Sushi time! - Japanese Rat Snake

[Sylphie]

Originally Posted by Humble308

These things are cute little babies, I looked up pics of adults and WOW, talk about a transformation!

Exactly! Russian Rats (E.schrenckii) are having big transformation too, but in their case you knows from the beginning how will they look (brown&cream baby will be black&yellow, black&white baby will be all black, and blackish-grey with white will be black&white). Japaneses are more unpredictable, and that's the whole fun!

[Sylphie]

Today was first feeding day for them. They were feed live prey so we were sure that it will take some effort to make them realize that f/t is food too. Well, it was'nt necessary, they ate without hestitation I guess we're having the next generation of Artemis (our female Russian Rat Snake) as they ate one pinkie and were looking for more.

For now two of them are really curious and brave, while the third is always hiding. We named one Li, as he's having a marking on his head in the shape of LI. The other two are still just sushi, as they are both having "v" shape so we can't recognize them.


And that's how they spend most of the time watching me. Really great snakes, very similiar to Russians, always observing and moving a lot:

(phone pics, so not the best, but still cute!)

[Sylphie]

Uhhh one of our babies escaped today from his feeding box... I hope we'll found him, but we never had such a small snake escaped, so it can be hard. Good thing that it's winter so all the windows and doors are closed all the time.

[toddnbecka]

Oh no, good luck finding the rogue worm. I lost the okeetee corn and diamondback water snake last summer, never saw either of them again. I suspect they found their way out under the basement door, there's a gap large enough for snakes that small to fit through. Even with screen tops locked down they managed to get out, now I use pegboard to prevent wee worms from accessing the tank rim.
I had 3 of the large Dominicans (1m/2f together for breeding) on the loose last week, apparently they are able to open sliding glass doors from inside the enclosure. They all turned up again over several nights, the first one the same night they escaped, balanced on a water pipe overhead in the basement. I suspect the other female spent some time soaking in one of the 90 gallon aquariums because there was water overflowed onto the floor. I found her on top of the tank the 2nd night. Didn't locate the male until Thursday night, he was curled up and resting, didn't even protest when I picked him up.
The glass doors are now secured to prevent them from repeating their trick.

[Sylphie]

Thank you! When our snakes escape I'm always mostly worried about them getting into trash can. We always check our trashes before throwing them out if one of the snakes is out, but with so small hatchling... if he curls we can easily overlook him

[toddnbecka]

Check your laundry too. It's surprising how easily a 2 meter boa or python can hide, small snakes have too many more options. Rat snakes are fairly active though, so you have a fair chance of seeing the escaped one moving around sooner or later. Just make sure there's access to water, dehydration is a bigger threat than starving.

[Sylphie]

I know, there are at least two point in home when he can find water, one being our dog water bowl, second being the bowl under one point of our window when the water is droping fairly often. I'm also thinking about putting small pieces of bamboo tubes here and there, and put inside a piece of mice smelled paper. I'm just soo worried because of his size With bigger ones we are just waiting till they throw something from shelves, fall from something or just simply show up somewhere. But that small snake won't easily do the same mistakes the bigger ones are doing.

[Sylphie]

We are still looking for our little escapee, but in the meantime the other two are growing like a weed. What amazes me are their climbing abilities. That's how I often see them (I know the pic is not the best), and I wonder how strong they are to hang upside down only with their muscles "holding" between two glasses, or on glass rails...


Considering that russian rats are fairly strong as an adults, yet Artemis as hatchling was unable to "stand" in the corner, while these little ones are doing all the weird "I'm a lizard" things I'm curious how strong they will be.

[Herpo]

I wish we had these in Oz, I love the idea of rearing a family of snakes together! Stunning creatures!

[Herpo]

Hope you find the escapee!

[Sylphie]

WE FOUND HIM, ohhh, I ąm so happy! He's little dehydrated and skinny, and half the size of the other two (a month without food at that age makes a huuuge difference), and he has mites, but it'll be good now, since we can finally take care of him. He's in a tub with a water bowl at the moment, and will get a super small newborn mouse soon too.

[macandchz]

good luck with the new ones!

[Sylphie]

He died... I guess the shock of being in warm and with water again was too much, but I'm too devastated to think clearly now.

[dannybgoode]

So sorry to hear that Slyphie. You did all you could though...

[toddnbecka]

I doubt it was shock, more likely the mites and dehydration were too much for him. Really sorry to hear he didn't make it, but at least you found him.