Posted by:
SnakesAndStuff
at Mon Sep 28 14:53:38 2009 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by SnakesAndStuff ]
There are many others on here with more arboreal experience than I have, but I'll share my 2 cents. Comments welcome.
When they're young, I tend to keep arboreals at mild temperatures... Say 80F daytime, 76-78 at night. Adults can enjoy higher basking temps, but for the babies they seem to do better with more mild temps.
Keep them very hydrated and in a small cage with a perch. Keep in a low traffic area and somewhere that the snake will feel secure.
A lot of times when an arboreal snake will strike/release instead of hold on to a prey item I find that this works, although it takes some patience. Find a nice comfortable chair to sit in etc, and have the snake on a perch in front of you... Not in the cage. For example, I like to take a snake hook and hang it parallel to the floor by placing it on a table etc and weighting the handle down with something. Put the snake on the hook so it has to perch and hang on. Let it get a good hold, then attempt to feed it. I find that a lot of times snakes that bite/release will bite and hold on better this way, and once they have a hold of the food item they'll go ahead and eat it as long as you can sit still and not move for 20-30 minutes. Feed them a good sized meal, but not something they're going to have a hard time hanging on to.
There are lots of other tricks that are used, but my favorite, and the one that tends to work best, is feed them frogs and let them decide when to start taking rodents.
[ Hide Replies ]
|
RE: C. Macrops and T. Puniceus Inquiry - SnakesAndStuff, Mon Sep 28 14:53:38 2009