Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just wanted to show a better picture of this 4 year old female. This picture shows how she has maintained her red scales into adulthood. She is a little over 4 ft. in length. Later, Randy

That's a great looking snake, Randy. I'm interested from wich line your Mandarin ratsnakes originate, since they do not look like your typical E. mandarinus from Sichuan, wich has blotches that extend to the ventral side and paler yellow and grey colours...

Regards,

Bert Grit
The Netherlands

Thanks Bert. I have a couple different bloodlines that are both from Brian Barczyk. Randy

Randy:
Nice pics. If you've bred your mandarins I have a question for you (and any other mandarin breeders out there).

Have you ever noted any breeding activity in the fall (assuming you had pairs mixed for some reason at that point.

Regards
John

>>Have you ever noted any breeding activity in the fall (assuming you had pairs mixed for some reason at that point.
>>
>>Regards
>>John
>>

John, I have always kept my Mandarins separate through November, as they are good feeders. I have put them together during the brumation period, however, not noticing any breeding behavior. I would expect to see some breeding, if I kept them together during the Fall, one reason I don't do it. Mine have pretty physical matings, so I'm protecting the females.

TC

I had a male in a female's cage for a short time during a cleaning manipulation and I think he was getting interested. Was checking to see if anyone had seen that before.

Regards
John

What's the level of difficulty in keeping Mandarins? Are they high humidity addicts?

I have found captive bred ones to be very hardy snakes as has been the experience of many others who keep them.
I keep them on the cool side which is around the low to mid 70's.
They do need fairly high humidity. I keep young ones with a damp hide but just keep a very large water bowl in adults cages without too much circulation so it keeps the humidity up and they do great. I keep a deep layer of aspen bedding which they love to burrow in. Randy

Beautiful animal Randy, congrats.

Jeff