New Additions

[Roman]

I got me some new snakes. All of them snakes I have been looking for for quite some time.

It started two weeks ago. I found an ad of an European snake I was really interested in. A CB 2015 male Eastern Montpellier snake (Malpolon insignitus). Best off all, the seller lives only 30 minutes per car from me, so getting the snake was no problem.

He is a small, nervous, fast moving snake. I gave him a week to settle down a bit and offered him some baby mice and he ate them all. He has really good eye-sight, he is watching me the same way as I am watching him…









Today was the second Hamm expo this year. I went there to pick up two snakes I had also found in an ad. Naturally I found something else when I strolled around the show itself.

The snakes I hadn’t planned for were a pair of Tiger rat snakes (Spilotes pullatus) from the same dealer I got my female last September. They are WC from French Guiana, the male is at least 240 cm (8 ft), the female is smaller, ca. 180 cm (6 ft). The male came into his shed right today, so when I saw him at the show he looked bad, with bits of skin sticking all over him, but otherwise he looks just great. So I took them both as an addition for my current group.

When I put them into their new temporary home he was able to finish his shed, he got rid of all the old skin. I didn’t want to stress him any more today, so I didn’t get him out to have a closer look, I will do this tomorrow and if necessary give him a good soak.


The male is in the foreground, the female in the background




Female (left) and male (right)





The female






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[Roman]

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Some closeups of the male Spilotes pullatus








And finally the reason I made the trip at all – two snakes I have been looking for several years now. I got two male WC Yellow-bellied Puffing Snakes (Spilotes sulphureus, formerly known as Pseustes sulphureus). The seller had actually already sold the snakes as a pair when I contacted him at the end of last year, only to find out that they were two males. So the buyer canceled the deal. So he asked me if I was still interested, but he would only sell both males together. I thought about it, but considering how rare these guys are the decision was quite easy.

Both of them are about 180 cm (6 ft), they will stay in their temporary enclosure until I get a new enclosure like my enclosure for my Tiger rat snakes.

So here they are…

Male #1








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[Roman]

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still male #1



Male #2 (he wasn't cooperating as well as his friend, so there's only one good picture of him for now)



Roman

[Jim Smith]

VERY nice additions! I really like the yellow-bellied Puffing snakes as I have never heard of them. I like different and all three of your adds are different. Very cool collection!

[REM955]

The yellow-bellied Puffing snakes are lovely. Can you share anything unique to them?

[Herpo]

Stunning snakes. Keep us in the loop!

[Roman]

Originally Posted by REM955

The yellow-bellied Puffing snakes are lovely. Can you share anything unique to them?

Unfortunately there is very little about them in the literature available to me. Spilotes sulphureus is one of the largest colubrids of the Neotropics, it can grow up to 3 m (10 ft). The distribution ranges from Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Guyana, Brasil to Trinidad.

They are at least semi arboreal. Adults feed from small mammals like rodents or bats and birds, the young snakes seem to feed from lizards and occasionally from frogs.

I will keep them pretty much as I keep my Spilotes pullatus, in a large tropical rainforest enclosure (200 x 90 x 190 cm / 7 x 3 x 6 ft), high humidity, medium high temperatures and lots of living plants. I will feed them with rodents (large mice /small rats right now, appropriate sized rats later and occasionally baby chickens.

Roman

[eminart]

Fantastic, Roman! I'm still going to get some some of those S. pullatus when I have the space. Congrats! I'm jealous of yours.

[REM955]

Originally Posted by Roman

Unfortunately there is very little about them in the literature available to me.

I see this through doing a search before asking. The wiki page offers very little info. But of course, thank you for sharing and good luck. Perhaps you could write a care sheet.

[tastybeets]

Very cute new snakebubs!

[Albert Clark]

Congrats, cool collection!

[Roman]

Originally Posted by REM955

Perhaps you could write a care sheet.

It will be some time until I will put them into their new enclosure, right now they are in a quarantine enclosure. So this care sheet will have to wait for some time, and it will most probably be very much as the description of my Spilotes pullatus enclosure anyway


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Roman