Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I came across a picture of an arboreal snake that was bright yellow-orange with black diamond that ran along its back and was pencil thin like an Aheatulla but had a head more shaped like Boiga cyanea. Its genus and species was "Stenophis citrinus" and it was said to be from the island of Madagascar.

This is the only picture other than the the photograph i found looking aorund the herpindex on kingsnake that i found. Unfortunatley this pic does not nearly do it justice.

http://images.google.com/images?q=stenophis citrinus&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en

Anyone encountered these before?

Hi,

It's a picture of mine.
Indeed, this is a tree snake of Madagascar.
I had some Stenophis a few years ago, but force-feeding is necessary.
Though I proposed several sort of prey (frog, lizars, etc...), they never ate by themselves.
It's a really thin snake and the force-feeding is difficult. they never swallowed by themselves. You must do completly force-feeding to the stomach).
However, it's a really interessant snake to observed.

They survived one year in captivity.

Rémi.

Rémi, you cannot know to what point I envy to you! This snake is probably one of the most beautiful than I could see. A pity that it is not maintained in captivity... : - (
Best regards

Thats quite the shame that they didn't eat in captivity. I wonder if it was the food being offered or simply too much stress. I really am curious to know what they eat in the wild, as in do they have a menu like an aheatulla or do they eat small birds, insects, etc. Well it was great that you were able to see them in person. Hopefully in the future they may be successfully maintained in captivity. It would be great animal to add to the rear-fanged hobby. I would love to see any more pictures if you have any. Thanks

Matt

According to Ivan Ineich (From national muséum of natural history of Paris), this Stenophis eat frogs (no bird). But it's possible that this snake has a very specialised feeding (perhaps a few species of frogs).
I tried to feed them with Heterixalus alboguttatus (malagasy frog). But no feeding.
I think it will be difficult to maintain this species in captivity. Some snakes are not adapted to the captivity, perhaps Stenophis is one of them.

yours.

Rémi

You did better than I did. My pair was dead in under two months. Very delicate snake.

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