Slithersaurus's Colubrids

Slithersaurus · 11-03-15, 12:10 PM

So, I will post the picture of non-corn snake and non-kingsnakes colubrid I have in my collection here.

I have 2 Pantherophis obsoletus sp., known as Western Rat Snake, with one of them is Black Rat snake (O. obsoletus obsoletus) and another is Texas Rat Snake (O. obsoletus lindheimeri).

Here is my black rat snake, Enigma...

He is a baby boy about 6 months old. I bought him from a breeder here who tried to breed a pair of his licourice black rat snake, weird enough all of the baby comes out as normal... Enigma used to be a hyper brat, but now he is improving a lot and is now pretty calm on my hand.

My Texas rat is a young male, right now a couple months old pink eyed leucistic I won as a prize on a snake club's logo contest. His name is Rudy (Anyone can guess the inspiration of his name? xD).

Rudy is still a feisty little bugger. I just got him for like a couple of weeks and due to his age, so no wonder why is he that bratty.... Still, he is healthy and is eating like pig.

I must say, I love these rat snakes, even more than corn. They grow larger, look more majestic and have more challenging attitude.(Both have drawn blood from me) I hope I will be able to get more species of the closely related group like Everglade and Grey rat snakes.

Sylphie · 11-03-15, 12:20 PM

I'm not a big fan of all obsoletus as they are having a little too big eyes, and it looks really weird (even the non bug eyes are still a little too big compared to the whole of the snake). But that being said I really like Rudy! I never saw pink eyed leucistic to be honest... well, it sure looks cool!

Slithersaurus · 11-03-15, 12:30 PM

Thank you! Pink eyed leucistic, from what I heard is the combo of albino and leucistic which is not officially confirmed though due to little study is take on these snake's genetic.

I actually like their big eyes though, it helps decreasing a lot of their overal look for such semi-agressive snake. :P But you are right, they are pretty weird comparing to other snakes of the closely ralated species.

Bug eyes do creep me a lot though! XD

prairiepanda · 11-03-15, 12:39 PM

Super cute! The normal form of the black rat snake is my favorite, honestly. That applies to both babies and adults, and everything in between

I think the big eyes suit them. Just not bug eyes lol

**EL Ziggy** · 11-03-15, 02:01 PM

Very impressive critters Slither. I love the Texas Rat!

Slithersaurus · 11-04-15, 10:43 AM

So, here I am going to show another of my colubrid in the collection. This one, you probably aren't familiar with much as they are not regular specie to be kept in captivity.

Here is my Ornate Flying Snake (Chrysopelea ornata ornatissima). A huge adult female I called Big Mama. She is the only "display-only" snake I have in my collection and she lives in a terrarium in my living room, where she both terrorizes and amuses any visiters that come to our house. xD

This specie of snake is always my favorite among the native snake here. However, Ornate Flying Snake is rear-fanged and midly venomous, plus her origin as wild caught adult, making Big Mama a furious madam that I will try to handle her as least as possible. She has bitten me several times and musks alot everytime when I bring her out of her domain, that's why I always use hook when I have to handle her.

I called her Big Mama because when I got her, she was gravid and I didn't know that until the next day, she laid a crutch of eggs. Here are her eggs in my noob incubator at the age of a month and a few days.

I didn't use any proper substrate like perlite or vermiculite as it's all a sudden and unexpectable that she would suddenly lay eggs. Those material also takes time to find here and I can't risk the eggs to wait for it. So, I use sand instead and hope the eggs will be fine. Right now, I have lost one of the egg so far, which I am not sure if it's a good egg turning bad or infertile egg. At least the mother is healthy, so if I end up lose all the eggs, I will find Big Mama a mate and will be likely to try it again.

I will show her whole terrarium later as right now, lots of the fake plants in the terrarium are ruined by the snake moving around, so it looks pretty ugly now. I will have to wait until my exam ends, so I can have time to rearrange things and strengten the set up. So, stay tune!

reptiledude987 · 11-04-15, 11:32 AM

I lofe the flying snake! Im trying to get a paradise flying snake pair. I ordered them last year and they didnt arrive so Ill try again this year and hopefully they come in.

prairiepanda · 11-05-15, 07:35 AM

Wow, I've never heard of flying snakes being kept as pets! They're very beautiful snakes. Do you ever get to see her "fly"?

Slithersaurus · 11-05-15, 09:41 AM

No, her terrarium is too small for that. However, Ornate flying snake, being so huge, is the worst glider of its Genus anyway, so even with big enough enclosure, you won't have much chance to see them glide. They are indeed a very beautiful snake, but not really for beginner especially if you aren't in their native range and not prepared for highly defensive snake.

Slithersaurus · 11-05-15, 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reptiledude987

I lofe the flying snake! Im trying to get a paradise flying snake pair. I ordered them last year and they didnt arrive so Ill try again this year and hopefully they come in.

Paradise Flying Snake is also gorgeous. They are however much smaller and don't adapt to rodent diet well. In fact, there aren't any keepers in my knowledge manage to keep them alive for more than a year. They are absent even in the zoo! So, if you somehow manage to keep them well, please let me know as well! xD

reptiledude987 · 11-05-15, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slithersaurus

Paradise Flying Snake is also gorgeous. They are however much smaller and don't adapt to rodent diet well. In fact, there aren't any keepers in my knowledge manage to keep them alive for more than a year. They are absent even in the zoo! So, if you somehow manage to keep them well, please let me know as well! xD

Im not concerned about the diet too much as I already have my vine snakes feeding on lizards. So thats not a big issue for me. I just love the look of them and for the price of the imports I figure its worth giving it a shot. the husbandry is very similar to the vine snakes and mine are thriving so I think I should be good there.

jjhill001 · 11-05-15, 06:30 PM

I think the ratsnake eye size kind of levels out by the time they hit adulthood though.

reptiledude987 · 11-05-15, 06:40 PM

When it has struck at you has it ever latched on and managet to envenomate?

Slithersaurus · 11-06-15, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reptiledude987

When it has struck at you has it ever latched on and managet to envenomate?

No. All the bite from Big Mama came from a jab or quick nip with the tip of the jaws, so I have never been envenomated.(And never want to. :P) I doubt flying snake would be able to envenomate with defensive bite anyway, their fangs are way very back in the jaws. I would be more concern on feeding respond which I typically use forceps or hook to reach in during feeding or trying to get her out to avoid the possible bite.

reptiledude987 · 11-06-15, 09:45 AM

Well thats good. As well from my understanding if you did get a food response bite where it latched on it wouldnt be all that bad. Theyre venom is basically the equivilent of a hognose with some minor swelling and irritation.