Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello to everyone in the forum, I'm after some advice please.

I'm after a hatchling Taiwan Beauty or two in the next few months and am doing my research first before I buy. I am not new to snakes as the last few years I have kept a Californian Kingsnake and a Royal (ball) python so I know a bit about temps, feeding, wierd behavoir and basically what to expect.

1. I have done some looking into them and understand they are similar to keep as Kings, is this true?

I love the colours of the beauties but when surfing the net to find out about the variations I have found that there's not as much information on them as other varieties such as royals, corns and kings:

2. Can anyone direct me to a photo album showing different colours and species?

3. Also, would a female and male get along with each other in the same enclosure? Is it better to get two males or two females instead?

4. Can someone confirm that Beauties do NOT have cannaballistic tendencies?

5. I'm in the UK and beauty breeders are not as easy to find as in the states. Does anybody know of devoted beauty breeders over in cold and wet England?

If anyone can answer just one of these questions I'll be very grateful. Thanks for reading this and I've attached a picture of my snakes below.

Thanks,
Ben

PS. Apologies if there is a delay to my reply as I finish work in a couple of hours and won't be back online until tomorrow.

Well I've only had my beauty snake for about two months but I know the basic care.

1. I have done some looking into them and understand they are similar to keep as Kings, is this true?

Their care is very simalar to kings and balls/royals, they need higher humidity then kings, and more climbing branches/space then either one. Plus they get ALOT bigger then either, avrage is about 7' but can get longer. They also like a little cooler temps, about mid to low 70s.

I love the colours of the beauties but when surfing the net to find out about the variations I have found that there's not as much information on them as other varieties such as royals, corns and kings:

I don't think that beauties have alot of color morphs, I think I've only seen some high yellow snakes, some very green ones, and a couple albinos.

3. Also, would a female and male get along with each other in the same enclosure? Is it better to get two males or two females instead?

Its not a good idea to keep two of any gender, or any species, snake together unless you are curently breeding them.

Hope this helps, and one tip that I learned the hard way, hatchlings are long skinny things that are almost as hard to hold onto as running water, handle with care. -.^
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People Who Say Money Can't Buy You Happiness Obviously Didn't Know Where To Buy A Herp

2.0 Cornsnakes
0.0.1 Ball Python
1.0 Cal Kingsnake
0.0.1 Taiwan Beauty Snake
0.0.1 Leo Gecko
1.0 Bearded Dragon
0.0.1 Marbled Gecko

Ok, let's see if I can answer some of your questions...
These are just my experience (I've had them for about 10 years). As hatchlings, they are spazzy, squirmy little guys.
Adult Taiwan Beauties need space be prepared to invest in a large cage. They are active snakes and mine have been really agressive feeders. My 7 foot male will eat a couple of large rats a week and keep looking for more. I've only seen three "varieties" other than the normal and they were albino, calico and hypo. As far as a photo album- check here in the Kingsnake gallery and do a search under rat snakes for Taiwans. There are tons of pics to give you an idea of the ranges in coloration (mainly olive, yellow or orange and black). I wouldn't house a pair together mainly because they really seem to appreciate some room to roam. Also, due to their agressive feeding response, they'd have to be fed separately and I'd fear one might attack the other after smelling mouse on its mate. Maybe I'm just paranoid- but better safe than sorry.
For care sheets- I did a quick search on google and here's a start. http://www.ratsnakes.com/Etaeniura.html
I had no luck doing a quick search for UK breeders. If you're looking for hatchlings, you might need to wait till summer for eggs to hatch and people to start advertising. These are great snakes to keep so I hope you can find some.
Good luck on your search!
Lora

Cheers for your your help guys, that is the sort of information that I needed and has made it clearer what I want and what I should do now.

Ben