I'm interested in getting some opinions from those keeping and breeding the Northern green ratsnake, Senticolis triaspis intermedia; especially about how they are kept in regards to the humidity/moisture levels in their cages, types of furnishings, etc.

Last year I collected a pair of yearling green rats in a mtn. range in southern AZ. I want to work with this species from a definite locality and wanted young snakes that I could observe maturing. Several adults were passed up.

From the beginning things have gone very well. Both snakes started eating f/t pinky mice right away. They seemed to adapt to their enclosures too, although I kept them in shoe boxes at first and didn't observe much. Sometime during the late summer I transferred them to ten gallon tanks with a water jug, a dry hide, a small hide with moist sphagnum, and in the case of the male, a gallon jug set up to provide a layered moist hide for burrowing. The rest of the cage is layered with aspen shavings and paper towell.

Room temps are usually in the low 70's, but can get up to the high 70's during the day. Now that it's cooled off a lot, it sometimes gets down to about 68*F. at night. I put a heat pad under one end of the tank.

Here's what I've seen so far. The female seems to hide almost all the time in her dry hide. She does spend a lot of time in the moist sphagnum hide when she's in the shed cycle, or about to shed. Neither snake seems to have any trouble digesting and don't seem to need extra heat to digest. They occasionally lie near the heat pad (under tank.) The male cruises around the cage a lot. He uses all the hides in turns when he's not cruising. Neither snake soaks in the water, so I assume they find humidity in other ways in the wild.

One other point I'd like to make is that green ratsnakes have a thin skin compared to other North American ratsnakes. I think they would have a lot of difficulty shedding if they didn't have moist hides.

Here's my questions....
1. What requirements do you think these snakes have as far as humidity/moisture goes?
2. What do you do in their cage set ups to help provide for their humidity requirements, or other, such as security issues?
3. Do you think this species can be maintained in captivity in a healthy environment w/o there being major problems down the line?

Thanks for any and all help and discussion of this wonderful species. I believe several breeders have also had success reproducing green rats in captivity and it might be interesting to hear from some of them.

Here's a series of photos I took of the male last spring, while he still had some traces of juvenile pattern. Now that they are two year olds, they have both turned a uniform greenish color...





Regards...Terry Cox
Ratsnake Haven


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