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Looking for articles or any info. Thanks Todd

>>Looking for articles or any info. Thanks Todd

Hi mate

Not much is known about the venom but anecdotal reports from the keepers suggest it is quite potent based upon the very rapid (and bloody) prey kills.

Cheers
Bryan
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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
Deputy Director
Australian Venom Research Unit
University of Melbourne

www.venomdoc.com

I have a pair. Outside of some (at first) Threat Balooning they seem quite personable. There is some nervous movement like you see in any racer, but they soon relax and will sit still if you limit your movements.

I feed live and the kills seem to be more like a black racer's in style (grab and swallow). They take hopper mice or rat pups up to fuzzy sized without hesitation. Much of the blood in their kills could well be due to their large grasping teeth (typical of an arboreal species). I have seen no sign of chewing with mine.

As to venom, Thrasops is listed with the more typical "Harmless" colubrids, (not rearfanged according to my sources) but this snake seems to have come under question along with a number of other snakes once considered harmles). Part of the problem may have to do with it's strong similarity to Boomslangs (Dispholidus) From which it is distinguished by the lack of large fangs under the eye.

These snakes get large (2.3m). A large roomy cage is important. Also very important is the addition of a hide box in their tank. otherwise they tend to rub their nose raw. Branches are also appreciated. I keep mine on cyress mulch. Temps from the mid 70s to 80sF are comfortable.

My pair (green female-black male) both smell strongly of sweet black Licorice when freshly shed.

An excellent write up on this species can be found in A FIELD GUIDE TO THE REPTILES OF EAST AFRICA by Steven Spawls and others.

Personally I highly recomend them as a very interesting and gorgeous (especially the blacks)snake.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

>>My pair (green female-black male) both smell strongly of sweet black Licorice when freshly shed.

I keep an adult pair of boomslangs, and especially when they were first brought in and when I first acquired them, they too produced a very strong smell. I consider it more along the lines of celery, but it could really smell up the entire snake room when they shed. Here as of late though it seems that the smell is becoming less and less noticeable. I'm assuming yours are w.c. adults as I've never heard of any cb jacksons, but have you noticed the smell of yours decreasing over time? My theory is that it had something to do with the prey they consumed in the wild, though I'm not sure. In the wild they probably rarely ever take mice (both species), so that could be a possibility. The similarities in appearance between Thrasops and Dispholidus is chilling, and is probably enough to make one exercise extreme caution when handling the former. I have a friend in TX who is convinced that Thrasops are hotter than currently believed, so maybe he'll do some comparative research on the venom. You said Thrasops don't have the large fangs exhibited by Dispholidus? I know booms have giant fangs, but I've been told and was under the impression that Thrasops had fairly large ones. Are they located in the very back of the mouth unlike Dispholidus? There is a good possiblity that the morphological similarities are only as strong as they are because of the similar habitat and lifestyle the two species share. There are definite head structural differences between the two. However, tragic mistakes in snake potency have been made in the past with the other species of this discussion, so it's probably best to air on the side of caution until they are proven basically harmless.

Before I post, are you making any attemps at breeding yours? I would love to see some cbb Thrasops pop up. If you do, I wish you the best of luck. I just "lucked" into breeding my Dispholidus last year. By lucked, I mean I didn't do anything special with them in regards to lighting or anything. I'm sure the room cooled a little bit during the winter, but it wasn't noticeable. They just started courtship in early January of '03 (the male would hold his head perfectly still while snaking his neck in front of the female), and the first copulation was witnessed and photographed around the 22nd or 23rd. More copulations were witnessed over the next month or two. Then it seemed as though the female was never going to take, as she kept eating and never swelled at all. Then in early June, I noticed some extreme swelling in her posterior and stopped feeding at that time. On June 23rd, I walked into the snake room to find 4 large, elongate eggs scattered on the floor of the cage, and one obvious dud. I immediately removed them all (even the dud, just incase), placed them on a 1:1 (appx) mixture of water to perlite, and placed them in the incubator at 30 C (~85 F). At first the eggs appeared almost infertile, no veining or anything was apparent. Over the next few weeks, veins began to spread. Development was very slow (as is everything involving reproduction with this species), and finally on September 10 one baby was seen with its head poking up. It emerged that day, the other 3 followed the next day. Total incubation time until the first baby emerged was 79 days. Since then, numerous prey items have been offered, including live mouse pinks, dead mouse pinks, live rat pinks, dead rat pinks, lizards, green tree frogs, scented pinks, etc, with no result in voluntary feeding. Assist feeding was commenced mid Oct or so, when it was obvious the young were slimming down and their health would quickly deteriorate. They took to the assist feeding easily, and from that time to now, I've been assist feeding them as well as offering them items to take on their own on occasion. One of the 4 has began to take the mouse as soon as it's placed into its mouth, the other 3 are still behind. I'm confident though that eventually, they will all begin to feed on their own. Mice just don't happen to make up the diet of baby boomslangs in the wild, so I can't expect much better in captivity.

Anyway, I just thought I'd relate all that to you as the two species seem similar and may be similar in reproduction, and thought this might be of some benefit. Sorry it's so long-winded, but I tend to go on and on about the things I really like, and also, this was typed late at night so excuse any typos I didn't catch.
River Valley Snakes

There (as I stated earlier) seems to be some arguement as to just what this snake has. Stephen Spawls (who grew up around them) says in his book that they are harmless. I opened the mouth of my male and if those back fangs are there, they are tiny (and we are talking about a 5' snake). I did see a redish discoloration in the extreme back of the mouth similar to the color and location on other rearfanged snakes I have examined, but could not find the actual teeth. Of course (clumbsy me)while doing this I got bit. That was about 20 min ago (7:48 am daylight savings time) and no reaction except a slight itchiness like you would get from a racer bite. He just bit and chewed on me for a couple of seconds beore releasing.

As to the scent...They are almost odorless normaly. The sweet smell comes apparently from the oils that the snake has to aid shedding (by the way, the scent is one of the keys to IDing this snake. Can't say anything yet about your theory because so far the very pleasant) scent is as strong as ever.

We were in luck as the supplier hatched out about six of these (from black parents). Most of the babies were of the dark green form, one was born solid black. Ben Siegal got the babiies. Yes we are planing on breeding this species. Since you mentioned January, I put the male in with our female this morning. As they both disppeared into the hide box, I will have to keep my eyes open.

Oh..yeah these are w/c specimens.

It is now 8:56. Still no reaction to the bite. The wounds show no discoloration, and have stopped itching. I don't know. I have been bit by several rearfang species (with much less bite contact time) and had much more reaction than this.
I'm not convinced they are all that bad. Work needs to be done here for sure, if only to restore this snake's reputation.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

I appreciate all the info. I saw BEn SIegals has a few for sale. I already have a PRasina and was looking into this speices. Thanks

It is now 5:25pm. The (Thrasops)bite is completely gone except for the two tiny puncture wounds. No reaction at all beyond the initial minor itch.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

I see Ben Siegel has those lovely animals...
Wish I had the money to spend, maybe if the price drops :/

Good luck with your breeding efforts. I've been kinda interested in this species for some time. Do you have any pics of your pair?

No pics at present. Have to figure how to get them to hold still long enough, but it is something I will be doing. Kind of have to sneak up on them as most of the time they duck into their hide boxes if you get close.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Hi Cory,
some links, where you can find picts of thrasops jacksonii:

http//www..schlangengrube.de/modules/my_egallery/index.php?do=showgall&gid=38&offset=12&orderby=dateD

http//www.fototime.com/BFC8BDE2BB96013/standard.jpg

http//www.photos-serpents.com/photos/thrasops/index.html

Claus, Germany