Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I used to catch a lot of them under leaf litter and such years ago but always let them go. I know that a lot of people use them to feed their coral snakes, but has anyone ever kept them as pets?

Boy you picked one tough nut to crack! If you have any success i hope you post it.
Frank

Well, I haven't found any in awhile, but if I do, I'll try a few things. The main thing is to know what live food is available where they are caught.

I took one to a herpetology place many years back, and the guy there told me they eat insects. He gave it some crickets, and it never ate any. While there are some crickets around where they are caught, I kinda doubt they eat them.

Also, I've heard that they will eat earthworms. However, I would think that although they do come in contact with them in the wild, it's probably not as common as some of the other insects that I've found just under the leaf litter, without having to dig into the ground.

Centipedes, oxidus gracilis millipedes, roly polies, and sow bugs are a very good possible staple diet for them. There's only one way to find out though, and like I said, I haven't found any yet.

If they can handle a diet of mainly sow bugs or true rolie polies, these bugs can easily be raised in captivity on a variety of oak leaves, barks, and other vegetation. While roly polies seem to produce pretty slow, sow bugs seem to raise pretty fast. An established colony can be made by just a few wild caught adults and about a month for them to breed and/or have their young.

All in all, it'd be worth having a look into.

In 'Snakes of North America, Eastern and Central Regions' (great book by the way) Alan Tennant sites a study in which 90% of the Peninsula Crowned Snakes diet was tenebrionid beetle larvae, small snails and centipeds being the other 10%.

Have you had any luck with tantillas, I have been considering getting a couple myself.