Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I've been keeping snakes for about 9 years now. I started out with different elaphes and afther that i kept different kinds of boa's ..(acrantophis, constrictors, etc) i've also had borneo blood pythons and lately i've kept a collection of burmese pythons(labyrinth , normal, granite , hets for granite etc.)
A couple of days ago my biggest burmese died because of a pneumonia. Cause was probably the cold nights? along with irritation of the lungs by ammoniac of the urine wich stayed in the cage because of poor ventilation... That is all guessing anyway.
My question is this:
Wich kind of species are easy to keep and not as much in need of a very warm cage at night?
Are teaniura's easy in this way? or other elaphes?
Wich species do you recommend and wich species certainly not?
So...i'm looking for a very hardy species wich won't get sick very easy like most pythons do or susceptible to colds or viruses...
Any info is welkom!

will work for you. Snakes really don't handle wide variations in temperature on a daily basis. You should consider some kind of heat for at least part of the enclosure to allow the snake to themoregulate. Most of the obsoleta complex are hardy. For example, black rat snake, yellow rat snake, Texas rat snake. gray rat snake are your hardier snakes. Remember, the snakes we keep in a captive environment deserve our efforts to make their environment as close to what they need as possible. We shouldn't just think of getting a snake to handle anything I do or don't do. You are looking for snake that will be able to handle a little more variation in temperature and environment and the ones I mentioned will fill that requirement. Another genus that is hardy and are more tolerant of changes is Pituophis. Bullsnakes have one of the largest ranges in North America. They have a large range because they can survive and/or adapt to alot of changes in environment and habitat. I would recommend a bullsnake and any of the obsoleta I mentioned earlier. Here's a pic of a Fort Collins, Colorado bullsnake that is very hardy.

Terry Parks

Does anyone else know a specie that is hardy?

Are you upset at my answer as I see you have now change over to all upper case letters?

Terry Parks

No! I'm not disappointed with your answer...
I just hoped to get more replies this way. Sorry if i offended you. That was not my intention.

attention to your post. I wasn't offended in the least. I was just asking about your post being in upper case which might have indicated you were upset with something in my answer. I would have thought there would be more responses. I've never seen this forum at a loss for recommending a snake to anyone when they ask. Good luck with your next snake when you get one. Let me know if there's any other questions you might have. Here's a pic of my lavender black rat snake. I mentioned in my post that obsoleta are hardy and should handle your variation in day and night temps.

Terry Parks
www.kernreptile.com

Thanks!