Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i know a lot of people say they are not an easy snake to keep in captivity, but i was wondering if anybody had one, and could add some comments about keeping this snake. i am thinking about it, i am pretty sure i can handle a more challenging snake.ive been doing some research but need a few questions to be clarified.

First--size of the tank....? how big, i was thinking about making sorta like one of those exo-terra tanks with the opening front doors

Second- food, ive read crix dusted/ gut loaded once or twice a week, nobody every mentioned how many per feeding, also would meal worms be ok?

Last- substrate? what should it be? and water...how big of a water bowl?

thanks for any help.

I kept a Rough Greensnake for years. It was one I caught, not one of those beat up, dehydrated ones you see at the petstores. I think I had it for 4-5 years then gave it to someone else.

Mine did fine in a ten gallon aquarium with Aspen as substrate. I cage it a bunch of thin branches to climb on and fed it crickets every week. You could put some plastic vines, etc, in their if you wanted a more colorful look.

I tried feeding it other insects and catepillars but it didn't take them. I dusted the crickets every other week or so.

For water, it had a small waterbowl in the corner of the cage. I would also mist the cage with a water bottle once a week or so.

The one thing I did, which I didn't expect the snake to use, was I put a small hidebox in the each corner. I was surprised that it spent most of its time in there. I had a small under tank heating pad with a rheostat controlling it under one corner of the tank (the warm hide box). I kept that hide box at around 85-90° and the rest of the tank was around 70-75°.

The last caveat is that I never handled the snake except to gently transfer to it a shoebox when I cleaned its cage. Rough Greens are very delicate beasts and don't do well when handled.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Thank you so much for all the information.

how many crix did you feed it once a week

>>Thank you so much for all the information.
>>
>>how many crix did you feed it once a week
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

I had one that came from an animal shelter; it was in protected custody at the shelter for about 3 months. It was very healthy and pretty, although fast. It ate about 5 crickets a week. I ended up adopting it out to a girls after school care center, and they still have it after a year and a half. The set up it is in is a 20 gallon long tank with coconut fiber bedding, a large water dish and plenty of plants to hide amongst.