Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I originally set out to get a Trinket, but got sidetracked when related research about Radiateds intrigued me. Radiateds seem like a unique hybrid class of snakes, demonstrating traits of both Constrictors and Racers, exhibiting the best characteristics of each. I especially enjoy their highly active & alert nature, and think that they are very attractive snakes. (Love that orange-copper color on mid sides.)

I decided to get a Radiated instead of a Trinket, and am pleased with my overall progress. I got mine as a sub adult, handle weekly (usually) and am seeing progress in his calming down. He not only better accepts handling, but also is enjoying handling sessions involving briefly exploring my apartment and outside trips to the sunshine (closely chaperoned, of course).

My male is even more of a “chow hound” than my Kingsnakes. His metabolism is faster, too. One time when my female Cal King rejected 2 rat hoppers, my Radiated happily finished hers, for a total of four!

His home is a naturalistic 60-gallon vivarium. I hope to move him to a 100-gallon setup later.

Anyone else have Radiated adventures, stories or photos to share??

1.0 Lampropeltis getula californiae (Carlsbad Wide-banded morph)
0.1 Lampropeltis getula californiae (Los Angeles County Coastal Banded morph)
1.0 Coelognathus radiata (captive-bred, Vietnam origin?)

If they weren't such a big, active species, I might consider keeping some radiateds as I have always like their looks too - but my snake room is pretty small, and I've had to downsize my collection a bit already. I may try some trinkets some time - they are also Coelognathus snakes, which are considered one of the Old World rat-racer genera. Other rat-racer genera are Orthriophis, Gonyosoma, Rhynchophis, and Zamenis.

I keep some Chinese beauties (Orthriophis taeniurus taeniurus), which I like a lot - very fast, whippy snakes like racers - but also typical constrictors like ratsnakes. This subspecies of beauty has major potential in the morph hobby /market, due to its high number of mutations, and the potential for double or triple homozygotes...

I also am keeping some young rhino rats (Rhynchophis boulengeri) - a strange and interesting rat-racer which I think are fascinating. Aside from being interesting looking, their natural history not well known or understood - go through an interesting ontogenetic change from gray / brown to green or blue / green. The babies will eat fish in water, which suggests that they may be at least semi-aquatic but also arboreal, at least later in life. I plan to keep at least one of my rhinos in a planted / naturalistic terrarium when it is a little bigger. Do you have any pics of your radiated in its setup?
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-Toby Brock
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research

Just in case you still see this...

I don't visit this Forum often, obviously, have not checked since last summer.

No, I have no photos yet. Not that I don't take them, just that I only have a regular digital camera, nothing special. No matter how I work the light, vivarium (biome) photos don't turn out well. Either flash gives glare, or too dark.

I will see what I can do to get some photos this weekend, and post later. I redid my Southeast Asia biome this week, it looks AWESOME. (60-galllon, three hide spots, 5 species of plants, 3 of which are natural sprigs.)