Hello all, I'm new to this forum, but thought I'd share my recent experience with a little C.c.oaxaca given to me by a friend who was going to feed it to a kingsnake. It's a beautiful green with bright yellow belly and remnants of the juvenile pattern, wish I had a pic to post. Very interesting and alert snake. I have it in a ten gal tank with a pothos (devil's ivy) and a uv reptile light. It is about the length of a yearling rat snake but thinner, so it is still young. It actually ate a live unscented pinky mouse today, so I have decided to try to keep it. I caught it basking in the top of the pothos when I got home this evening, very well camouflaged!
I have kept rat snakes for years and I know these are very different animals. Do racers use hide boxes? I have one in the tank, but it doesn't seem to use it. I noticed it had dug around in the plant soil some, so I assume it would bury itself under shredded aspen as some of my more shy rat snakes do. Once they start feeding on mice, will they continue to feed?
Do these snakes ever calm down? Every time I have handled this one, it has gaped and then bitten and chewed on me. Being bitten doesn't bother me except that it seems that the snake might be stressed, but I have Texas rat snakes that bite and do not seem stressed at all. So maybe this is just part of their normal behavior.?
How difficult is it to breed them, and to get the babies feeding? Are there any good books on racers? All of my general snake books barely discuss racers. Thanks for any replies.
-Toby
