium heater but I am planning to switch to an overhead lamp. The reason for this is that in the wild muds spend a great deal of time in clogs of pond weed and likely thermoregulate by sitting closer to the surface or bottom as the case may be.
PCPC said they had him eat mice, which is very rare. Some larger specimens have been known to eat mice scented with amphiuma. I tried a frog and some minnows (all unscented) last night but he showed no interest. I'm looking around right now for a siren or amphiuma but with no luck so far, hopefully I'll find some one to import one for me.
These guys have a strong, sharp tail which they press up against their handler, this is sometimes said to be fatally toxic (enough so to kill a tree!), but is of course completely harmless; though you can feel it more than I'd expected. They are also known (falsely) to roll into a hoop, their tail in their mouth, and roll after folks, chasing and envenomating them with their tail. They are slightly venomous (like most xenodontinae) but are not biters, in fact I haven't even found any info on symptoms, no doubt they are negligible.
As far as I no they have only been hatched once in captivity (though I believe it was a WC female who was gravid when captured). This is quite possibly the only mud in Canada. If all goes well and he stays healthy (and I can have him eat something other than amphiuma) I'll likely be trying to find him a girl next year.
This has got to be my favourite snake ever, even if he doesn't take good pictures.
I have some pics of my new Macklott’s in the General Pythons Forum.
Thanks
Cam
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