Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i live in massachusetts and ive seen a couple ringnecks before, but kinda by chance. aybody know a good way to find them? do they live under wet leaf litter? or should i check under logs? or split open logs? or what?

and, if i do catch one, are they difficult to keep in captivity? will most WCs eat. and what does one feed them.

thanks

I've had the most luck finding them (I live on the central coast of California) by flipping logs and boards. If you leave the debris the way you find it, you can often find them in the same places year after year.

They seem to feed readily in captvity as long as you can figure out what they want to eat. Worms, salamanders and other small frogs and reptiles are usually what they want. I was lucky to find a large one this spring who is feeding regularly on slender salamander scented pinkys. Our local ringnecks seem to specialize in slender salamanders, so I keep a couple as pets to use for scenting. With all of the news of declining amphibian populations, I just don't feel right collecting them as feeders for my dead end captive.

If you decide to try scenting, I've found placing the snake in a cup increases the chances of success.

I keep mine in a medium critter keeper with ~2" of bed-a-beasst and a clay saucer for a hide and a small waterdish which I overfill to create moist areas of substrate.

-Alice

Northern ringnecks in MA feed primarily on salamanders. Some may take worms as well, but your best luck is with salamanders.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
Updated 6/27
www.captivebredforum.com

If you decide to try scenting a pinky, a washed frozen thawed works best. If it's relatively large compared to your snake (my ringneck is just over 12" and a day old pinky is a pretty big meal), it helps to agressively massage it while it's thawing to break up the skeletal structure, especially the skull and shoulder areas. This seems to make it easier to swallow.

Once the pinky is thawed, I rub it all over one of my salamanders and take special care to make sure that the pinky's head is thoroughly slimed.

It takes mine about 30-45 minutes to get a pinky down. When eating something this large, mine is pretty nervous. I once checked on her too soon and she had just gotten the pinky down and rather than swallow, she regurged so I now give her a couple hours with the pinky before I check on her and I just put the cup in the cage and let her crawl out on her own when she's done. I'm hoping she'll eventually get more comfortable with the process.

Another big plus to having a pet salamander (they're interesting captives in their own right) and feeding scented pinkys is that it's relatively easy to provide a steady supply of food especially in cases where salamanders are only out and about seasonaly.

-Alice

P.S. I keep my ringneck at room temp (my room fluctuates between the low 80s during the day to the low 70s at night). She does not seems to have any difficulty digesting her meals at this temp and is on a biweekly feeding schedule.

What ringneck sub-species is in your part of CA?
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
Updated 6/27
www.captivebredforum.com

We have D. p. vandenburghi, the Monterey ringneck. I suspect that diet varies a bit depending on where they occur and with what. I've got some spots in San Luis Obispo where I can find them regularly in the spring. Slender salamander are pretty thick in that area, and that's all they seem to want to eat. I've tried scenting with arboreal salamander, ensatina, western skink and pacific treefrog to no avail (I wish the above worked because they're much easier to care for than the slenders). I've run across ringnecks occaisionally in very sandy coastal areas where I suspect they're feeding on legless lizards, but since my ringneck has probably never seen a legless, I don't think that it's worth harassing mine.

-Alice