Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all,
I am thinking about geting a Asian green vine snake here in the next 6 months or so. It would be my first venomous, (after my reptile room is moved out of the house) and I hear that there bites do not pose a threat. But does any one know what the venom toxinty is? I have been told it takes 100 mg to kill a man, how much do they usaly produce? Also any care info would be great, and is any one captive breeding them? If not how hard would it to breed them? Also, would I need more experence before I buy one? I have been breeding and working with amazon tree boas for the past two years, and have been working with crocodilians for the past 3. I have also worked with 7 copperheads in the wild this year. Well thanks in advance for any advice.
Philip

Phillip,

At the moment I own 1.1 prasina's and they truely are a beautifull snake. They are however very hard to maintain properly. The first thing I can tell you is that they only eat lizards. There are rarely captive breds on the market and they are nearly all wildcaight. Switching wildcaight to mice in my opinion is impossible, but always worth a try. If you are able to get cheap lizards..mainly gekko's then go for it. If not, then prepare to pay big bucks to maintain them. They need a large well planted enclosure with relatively high humidity. Ive got my pair in a 2.5 x 2.5 x 5 feet enclosure with UV lighting. They are day active. They need at least two gekko's a week to thrive. Males less because they are half the size of females. Further they are very fast and are able to escape in a hartbeat. So you need to be able to shut the enclosure fast if need be. They are not agressive and would prefer to flee.....faaaaast. This snake is very smart and curious and if you are in the room they will approach the glas to see what you are doing. Their eyesight is superb. They rely fully on this to hunt. Once they are established they are relatively easy to maintain, if you have lots of gekko's. The wildcaight pair mated only one month after I got them. They are livebearing, and my female is quit pregnant. Raising the babies is the next challange for me. If you have any more questions feel free.

I have had an A. Prasina and 2 nasutas for about a year and a half. Luckily the venom is not much to worry about. The prasina frequently bites and I usually use gloves to handle her(I rarely handle her but she seemed to be having difficulty sheeding a few days ago and I was helping with the shed, without gloves, and she bit me one more time). I have never had any consequences from her bites but I suspect that she only hit me with her front teeth. The other two never ever try to bite. My set up is very similar to that described below with a 3x3x5 foot cage containing a large umbrella plant and some fake plants also. You can usually find lizards for about $2 each after shipping.

All right thanks guys, Also what latin name is for what, the one in the picture whats its latin name? (Also, very, very good picture!) Also... I have seen petstore suppler deals were you can get anoles for about 20 cents each and I was thinking of seting up a cage and keep a few months worth of anoles at a time. Also will they take f/t lizzards? They are much easer to care for in the freaser .
Thanks
Philip

The snakes, both on the forum board and in this thread, are Prasinas or "Asian vine snakes". Nasutas have a turned up nose and are also called "long nosed vine snakes". My prasina is bigger than the two nasutas (about 4.5 feet) and is blue green, the other two are green-green. I understand that the coloration can be variable. I have heard that you need to feed live prey but I don't know for sure (I have only fed live) My display case is in the middle of the dining room. I love to have new guests come and peer into the cage and say, "those are really nice plants--is there an animal in the cage?" The snakes are always draped across the upper branches in plain sight--I think they wrote the book on camoflage!

They only eat moving prey. I have a gekko farm, but if you can buy cheap and a steady supply of live anoles..then go for it!!
These snakes are great!! Wish you luck.

Has anyone had any success converting these to mice, live or f/t, or to f/t lizards? I had heard that it was possible to use scenting to get them to take mice eventually.