Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I enjoy boids but have little knowlege of hots, thus my questions. I find copperheads in my yard most years, not a lot, usualy 1 or 2 a year, 6 last yr, 3 this year. I normaly catch them and release them 3 or 4 miles from home away from houses.Question #1 How oriented are they to thier place of hibernation, in other words is 3 or 4 miles keeping them from coming back? I caught one while ago that is going to end up a lot farther from home as in a little while I am leaving to go about 150 miles from home. I am concerned as this particular snake is very thin. Will it find a place to hibernate? I always understood copperheads to be so high strung that they frequently will not eat in captivity. The snake in question is so thin I offered it a hopper mouse, just dropped it in the coffee container with the snake, I peaked in a minute later and the mouse was dead, a couple of minutes later only back feet and tail were visable so I offered a second mouse, it killed the second mouse but when I checked a little later it had regugetated the first mouse and swallowed the second, then appeared to want to reswallow the first. This all seems strange to me. Any comments or info would be greatly appreciated.

Claude

That sounds like a sick snake, copperheads actually acclimate to captivity very well. If you dont intend on medicating it, you should pass it to someone who will, I hate seeing a snake die.

You scared the snake when you put the second mouse in so it up chucked that is all that happend .Keep the snake and you will be a happy snake lover copperheads are a very gratifing snake to keep.
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Archie Bottoms

You really wrote a clear picture narrative of what occurred. You thought it was really strange that the copperhead would do what it did, and the copperhead is trying to figure out..."Man, where is all this food comming from?". Dr. Archie is correct, you are freaking your little friend out. My copperheads eat every two months. That is their deal. I offer food more often, just to make sure I'm not missing anything, but they eat every 60 days in warm weather. When they don't eat, my marvelous, zuffetic (sp) Brooks King cleans up. Give your copperheads some space and breathing room. With that, they'll probably do real good.

Copperheads very rarely move more than half a mile from their hibernation site over their season of activity, and it's typically not more than a quarter mile. The longest ranging I can remember being recorded was for a male and it was just under a mile. Longest I personally recorded in my studies was just over a quarter mile. If one is relocated, I believe it would be possible for it to come back from only about 2 or 3 miles at best.

Kelly

Thanks all for the replies. The snake thursday was quite skinny and being released so far away I was concerned about its survival this winter. While copperheads are pretty and intersting, keeping one is not an option. My wife is not overly fond of the ball and short tail pythons I have, anything venomous would cause marital problems.
I live aprox. 35 miles south of St. Louis, If anyone would like to have any copperheads I find, I would be happy to pass them on. Most have been in the 15" - 25" range, but two were so small they still had the green tip to their tails, (which I assume is to help them catch lizards (though I didn't know copperheads ate cold blooded food) and one was the largest I personaly have seen @ 38"-40". I have heard they can exceed 4', but have never actualy seen any that large.

Claude