Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I'm new to the forum and this is my first post. Hopefully I'm asking my question in the right spot.
Does anyone know if there is a breeder who breeds smooth/rough green snakes? I'll see them listed every now and then but they're all WC (wild-caught).
One herp store I spoke with said they won't get them anymore because they arrive loaded with parasites and mites which makes sense if they're all wild caught.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

hi. a better place to post this would have been in the "small terrestrial snakes" forum but no harm done. If you want a better reply then I would repost there if I were you. I have only heard of one breeder of smooth greensnakes and that person was in canada though I do not know who it was. Most are wc and many of the dealers in our classified section will have rough greensnakes for sale. Smooth greens are difficult to keep in captivity so they only rarely show up for sale. I'd suggest the rough green. Posting in the small terrestrial snake forum would yield tips on keeping them in captivity. I know Mark Lucas sells them for around $10. Shipping is generally another 50 since they need to be fedexed overnight though. Anyway, there is a link to him on the main kingsnake home page under Hobbyist/Private/Commercial Breeders. I hope this helps!

I should have also mentioned that Mark won't send you a snake full of mites, he's quite reputable. Anyway, I think the reason they are rarely sold CB is either their abundance in the wild or more likely their difficulty to breed. I've never kept or tried to breed a rough green so I can't say from experience. I did help care for a wc smooth green and while it took a while to get feeding it eventually made a smooth transition. It later died of unfortunate health complications but I do not believe they were caused by being kept in captivity. My guess is it would have been a gonner much sooner in the wild.

Hi anuraanman,

This was the first time that I'd posted in the forum and I appreciate your tip on the proper place for my post.
Thank you also for all the info on Green snakes too. All of your comments make sense. I'm from the Monterey Bay area of California and it sounds like Green snakes back east are as abundant as Gopher snakes are out here.
As far as straight breeding, I don't think there is a possibilty of a Green snake "morph" that would add more value to an already beautiful little snake.
Thanks again!

Yeah. My understanding is that Rough Greens are pretty common through most of their range but here in VT we just have Smooth Greens and they are listed as a species of special concern. Where they are common though I would point out that common doesn't exactly mean easy to find. Still though they are great and beautiful snakes and if you end up purchasing one then I think you'll really enjoy having it. The Rough Greens are a bit more arboreal so I think they would climb around in your setup a bit more often making them that much more of an enjoyable pet.