Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a young Trimeresurus albolabris for a month. The snake was eating every 5 days, since I got it, but it defecated only once. I don't know if it is normal for this species, or if I should be worried. My friend has Tropidolaemus wagleri, let's say a similar species to Trimeresurus, with the same problem. This snake hasn't defecate for 2,5 months. Do you have any advice that could help? Thanks

I have never tried this with a viper, but a soak in a warm tub of water generally "frees up" any reptile.

Most of my snakes will poop whenever water is present.

Your snakes are handsome, have fun giving them a bath

Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey
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1.0.0 Ball Python - Python regius "Cane" Rescue
1.2.9 Storeria dekayi Casper, Xena, Athena, & Kids
0.0.2 Thamnophis marcianus - Checkered Garters "spot" & "Zig"
0.0.1 Thamnophis sirtalis - eastern Garter - Princess
1.0.0 Thamnophis pickeringi - Puget Sound Garter "Sky" (adult, Sky blue)
0.0.1 Nerodia sipedon - Water Snake - "Aqua"
0.1.10 Storeria occipitomaculata - Red Belly snakes
0.0.1 Amelanistic Corn Snake "CY" Juvinile CB
0.1.0. Pueblan Milk snake "Oreo" adult CB
1.0.0. ASIAN GREEN SNAKE 3' WC Cyclophiops major
0.0.1. Savannah Monitor "CHOMPER"
0.1.0. Green Anole "Crystal" WC
1.0.0. K9 "ACE" Black Cockapoo
0.2.0. Feline"Felix"(R.I.P. 4/27/08) "Kaja" & "Silver"
0.1.0. calico RAT
2.4.?? Mice - Feeder farm - Crickets / fish
More herps than I could ever list out back on the land.

Thanks,
I tried that few days ago, but the snake released only yellow part of feces.

I used to keep a lot of tree vipers and always resorted to soaking. Near the end of my involvement in keep venomous I built a rain chamber for breeding T. wagleri. What I found was that snakes would deficate within minutes of being placed in the rain chamber and actually deficated often, although still not as much as other snakes.

The key was the droplet size. This was not a misting system that creates a fine mist or fog. I built it around a nozzle like you see on garden sprayers that produces a very large droplet size. I kept tree vipers under standard misting systems and it had little effect on them deficating and if anything seemed to annoy them.

Under the spray from a larger droplet they really perked up and for lack of a better description, apparently enjoyed themself.

The rain chamber was made from a garbage can that had been modified so the lid was secured and locked in place. It was plumbed off of my shower.

If I were to ever keep tree vipers again I would build plastic cages with drainage and have these same nozzle plumbed to a water line. I would enjoy seeing them behave in their regular cages under such a system.
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Currently keeping:

5.8 Gonyosoma oxycephala (Javan, mixed colors)

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

Thank you for your answer. Can you, please, give me some more information about it. I never used rain chamber before, so
I don't know anything about it. How long should I keep the
snake in it? How often should I place her inside? Thanks

I was trying to breed so I placed the pair in the rain chamber about three times per week and would often leave them in there for 16 hours or so, or basically whenever I was home.

But what I found was that they defecated or at least passed urates within 10 minutes or less. When I first started putting them in the chamber they would pass urates several times in a day, they were that "backed up".

I think for general health of the animal they would do fine with two, thiry minute sessions per week.

I need to say that this chamber used A LOT of water. I measured how quickly it filled a 5 gallon bucket when I first set it up and calulated the flow and it was pretty bad. I don't remember exactly how bad it's been so long.

For long sessions for breeding it might be best to have a pump with an elaborate filter so you're not using so much water. For getting your snake to defecate just hooking up to a water line would not be so bad.

The nozzle I used looked something like this:

This is not a nozzle you could run off the typical misting system designed for reptiles, which tend to be lower flow and higher pressure, IIRC.

Like I said, I tried a regular misting system for tree vipers and found that the fine mist made them very unsettled and they would often strike randomly. I then tried a garden sprayer and the snakes behaved totall different so I made a rain chamber around that nozzle.

Maybe for now just go get a garden sprayer and try to set it up in your cage, assuming you can keep it safe and completely escape proof. You may have to pump up the pressure often but at least it will give you and idea if it will even work.

Then maybe look at having a cage built around the idea. I would love to do that myself but my venomous keeping days are long gone.
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Currently keeping:

5.8 Gonyosoma oxycephala (Javan, mixed colors)

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

Thanks, I'll see what I can do. So, is it than a common
problem with tree vipers?

It does seem to be common, although keepers who feed a lot of frogs and/or chicks don't seem to have this problem.
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Currently keeping:

5.8 Gonyosoma oxycephala (Javan, mixed colors)

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

PLEASE take some pictures and post them....

We love pictures of snakes around here. And Tree Vipers are never posted for us to drool over.

Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey

our critters

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1.0.0 Ball Python - Python regius "Cane" Rescue
1.2.9 Storeria dekayi Casper, Xena, Athena, & Kids
0.0.2 Thamnophis marcianus - Checkered Garters "spot" & "Zig"
0.0.1 Thamnophis sirtalis - eastern Garter - Princess
1.0.0 Thamnophis pickeringi - Puget Sound Garter "Sky" (adult, Sky blue)
0.0.1 Nerodia sipedon - Water Snake - "Aqua"
0.1.10 Storeria occipitomaculata - Red Belly snakes
0.0.1 Amelanistic Corn Snake "CY" Juvinile CB
0.1.0. Pueblan Milk snake "Oreo" adult CB
1.0.0. ASIAN GREEN SNAKE 3' WC Cyclophiops major
0.0.1. Savannah Monitor "CHOMPER"
0.1.0. Green Anole "Crystal" WC
1.0.0. K9 "ACE" Black Cockapoo
0.2.0. Feline"Felix"(R.I.P. 4/27/08) "Kaja" & "Silver"
0.1.0. calico RAT
2.4.?? Mice - Feeder farm - Crickets / fish
More herps than I could ever list out back on the land.

Here are some pictures of my albolabris

This one is awesom!

Very cool snake indeed. I have always thought that those green vipers were handsome looking.

Thank you for sharing.

BTW excellent photography also.

Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey
-----

1.0.0 Ball Python - Python regius "Cane" Rescue
1.2.9 Storeria dekayi Casper, Xena, Athena, & Kids
0.0.2 Thamnophis marcianus - Checkered Garters "spot" & "Zig"
0.0.1 Thamnophis sirtalis - eastern Garter - Princess
1.0.0 Thamnophis pickeringi - Puget Sound Garter "Sky" (adult, Sky blue)
0.0.1 Nerodia sipedon - Water Snake - "Aqua"
0.1.10 Storeria occipitomaculata - Red Belly snakes
0.0.1 Amelanistic Corn Snake "CY" Juvinile CB
0.1.0. Pueblan Milk snake "Oreo" adult CB
1.0.0. ASIAN GREEN SNAKE 3' WC Cyclophiops major
0.0.1. Savannah Monitor "CHOMPER"
0.1.0. Green Anole "Crystal" WC
1.0.0. K9 "ACE" Black Cockapoo
0.2.0. Feline"Felix"(R.I.P. 4/27/08) "Kaja" & "Silver"
0.1.0. calico RAT
2.4.?? Mice - Feeder farm - Crickets / fish
More herps than I could ever list out back on the land.

Thanks, can you post some more pics of your Cyclophiops major?
Great snake, but imposible to get here in Serbia

Refer to the new thread Cyclophiops Major Pictures,

Thanks for asking,

Wayne

Asian Green

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1.0.0 Ball Python - Python regius "Cane" Rescue
1.2.9 Storeria dekayi Casper, Xena, Athena, & Kids
0.0.2 Thamnophis marcianus - Checkered Garters "spot" & "Zig"
0.0.1 Thamnophis sirtalis - eastern Garter - Princess
1.0.0 Thamnophis pickeringi - Puget Sound Garter "Sky" (adult, Sky blue)
0.0.1 Nerodia sipedon - Water Snake - "Aqua"
0.1.10 Storeria occipitomaculata - Red Belly snakes
0.0.1 Amelanistic Corn Snake "CY" Juvinile CB
0.1.0. Pueblan Milk snake "Oreo" adult CB
1.0.0. ASIAN GREEN SNAKE 3' WC Cyclophiops major
0.0.1. Savannah Monitor "CHOMPER"
0.1.0. Green Anole "Crystal" WC
1.0.0. K9 "ACE" Black Cockapoo
0.2.0. Feline"Felix"(R.I.P. 4/27/08) "Kaja" & "Silver"
0.1.0. calico RAT
2.4.?? Mice - Feeder farm - Crickets / fish
More herps than I could ever list out back on the land.