Posted by:
Sasheena
at Fri Jun 13 20:02:55 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Sasheena ]
>>Sash
>>What spp. of ground snakes are you keeping and what husbandry are you using?...(ie set up) substrate and food ? I have some shovelnose that eat crickets.
The ground snakes I keep are Sonora Semiannulata
The two youngest ones are '01 hatch, roughly 9 inches long, maybe shorter. I've had one since August '01, all the rest this year. The young ones are both currently more like Tantilla Hobartsmithi than Sonora Semiannulata. Black head greenish tan body, CREAM belly. The heads get lighter with each shed and each is starting to show a nice orange dorsal stripe. Two of my adults are the same phaze, with dusky heads and a bright orange stripe. Both of those were given to me by my students, one of which has two severe kinks about the perfect distance from each other to surmise it was shut in a door at some point in its life. Except for the most convoluted slither, it gets around fine. Another of the adults I have is pure red with a cream belly. All three of these adults are about 14 to 15 inches long. I also have two of the Sonora Semiannulata that are banded, red and black bands, one is a sub-adult, and the other is the largest one I have.
I have all 7 in a 15 gallon aquarium, dirt for a substrate, cork bark and several stones and logs for them to hide under. A couple of shallow water dishes. I feed them 30 or so small crickets once a week, and it's a feeding frenzy.
I don't give them any supplemental heat. The "mouse room" is a lot cooler than an Arizona summer, but still in the low 80's. In the winter I don't add heat either, and I offer a lot fewer crickets in the winter. When my "big snakes" brumate I tend to feed only lightly if at all. When the snakes come out of brumation, the ground snakes do too. I try to mimic the "natural" Arizona just a bit. Since I've had the one almost two years and he has thrived, I tend to think it's a good enough system.
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~Sasheena
Ground Snakes
Kit, Kaboodle, Tantilla, Tantillas, Lightning, Kinkee, Maple
JCP
Dreamer
Rosy
Castle
Kings
Licorice, Bishop, Queenie, Jester, Tigris, Euphrates
Pandora, Phantom
Lady
Corns
Aphrodite, Athena, Hermes
Tiger
Amulet
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Ground Snakes - Sasheena, Fri Jun 13 20:02:55 2003 