Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi Guys!

First of... sorry for my bad English!

I have a couple of questions on this species:

1. How to keep it in a vivarium?? What about cage size, light, humidity, temperatures and so on? Just all what you know about them!

2. How toxic is there venom? And what about their tempers? Are they aggressive or rather docile?

3. How big do they get?

Any help is appreciated!

Regards from Denmark,
Ole Johansen

Cage size. this is a snake that could certainly benefit from a big cage. They love to get out and crawl around. Perhaps place a few branches in the elncosure, they do like to climb a bit.

Temps. I keep mine at around 85F.

Humidty. I know for sure that my humidity is rather variable, I would say no lower than 40% ever and no hihger than 70%.

Temper. None, my CB snakes seem to have no will to bite, unless you smell like a pinky, DO NOT make that mistake.

Venom. Unkown, supposedly fairly moderate, could ruin your week.

Be sure to put in a large sized water bowl. Live plants (or just some green plant cover like fake ivy or something).

Really neat snakes, very quick. If you had one determined to bite I don't think you could do much to stop it. They could make short work of a hook. You'd just be giving it a ladder to your hand but like I said not inclined to bite.
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It's helped me to keep in mind that these are a grassland snake and not a tree boa or exotic rat snake, don't overdo the humidity.

They will it mice with a fervor that you rarely see in snakes.

Intelligent beasts aswell.

Thanks Saker!

I have a well-planted vivarium with lots of good climbing branches, and a rock background. Its measures are approx. 4x2x4 ft. (120x60x120 cm.), the substrate is ReptiBark from ZooMed. A thermo-timer controlled ceramic bulb heats it, and there’s an extern Ultrasonic Fog Generator, which is controlled by a digital timer. There are two 6W energy-saving bulbs, which are giving a really good light.

Do you thing that I would be able to keep a single P. aestivus in this setup?

Regards,
Ole

Yes I do!

But like I said I would try to keep the humidity below 70%

Sounds good... think I'm gonna buy one next week or something then!!

Thanx for all your help, Saker!!

Regards,
Ole