Kunashir Island Japanese Rat Snake

chairman · 07-26-20, 10:21 PM

At the end of April I purchased a blue phase Kunashir Island Japanese rat snake, Elaphe climacophora. He's been a fantastic little snake, a tiny bit defensive, but a great eater of f/t rodents.

Here he is (note, they don't turn blueish until they get a little older):

Another note, they're semi arboreal:

And here's the quarantine enclosure, a 12x12x18 ZooMed enclosure with cypress mulch substrate, a handful of hides, and a climbing opportunity with plastic plants added to provide a little cover.

He was initially curious about getting his picture taken but, once in his perch, decided he didn't like my camera and tried to strike at it. I have an AP cage coming in for him next month, I'm looking forward to getting him set up in a permanent enclosure.

poison123 · 07-26-20, 11:23 PM

Nice. Old world rats have got to be one of my fav group of colubrids. They come in so much variety.

ClockwerkBonnet · 07-26-20, 11:50 PM

Beautiful snake!

toddnbecka · 07-27-20, 11:02 PM

I've had a pair for several years. They're the best snakes for handling in my collection. They've never been defensive or flighty, even when they arrived as babies. As adults they have fantastic metallic looking colors along with the turquoise heads.

chairman · 07-28-20, 09:01 PM

I thought I remembered someone on here having some. If you get an opportunity to take some pictures then you should post them.

I've been looking at old world rats for a while now. I'm strongly considering adding a Thai bamboo rat snake or a mandarin rat.

poison123 · 07-28-20, 10:15 PM

I have a thai bamboo ratsnake. Had a pair but the male had a very bad chewing by his cloaca which caused him to prolapse. First time it happened i was able to get it back in and was good for a few months then i just found him dead one day prolapsed. I assumed it was like that for a couple days since they are very shy and i stopped checking up on him.

poison123 · 07-28-20, 10:17 PM

Anyway they are very very cool snakes they do act shy until its feeding time then they are ready and nothing will stop them.

chairman · 09-05-20, 09:20 PM

A couple weeks ago I looked at my snake and decided it was time to up the meal size. I gave it two small fuzzies, which it happily took. Then it decided to go on a little hunger strike. I got it to eat tonight after thawing the fuzzy dry and scenting its head with a dry thawed adult mouse. Guess it is time to get some larger, fuzzier fuzzies. At least my blue tongued skinks will enjoy eating the rest of the small fuzzies (unless I get another small colubrid).

**Aaron_S** · 09-06-20, 04:37 PM

Fun species to own!

chairman · 11-22-20, 06:03 PM

My Animal Plastics order came in and I was finally able to get my snake set up in half of a T-10. I attempted to plant the tank but one of my plants is not doing all that well.

The snake was in blue when he first moved in so he disappeared for a couple days. Ended up having a nice shed and taking the first meal in the new cage with rat snake enthusiasm.