Female Spilotes "PIC"...

[Simon R. Sansom]

Hi Alex,

My male gets four or five large thawed mice per week. The female will only eat live and she gets two live mice twice a week for a total of four.

My female prefers to hide, also. I had her in nice display-type setup and she hated it. Wouldn't come out of her hide-box and wouldn't eat. I put her back in the rubber-maid and VOILA, she's back on the feed-bag again! I guess there are exceptions to every rule, eh?

Simon

[alexandsnakes]

I was worried about my male getting fat, but you feed yours so much more... no problems with obesity? He's gone into shed now from the switch from large mice to hamsters.

My male does sort of come out, but it's like he has to watch us to make sure we don't get him. When he's hungry, he will cruise a bit, but I wish he liked hanging out in his branches more.

[Simon R. Sansom]

Hi Alex,
With their high-speed metabolisms the last thing I worry about is them getting fat, lol! As a matter of fact, I am considering INCREASING their food intake because I think that they can easily handle it. I had my male on thawed, small rats for five feedings, but then he went off them. Won't even look at them now.

Here's an interesting anecdote;
I was feeding one of my large male South Florida Kingsnakes this morning and I had him on the floor while he was consuming his rat so that I could take a few pics...anyway, I happened to look up at the male Spilotes' cage and he was hanging down from his branch, watching the kingsnake intently. When the king would move, the Spilotes would get very excited. I'm sure that if there was no glass separating them, the Spilote sowuld have a go at eating the king. I found this interesting because it shows what excellent vision Spilotes have.



Simon

[alexandsnakes]

Yes they do, don't they? I did a behavioural study on cannibalism in kingsnakes, and short of waving my hand in front of their face, they didn't care what was in front of them; objects didn't really elicit a visual stimulus/reaction. I tried including my Spilotes out of curiousity, and he took one look at a scented swab coming near him and would have nothing to do with the project; I could not introduce a stimulus and get a true response other than "What's in my face? Flee!"

Anyhoo, when he's out of this shed I'll up him to two hamsters a week, I think.

[LdyDrgn]

Simon: Yes, he does fully display during feeding, it's fun to watch! He rattles his tail and flares out his neck...hehehehe. He eats like a pig, too! He will take 3 or 4 f/t small rats in a sitting. He gets fed every 10 days except when he is in blue.

[Invictus]

Can someone tell me the "common name" of this Spilotes species please? I can't remember for the life of me.

[LdyDrgn]

Tiger ratsnake, Mexican chicken snake, Thunder and Lightning snake....

pic your favorite

[Invictus]

Tiger Rat was what I was thinking of. Thanks.

[Simon R. Sansom]

After keeping these guys for a while,
Hi Folks,

I've come to the conclusion that "Ratsnake" isn't really a very good moniker for them. They are very much more like a stripped-down, arboreal
Indigo Snake, or Racer.
Their body shape is not Ratsnake-like at all, in my opinion. The typical Ratsnakes traditionally have a "loaf-shaped" body cross-section, whereas Spilotes has rather a triangular body towards the front, gradually becoming cylindrical toward the middle and rear.
Mine don't really seem to use constriction to subdue their prey. Sometimes they'll throw a coil around a prey item to steady it, but they do not seem to grab and constrict with several coils like a typical Ratsnake.
...And talk about fast feeders! Whew...My male can grab and swallow a large mouse completely in less than ten seconds! It's quite astounding to watch. He was actually letting me hand-feed him this afternoon, which is rare for him.

These are becoming my absolute favourite snakes to work with. They are so beautiful and so alert, that they are a real pleasure to be around.

Must find some more...

Cheers all!

Simon

[Scales Zoo]

If I could only keep 2 kinds of colubrids it would be these guys, and either indigos or taiwan beauties.

Huge eyes, arboreal, very strong, and really pretty.

Must find some more before Simon does....

Ryan