Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi
Interested in care of shovelnose snake . My plan is a 10 gallon tank. Fine sand as substrate . Crickets,beetles as foods.
A few flat rocks as decoration .
Not sure of day/night air temp or if a water bowl small should be present or daily misting is best ?

thanks

If you do some searches fo the forum, you may be able to dig up some good posts. There was someone who posted some really informative information last year regarding care.

I've had a Mojave shovelnose since last May, and he's been doing very well for me. I have him (I don't actually know the sex) in a 5 gallon short tank with a couple of inches of sand (The real stuff, not calci-sand etc). I have a cobra (T-rex brand) UTH along one side of the tank. and a slab of cork-bark covering about 1/2 of the floor area and a small plant saucer I keep filled with water. I've read about people having problems maintaining them long term on a cricket only diet, but I don't think that they were dusting the crickets. Mine eats almost nothing but crickets which I dust with Rep-cal with vitamin D3 and Herptivite. My snake is a little over a foot long and about 2x the with of a pencil. He does best with medium (3/4 inch) crickets with the hoppers removed. He eats 6-12 most weeks.

I also regularly offer mealworms and waxworms (in the account I read, his shovelnoses took these so maybe it's an individual thing), but these are rarely taken by mine. In the summer, I catch and de-wing moths for him, and these disappear rapidly. I've also tried wolf spiders and camel crickets, which weren't big hits. Beetles have never been taken. When I first got him, I would put him in a deli-cup overnight with his food and even the less favorites like wax worms and spiders were taken (I don't think the mealworms were mobile enough to be interesting). But, he started abrading his snout in the cup, so once I could see that the crickets in the cage were being eaten I stopped cupping him.

At least in the acclimation phase, I'd go with a smaller tank. This way he'll be more likely to encounter his prey. If the snake is about a foot, I'd recommend a 5 gallon. If he's under a foot, I'd go with a 2.5 gallon. Once you've got him eating and established, you can upgrade the tank if you feel the need. The screen tops secured with the pin, sold for reptiles allow enough wiggle room for little guys like shovelnoses to get out. I use a 1 inch clamp to keep mine shut tight.

I see mine out most often in the early evening. Sometimes after he's eaten, I'll see coils protuding from the sand pressed against the side with the UTH. I've rarely witnessed feeding, and so I rely on inventoring the insects to determine what and how much he's eating. Since he often takes his time finishing off the crickets, I put fish flakes in one corner for them and the saucer I use is small enough that they can access it without drowning.

-Alice

This was very helpful thank you very much. Funny to as I just threw away my erratic dangerous zoo med heat pads and switched to Cobras big difference to as you know.
Thanks again it was very helpful as no care sites for these snakes none that I could find anyway.

Thanks