Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello
I'm looking into getting a pair of rough green snakes. I have found info on cage set up but not sure on feeding. I know they take crickets & meal worms but how often & how much? I read they have fast metabolisms and eat alot. How many will an adult pair eat a week? I'm a milksnake & kingsnake guy who is used to the mouse every saturday thing. But would like to try a pair of these guys.
Thanks
Steve

>>Hello
>> I'm looking into getting a pair of rough green snakes. I have found info on cage set up but not sure on feeding. I know they take crickets & meal worms but how often & how much? I read they have fast metabolisms and eat alot. How many will an adult pair eat a week? I'm a milksnake & kingsnake guy who is used to the mouse every saturday thing. But would like to try a pair of these guys.
>>Thanks
>>Steve
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Easiest method I have found is to set a clear deep plastic deli cup into the cage (usually front corner of the setup) and put the food in that so that they can't get out into the cage. when the snakes are hungry, they will go to the cup and eat what they want. I would sprinkle some cricket food on the bottom of the cup and put a sliced piece of carrot in there to keep the crickets alive and healthy until they got eaten. I would keep 6-10 crickets in the cup at a time. Then I would then just refill the container when ever I found it empty. I had one rough green that would curl up on the top edge of the food container sometimes waiting for me to fill it up.
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PHWyvern

A lot of people I've talked to have had longevity problems with invert feeding snakes. I think that the cup idea is good, but I would try to only put as many crickets in as the snakes could consume in a feeding.

Crickets should be gutloaded (fish flakes or crushed high quality dog or cat food make good staples, along with orange slices and carrots for water) for at least an hour before they're offered. They should then be dusted with a high quality calcium and vitamin supplement, I use rep-cal with vit d3 and herptivite for my shovelnose. The dusting tends to decrease the longevity of the crickets and also gets groomed off and falls off them, this is why I would only try to feed as many as they can eat in a sitting.

Some people have also reported that UV lighting is important for these snakes along with lots of vegetative cover; I imagine either fake or real plants would work equally well.

I haven't kept these guys, but I do have a mojave shovelnose that I've had for over a year and a half now and the above mentioned cricket regime seems to be keeping him healthy.

-Alice

I once heard that if you kept rough greens (or maybe it was smooth greens) on a big potted plant they wouldn't leave it. That is, you didn't need an enclosure, you could just put them on the plant and they'd prefer to stay in it than slither around on the carpet or drapes trying to escape. Does anyone know whether that's true?

It's as true as a Rattlesnake not crossing a path if you lay a rope down across it........or a snake grabbing it's own tail and rolling down hill,...... or snakes being attracted to lactating women,............the greensnake just happened to stay there by chance, and had nothing to do with a plant.

It seems the others nailed the keeping of the greens... I just wanted to say 2 things.

1) VERY nice striped coastal plains milk snake...

2) Your kid(?) has very good taste!
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
www.captivebredforum.com

Thanks Mike
The temporalis came from Anthony Chodan (who got her from Ted Thompson).
And thats my granddaughter - startin her out early. She is 14 months old and can already recognize and say frog & snake. I think she is a keeper too!
Steve