Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted this over in the Indigo forum as well because I am pretty pumped about hatching these. There really isn't a forum specifically for big arboreal colubrids, so I hope it is ok to share here too.

I am excited to share that I finally hatched out some Costa Rican Pseustes poecilonotus. This was quite a rocky road trying to get to this point and I actually thought I was going to have to wait another year for success because these eggs seemed to be over calcified and I thought they were all going to die in incubation (some did, but I am very happy to have what I have).

My friend Bryan Suson came into my house from Texas whistling within an hour of telling him my eggs were hatching. He was hard to understand, but all I could make out was something about batteries, lights, and black marble tables. So here I share the first shot and you can see how thick and calcified the eggs are.

If anyone has any information on successes and failures with this species, I would love to chat and exchange different experiences.

Thanks for looking!

What's the common name for this snake?

reako45

eggs look fine...maybe they look too thick to you? but they look fine to me....I have no idea anything on this species...
but I do think that Asian ratsnakes have thick eggs and need to be dry more than wetter...for the babies to be able to split the shells at hatching???....Randy?....he would know...dryer not wetter....Larry Keller...anyone with too many big mean ratsnake species....LOL....

good stuff...show us full babies....wheee.....! congrats...

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..................the air was thick with catcalls..../ no pun intended....not even a muscle in her neck did twitch as she......

give us some pics of the parents so we can see what these snakes look like.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

I will try and get some better pics up soon. I realize these shots are pretty pathetic compared to Bryan's egg photo.

again, I will try and get some nicer shots soon

Wow. That's a nice pair for sure. The common name for these guys is bird snakes. Big cogragulations on the babys. I've heard this is not the easiest species to work with by any means. Hopefully you can really get this species figured out. Seems like your well on your way.
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Matt Kauffman

They're also called "Puffing Snakes". I know one keeper here who frequents these forums who keeps them is Tokaysmice. He should be a good source of info.
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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

They can be tricky, but I would be glad to help anyone having trouble getting over those humps if they decide to join the group of Pseustes keepers.

Personally, I just don't think any of the common names for these animals do them justice...so I just stick with the Latin.

If I picked a common name it would be something like ....... "very pretty and insanely fast vicious climbing snake"

Congrats, I hope you enjoy continued success with these amazing snakes! Would certainly love to see more of them around.
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Nick Puder
www.rnpreptiles.com

Again Gav, awesome job!!! Really love your adults and I can't wait to see these babies grow up and go through their color change. Really want to see what that pair produces for adult colors in that clutch. These snakes offer nothing but intrigue and opportunity!! So much variation, so much to be learned and so much that you are a head of the game on.

Jason

Congrats, Gavin! Those are absolutely gorgeous!
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Carl

My compliments. Your baby Pseustes and parent snakes are gorgeous. Well done. I have a young set of 1.1 Pseustes poecilonotus.

They are about 9-10 months old and about 18 inches roughly. It is very true that these are challenging snakes to keep. They are also very NIPPY although in some ways that is part of their charm. My snakes are relatively healthy but basically don't eat on their own, I have to semi-assist feed them and focus their attention on the prey item by putting the prey item (mouse) in their mouth and then they gobble it down. I cannot seem to get them to reliably eat any other way.

What kind of conditions did you use to get your parent snakes to breed? Any combination of temp, humidity or brumation?

I would very much like to join the Pseustes keepers group. Where do I find it to join?

Again congratulations, I know how challenging it must have been to get these guys to breed keeping a pair myself, but it would certainly be worth the effort.

Malcolm

What set up style are you keeping them in and where did yours come from (dealer and/or country of origin)?? So far there is no Pseustes keeper group online right now but the idea of a dedicated page is out there amongst our thoughts (small group of us here on the north side of Chicago). Gavin has more info than most since he keeps such intense records.

I just switched my yearling Peruvian male from a rack set up to an arboreal set up and he seems to be much happier and instead of the stand and fight high stress mode he would always drop into in the tub he has gone into a freeze mode each time I walk past. Overall he seems much more relaxed and less stressed though he is very actively cruising his cage and crawling through the PVC pipes I put in there.

I have a pair of Costa Rican babies that are eating fine in a rack at room temp but I would like to move them to an arboreal set up as well after seeing the transformation the older male has gone through. Going to give him a feed attempt this weekend and see if he will take F/T instead of the live he has insisted on so far.

Jason

I have my Pseustes together in an arboreal setup (Zoomed Naturalistic Terrarium 12 x 18). The male and female are related and housed together. I got them from Ken at Exotic Pets in Las Vegas. They were only about 6-7 inches each when I got them in December of 2009. Apparently they were captive born from parents in a zoo. Ken did not know the zoo (his dearler would not tell him) but he thought it might San Diego Zoo. the snakes were very healthy and well cared for though.

Feeding is a problem for my snakes though. This may be my fault to some exent as I had to start assist feeding them or they would have starved. I tried everything to get them to eat consistently such as live rodents, rubbing f/t pinkies with anoles scent, "braining" the f/t pinkie and putting egg yolk on the f/t pinkie. None of these methods gave me any consistent success. What I have to do is assist feed my snakes by holding their head and putting the prey item near or in their mouth. Usually, they wolf it down when that is done. As they grow, feeding them this way will not be an option in time. They have really sharp teeth! They are feisty but if they are not being fed, they can be handled for short periods of time as they just cruise from hand to hand. They have real personalities though.

Malcolm

OK I remember this pair coming in. They are definitely not from San Diego Zoo because that is where my friend works who I asked about this pair to see if he was aware of any zoo on the "west coast" keeping Pseustes which he did not. I am going to guess that they are imports that were CB. My friend from the SD Zoo is one of their herp keepers and pretty well connected and he has not heard of any zoo keeping Pseustes. Obviously doesn't mean there are not any but it would be less likely.

Have you tried using tongs and sort of attacking them with the food? SoLA uses this technique with pretty good effectiveness but I can not get my problem feeder going this way. He has taken live with no problems though. I am working on getting a different sub of Pseustes in from CB stock. You might be interested in them IF it ever happens...

Jason

My snakes could well be captive born from imports. From my reading on the net, it appears that some Costa Rican zoos keep Pseustes so perhaps they could have been from a source like that. Nonetheless they were healthy and well cared for when I received them. It would be very interesting to get some Pseustes from parents that were captive bred though. I think SoLAs breeding of these snakes is very important for starting a viable captive bred stock of Pseustes in the USA. I hope to take a shot at breeding mine when they are big enough. Do you know how big or old these snakes have to be before you can safely try breeding them?

You certainly have a gorgeous Pseustes yourself. How many Pseustes do you have? I will try to post a pic of my Pseustes in the next few weeks. "Attacking" my snakes with a prey item on the tongs sounds interesting. My snakes are just mean enough that that might work... I have also read from posts about Pseustes that coating the mouse with chicken broth or scenting with a chicken part might work. I will be trying those approcahes as well. As for myself, I have 1.1 Bamboo rat snakes, and an unsexed green tree python hatchling. All of these guys were captive born. I lived in Chicago from 2005 to 2008. Nice town. I am in the Maryland area now.

What other kinds of South American Colubrids do you keep? Cribos?

Malcolm

Sorry I have been out of town doing work. The Pseustes sulphurus in Jason's photo is from Peru and he hopes to get some cb from there eventually. He does not have them yet (unfortunately).

I keep some cribos, as well as many Latin American colubrid and boid species.

THe "attack" method Jason mentioned can be great. You bump their body and it upsets them a bit where they wind up and aim toward you with their mouth open. They naturally strike away from the rodents usually, but if you are quick with your tongs and get it in their mouth and stay still, most will eat. They do tend to throw it to the side or behind them and dart out of the cage sometimes so you might need to take a few shots at it. Sometimes they stay still long enough with their mouth open you can almost place a rodent in (or where they take a very short strike you can't miss getting it in there). These times are the easiest because they don't have a lot of commitment to the strike and get away tactic yet. They certainly are snkes you need to read to work with sometimes.

I would love to see pictures of your babies as they grow.

Here are a couple of pics of my female Pseustes Poecilonotus. She has lots of personality, most of it "mean" but of all my snakes the Pseustes seem to enjoy their lives the best by the way they hang around in their terrarium.