Reptile & Amphibian Forums

First I want to introduce myself, I've been lurking a lot lately, and its time to come out with it all. My names Mike, and hopefully I'll be a diamond owner soon enough :-D, I'm suprised their arent more posts regarding these snakes, and that they dont seem to be very popular, I think their INCREDIBLE. But I guess each too his own. Anyhow I wanted too hear everyones opinions, keepers and nonkeepers alike, about Diamonds, anything and everything on em. On to my questions..Now I've been reading much lately thats been slowly scaring me off of trying my hand on a hatchling, mostly regarding the so-called "diamond syndrome" and the reasons associated: lack of calcium cooler temps required, etc. I'd like to know how much of this is true, and what difficulties have you keepers run into with your diamonds. Truly, how difficult is this snake to keep?

-Mike

They seem pretty simple....until it all goes wrong.
Mine are still hail and hearty but there are a lot of people around who thought the same thing until just before the animals died. If the problem is, as some believe, in the bloodline of US examples, then I should have escaped it (I'm in Europe). However, this presupposes that the US bloodlines have never been augmented by new animals from Oz, which I find a little naive.
As to why they aren't popular, I think they would be more so if they were more available/cheaper and less scarey longevity-wise.
They are still, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful snakes in the world (second only to Boelen's) and I couldn't be without them.
G

Gary, do Diamond crosses have the same issues with their health?