Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I saw one of these beauties at the store for 288.00$ Canadian,and am interested in getting him.I did handle him and he was very healthy.Here are my questions:

1)What size cage will he need?
2)How much will he weigh and what size will he be full grown?
3)Are they easy to keep?
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www.freewebs.com/herper/
1.0.0 Ball Python(normal)
1.0.0 Crocodile Gecko
0.0.1 Mediterranean Gecko
2.0.0 African Fat tail Geckos(Striped and Banded Phase)
1.1.0 Leopard Geckos(1.0.0 Blizzard and 0.1.0 High-Yellow)
1.0.0 Tokay Gecko(Geico)
0.1.0 Crested Gecko(Buckskin Phase
0.1.0 Western Painted Turtle
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon
1.0.0 Chinese Water Dragon(Louis)
0.1.0 Southern Brown Basilisk
1.0.0 Giant Green Iguana(Rex)
1.1.0 Green Anoles
0.1.0 German Short Hair Pointer(Brooke)
0.1.0 Rat(Ruby)
0.1.0 Tabby Cat(Trixie)

These are awesome snakes. I have 17 of them and don't feel it's enough

However, $280 or whatever you wrote is very expensive, although I'm not sure of the Canadian exchange rate. I'd be very sure that it was a captive born individual for that kind of money. Imports in the US sell for about $50.

Regarding your questions.

Gonyosoma seem to do well in a variety of cages. I know breeders who have kept them in 28 qt. rubbermaids that are less than 6" deep and have a floor area of 20" x 14". How in the world they managed to get them back in the boxes is beyond me. These are fast, agressive species that can be difficult to handle. I've worked with a lot of mambas, taipans, cobras etc. and none of them were as slippery as my Gonyosoma.

But I digress. I currently keep mine in boxes that about about 30" long and 12" to 13" tall. I would generally describe this as a minimum size. I offer perches but they don't spend a lot of time on them. This species seems to be facultatively arboreal. Only my most established specimens climb on a regular basis. I try to cover the perches with sprinklings from the bottom of a bag of cypress mulch. That way if they climb at night I'll see tracks in the mulch. It appears some of mine just don't climb.

My biggest adult is over 700 grams and her sheds are 8' long. With the humidity in her cage I'm sure she's considerable smaller than this, however. Regardless, I have a few females that are just over 6' long.

Are they easy to keep... there's a difficult question. The safe answer is yes. I've certainly kept more difficult species, but these are definately tough. I would not describe them as difficult as wild caught Mandarin or 100 Flower Ratsnakes, but they are difficult.

My mortality with imports is about 35%. It's actually hard for me to estimate because a few of my cages were under nasty lake water when my herp room flooded. The snakes survived the accute trama but did die about a month later despite my efforts to keep them going.

However, I have a friend who is able to handpick them from an importer in the states. We are very lucky. Even then we have specimens that seemingly thrive and then go into a bad shed and die.

On the other hand, my one captive born specimen might as well be a different species. He is very hearty and just does not cause me any worry.

Hope this helps.

Wow- that green with the blue tongue is just stunning.
Lora

Believe it or not this snake was actually this color. When this picture was taken I actually had to tone it down in photoshop as it came out much more orange than she really was. This is the doctored photo, not the original,brighter orange version.

Now she's shed several times and is a mix of gray, orange, and yellow.

She's from the same area of Java as the male above. This species is highly variable.

i really like the one at the petstore................its a very bright green with a 5 inch red tail.These guys are awsome,are these guys common?
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www.freewebs.com/herper/
1.0.0 Ball Python(normal)
1.0.0 Crocodile Gecko
0.0.1 Mediterranean Gecko
2.0.0 African Fat tail Geckos(Striped and Banded Phase)
1.1.0 Leopard Geckos(1.0.0 Blizzard and 0.1.0 High-Yellow)
1.0.0 Tokay Gecko(Geico)
0.1.0 Crested Gecko(Buckskin Phase
0.1.0 Western Painted Turtle
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon
1.0.0 Chinese Water Dragon(Louis)
0.1.0 Southern Brown Basilisk
1.0.0 Giant Green Iguana(Rex)
1.1.0 Green Anoles
0.1.0 German Short Hair Pointer(Brooke)
0.1.0 Rat(Ruby)
0.1.0 Tabby Cat(Trixie)

Gonyosoma are not very common. Quite a few imports come into the country but most of those die. There are very few captive borns.

I would see it eat first before I buy him too,and he had normal behavoir.I also love there blue tongues!
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www.freewebs.com/herper/
1.0.0 Ball Python(normal)
1.0.0 Crocodile Gecko
0.0.1 Mediterranean Gecko
2.0.0 African Fat tail Geckos(Striped and Banded Phase)
1.1.0 Leopard Geckos(1.0.0 Blizzard and 0.1.0 High-Yellow)
1.0.0 Tokay Gecko(Geico)
0.1.0 Crested Gecko(Buckskin Phase
0.1.0 Western Painted Turtle
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon
1.0.0 Chinese Water Dragon(Louis)
0.1.0 Southern Brown Basilisk
1.0.0 Giant Green Iguana(Rex)
1.1.0 Green Anoles
0.1.0 German Short Hair Pointer(Brooke)
0.1.0 Rat(Ruby)
0.1.0 Tabby Cat(Trixie)

Seeing it eat won't tell you much if it's an import. I've had imports eat immediately, continue to eat, and then still die a couple of months later. And keep in mind we are handpicking from fresh imports.

When you say "normal" behavior, what do you mean? If I were choosing from a group of imports and one did not try to bite me I'd put it back. That may be naive on my part, but the most mean and aggressive Gonyosoma I've received have been most likely to survive. Not that I have a significant sample size in that regard, but I'm come to associate a mean Gonyosoma as "normal".

One of the employees at the importer I deal with agrees, for what it is worth. He's handled hundreds of them.

My only reason for writing all this is to encourage you to find out as much as possible about the history of the animal as possible.

I'm just going to get a more hardy snake.A milksnake,kingsnake or cornsnake.
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www.freewebs.com/herper/
1.0.0 Ball Python(normal)
1.0.0 Crocodile Gecko
0.0.1 Mediterranean Gecko
2.0.0 African Fat tail Geckos(Striped and Banded Phase)
1.1.0 Leopard Geckos(1.0.0 Blizzard and 0.1.0 High-Yellow)
1.0.0 Tokay Gecko(Geico)
0.1.0 Crested Gecko(Buckskin Phase
0.1.0 Western Painted Turtle
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon
1.0.0 Chinese Water Dragon(Louis)
0.1.0 Southern Brown Basilisk
1.0.0 Giant Green Iguana(Rex)
1.1.0 Green Anoles
0.1.0 German Short Hair Pointer(Brooke)
0.1.0 Rat(Ruby)
0.1.0 Tabby Cat(Trixie)

I have 14 lizards and 1 snake and 1 turtle and i am only allowed one more reptile.So I am looking for a snake I would really want,and i don't mind spending lots of money on.

Are your tanks realistic?
Also can you handle your ratsnakes?I held the one at the store and its throat was puffed up but then it settled down and curled up around my wrist.They are constrictors right?
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www.freewebs.com/herper/
1.0.0 Ball Python(normal)
1.0.0 Crocodile Gecko
0.0.1 Mediterranean Gecko
2.0.0 African Fat tail Geckos(Striped and Banded Phase)
1.1.0 Leopard Geckos(1.0.0 Blizzard and 0.1.0 High-Yellow)
1.0.0 Tokay Gecko(Geico)
0.1.0 Crested Gecko(Buckskin Phase
0.1.0 Western Painted Turtle
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon
1.0.0 Chinese Water Dragon(Louis)
0.1.0 Southern Brown Basilisk
1.0.0 Giant Green Iguana(Rex)
1.1.0 Green Anoles
0.1.0 German Short Hair Pointer(Brooke)
0.1.0 Rat(Ruby)
0.1.0 Tabby Cat(Trixie)

If you mean the cages that were in the flood, I was only keeping Gonyosoma at the time.

If you like a green semi-arboreal ratsnake that you can handle I highly recommend a Rhyncophis. There is a thread on them farther down. Hard to find but whenever I see them for sale there always seems to be a surplus of males.

They are beautiful and calm.

n/p
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