Spilotes pullatus

[Roman]

As I mentioned in my previous post, keeping my Spilotes together works good, they are in no way aggressive against each other. However, during January (about one month after I had put them together) I could watch the first male biting the second male.

I watched how my first male was following the second male and was biting it in the lower third of its body. It was definitely not a hunting bite, the bite was only
short (maybe a second or so) and there was no attempt to constrict the
other male, there were only those short bites. I watched this behaviour
several times, it stopped about 4 or 5 weeks later in February. Since then I could not watch it again.

I strongly suppose that my old male is trying to defend his territory
against the “intruder” during mating season. Another observation I made was my old male rubbing his lower jaw on several branches in the enclosure and the new male flicking his tongue and sniffing these spots. I suppose the old
male was marking his territory.

It does not seem to be a general territorial behaviour, it did not occur bevore January and did stop in February. I will get another enclosure of the same dimensions as my current one minus the left corner, so it will be a "normal" rectangle (2 x 0.9 x 1.5 m/ 6.6 x 2.9 x 4.9 ft). This is for the second male and hopefully another female. I will completely equip it but I am curious if the same behaviour will occur in January again. Either way I will separate both males beginning next year.

I could not find any references about this behaviour in any
literature available to me, neither about Spilotes nor any other
colubrids in general. A fellow snake keeper I spoke about this told me
that adult male Morelia viridis might even kill each other if kept in
the same cage, but he had never encountered such behaviour in his
colubrids. So I am really curious what will happen in January.

[Jason_Hood]

[QUOTE=Roman;767679}

I could not find any references about this behaviour in any
literature available to me, neither about Spilotes nor any other
colubrids in general. A fellow snake keeper I spoke about this told me
that adult male Morelia viridis might even kill each other if kept in
the same cage, but he had never encountered such behaviour in his
colubrids. So I am really curious what will happen in January.[/QUOTE]

There is actually a German documentary on Montpellier Snakes that shows this behavior


Here are a couple of links to a German film in two parts about Montpellier snakes, the footage is amazing.
part 1 Abenteuer.Wildnis.-.Der.giftige.Koenig.der.Provence.part.1.wmv

Part 2: Abenteuer.Wildnis.-.Der.giftige.Koenig.der.Provence.part.2.wmv


Jason

[shaunyboy]

Originally Posted by UwabamiReptiles

Awesome setup for some awesome snakes. How do you go about feeding them, do you have to separate or can you just feeding them at the same time supervised?

i always split my carpets when feeding,imo it me saves worrying about them fighting over prey,if one snakes finishes eating before the other

to the op
great looking snakes mate

cheers shaun

[Roman]

@Jason: Thank you for providing the video, I did not know it until now. I read about the complex mating ritual of Malpolon monspessulanus where the male offers some food items to the female. I also knew that males would fight each other but I had not known that they would actually bite each other.

So the bites looked similar to what I saw with my Spilotes. I am not sure if it was really a combat, because the new male did not fight back but did only try to get away. There was not the typical parallel gliding besides each other or trying to press the head of the opponent down, but it could have been a combat bout.

@shaun: Normally I would separate my snakes for feeding them, but with Spilotes this did not work very well. It took my female several hours before she even considered eating the offered rat and the second male did not eat at all.

[Ivanator]

That enclosure is amazing! I seriously thought I was looking at a picture in an exhibit at the zoo!

Hopefully the biting stops soon, if ever. I don't know anything about this species of snake, but I'm pretty sure the constant harassment is stressing the other male out a lot. Have you thought about putting in a temporary divider in until the new enclosure is finished?

[Roman]

@Ivanator: The biting did stop mid February, since then I could not watch it any longer. Both males often share the same hiding place or the same basking spot, there is no pushing or shoving as far as I can see and definitely no biting any longer.

The second male will get his new enclosure beginning next year.

Roman