Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently picked up a baby Royal Diadem Snake, (Spalerosophis diadema atricepts) at a small reptile show. Already I am intrigued by her altert presence and bold inquisitiveness as to what is going on in the herp room. Although she'd been eating live, she took 4 f/t pink mice immediately when offered.

She observes me and what I am doing in the room. She has only displayed once when I walked up to her enclosure too quickly. It was quite the hissing, puffing show! Usually she is calm if I approach her enclosure slowly.

This species is sometimes referred to as a rat snake, which is puzzling. She lifts her head much like a racer, and is not given to curling up in her hide box like rats tend to do. Perhaps my experience with rat snakes is different from the people who see the similarities?

If anyone here has kept this species, I'd appreciate learning about your experience. Clara, at Lower Ground Reptiles, keeps a pair, and was kind in her sharing of information. I want to learn as much as possible about the species while she is small, in order to give this girl a good life when she is larger. I am looking forward to her ontogenetic change.
Thank you in advance for any good words and/or photos!

King regards,
althea

. . .hard to believe that she'll be 4' and salmon/orange with black spots and head when she's an adult!

I have kept both atriceps and cliffordi. Neat snakes that are very interesting compared to other available colubrids. Also very easy to keep.

BTW, the atriceps are highly variable. I had one that was all black on the first third of its body -- not only the head.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

Thanks for the info, Chris. About how long will it take her to evolve into her adult colors? Already she has a salmon-ish tinge to her beige base color.
regards,
althea

Now that I think about it, I never raised an atriceps from hatchling to adulthood. So I'm not sure when the color changes.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

Then I'll be sure to post pics of her along the way, documenting the changes. She seems to be settling into her enclosure quite well, prefering to lie on top of her hide box, just checking out the goings-on.

rgds,
althea