I have been keeping 1.2 Kunashir Isands since 2006. My one female I keep in my science classroom. She has an amazingly curious and gentle personality. She is in a 20L with a hide and no heat. When the kids come in in the morning, she pokes her head out and watches. Then she will come out and stay out the entire time the kids are there. They all love to hold her when the have free time, and she will literally come out of the aquarium and climb onto their arms when the top is opened.

I bred my other 1.1 for the first time this past season. They are much brighter green than the female in my classroom. It was tricky though. They never showed mating behavior. I would only occasionally find them curled up together. My female was gravid, and never really appeared gravid. In fact, I missed the signals and therefore never gave her a nest box. As a result, I found 6 eggs laid directly on the aspen. I was able to save 3, and all hatched successfully.

This species does like cooler temps. I keep my pair at home on the bottom shelf of my rach with no heat and an ambient room temp of 72-74F. The other thing that is quirky about this species is the tendency to go off food very early. Mine stop eating around the end of Sept. I already have the male in brumation, and I stopped feeding the female last week. They are extremely tuned into the photoperiod. I'm sure this stems from adaptation to their northerly locale and the inconsistency of food sources.

But I too think these snakes are a hidden gem in the hobby. They are unique, beautiful, inquisitive and gentle animals. I think many times the babies get passed over because they are a very non-descript brownish green. But talk about ugly ducklings becoming swans! I will be breeding my pair again this coming spring. Here is a link to my photobucket page that shows my adult pair and the hatchlings they produced this past season:

http://s925.photobucket.com/albums/ad99/CraigHummel/Kunashir Island Ratsnakes/
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God Bless Evolution.

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