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As suggested by Bill #4 I am going to post my questions in this forum. Forgive me if these questions have already been asked. To give a background on what I have is a pair of WC that I picked up this weekend that had been imported from Guyana 3 days before I got them. The Male is 8' and the female 6'.
The first question is cage size. Is 3x3x3 good enough? Next I was wondering if smaller prey items are reqiured for them? they seem to have smaller mouths like Drymarchon that need smaller food and do they have high metabolims? Last I was thinking of someday setting them up in a nice display cage. Can they be kept together or do they tend to be cannabalistic?

Youngsters should NOT be together but adults do well together if fed seperatly, one may hog all the food. They can eat like pigs but start with small meals until their metabalism kicks in. They do best if they have a basking spot and hide box. I use Mexican pottery as a hide, looks nice. They will bask around 100F on a regular basis once they adjust to captivity.

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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

3x3x3 is a good size. Here is a couple of my cages.

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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

Do you think a not so tall cages will be O.K. with an aboreal hide till I can get taller ones?

Looks fine.
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

I am new to Spilotes as well and have 2.1 juvies. I absolutely love them! In my limited experience, I have found they have very high metabolisms and even in a short cage will make use of just about anything to climb on. I have mine in tubs and they regularly climb up along the lips, sometimes perching there for a day or two before retreating to their ground level hides. Here are the two care sheets I found that proved to be helpful:
http://www.primareptilia.com/spp_care.html
http://www.snakemuseum.com/tigerrat.htm

Post some pics of your animals when you get a chance. Also, if you can, check their mouth color as my two Surinam males have a very dark purple/black color at the front third of their mouths, but my female (unknown locality) does not. No one else seems to have animals that have this mouth coloring either.

Bill#2

Most care sheets on Spilotes are not worth the paper they are written on. Primera however was a good one as I recall. The picture you posted looks to be of Central American origin North of Costa Rica. Surinam usualy has somewhat of a V pattern. Here is one from Honduras.

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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

Those are some awesome looking spilotes you guys have. I am not sure of the collected locale of mine but they were exported from Guyuana. Trappers will travel many miles and cross many borders to sell to exporters from what I understand so I will try to post some full body pictures of them. I will tell you that the males second half of his body is completely black though.

Thanks so much for the help Bill #2 and #4. I will try to get a picture a few pictures of the male later tonight when I get off work. For now here is a picture I took of the female. She actually ate a F/T chick and small mouse last night for me. The male wanted nothing to do with food so I will just let him settle for another week or longer before offering him anything.

That snake looks to be from Surinam. That snake looks similar one that I used to have. Mine had a stubby tail. Here is another one that I raised from a youngster from Honduras. Took 3 years to get this big.

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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

Alright I finally got a chance to get more pictures. The first is the girl and the others are the male. If these were cribos I guess they would be "true" blacktails. Hopefully they will breed and the the babies will have some nice blacktails with colorful upper bodies.

Very nice! My two little males look very similar to yours and also have completely inky black tails. Just like yours, it actually extends up well anterior of the vent. They also have much blacker heads (almost no yellow/white patterning) than the Central American locales I have seen. Keep us updated on any breeding activities with those two. I firmly believe the hobby could use some more cbb, big, intelligent, black and yellow colubrids!

Billy

Those both look surinam to me.
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

That one was indeed farm-bred in Surinam.

Bill#2

>>Those both look surinam to me.
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>>"Life without risk is to merely exist."

They are Surinams then. That is good. I do hope to breed them someday so there will be more c.b.s available. In the short time I have had mine I do think they have an undeserved reputation as being an agressive snake. With some more c.b.s available I hope they will lose this bad rep.
I was wondering if "farm bred" babies are commonly or seasonably available? I have never really seen any at reptile shows nor really noticed any on the internet for sale and definetly not any c.b.s. Thanks Roy

She's a beauty!

Bill#2

This one is of mexican bloodlines.

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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

Hi Bill *4
Did my name still on your list for a pair of those beauty?
Thank's
Justin

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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

N/P

Your mane may want to breed the female. If my male is off feed I usually have a female that is ready to breed.

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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

Wow..I would never have thought of to breed them till they acclimate and I get clean fecals from them. They both look to be in excellent health so I might go ahead and house them together and see what happens. I think I would be way too lucky if they would breed so soon.

Men are men just make sure she has good body weight and leave um alone. If he doesn't lock up within a week remove him. Give him a good hide spot and leave him alone for another week. After one week slip some food into his hide. He should eat.
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."