Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey one of my students brought me a snake to identify, so I was able to ID it as a Western Long Nosed Snake (courtesy of Lonesome Valley Reptiles website). (I live in Arizona, west of Phoenix)

Now that I know what kind of snake it is, I would like to learn as much as possible on the care and keeping of this snake before I return it to the student on Monday.

Some basic questions:

Adult Size? It seems to be approximately 1 1/2 to 2 feet long.
Heat? Will it need heat, or being an arizona native snake will it be fine in basic arizona temperatures?
Food? Insectivore? I put a pinkie mouse in with it, but am not sure it will eat a pinkie.

Anyway, I'll post the pictures I took in a little bit. Any advice would help me.
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~Sasheena

The western longnose snake tends to be more of a mouse eating type than his eastern cousin. At that small size you can try N/B pinkies. Remember that longnose snakes are designed to eat lizard prey so any warm blooded food has to be small. They are best kept on sand or even aspen bedding-they need to be kept dry so add a water bowl only one day per week (over night).

With good care an adult size of about 2.5 ft is typical.

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

Long nose, you don't say. Well Frank is very experienced so I would not like to disagree with him but with every long nose I have ever kept, rodent feeding has not been the best bet. (I have kept, well lets say several long noses. They are probably the most common snake in the Victorvalley, CA. next to the Mojave Green of course). The few times and I emphasize few times my long noses ever took rodents, it was either by scenting them or teasing them. Also note that long noses can tend to gurge rather easily and a complex critter such as a mouse is more likely to come up than say a small night lizard or side blotch lizard. (The two feed sources I found to work best.) Long noses are not especially good at constricting large prey either so watch out for any live prey with teeth (once again large mamals). They grow up to 3 feet on the females, but thats a large one. Most get about 2.5 feet. They do best if kept rather dry, with a moist retreat available during shed times. Best way to do that is a moss pile in a corner or in a cut tupperware. also, they will rub their noses a lot if not given many places to hide. While long noses can make tame and entertaining captives they need to be able to hide as they are very much a nocturnal species. Hope that helps.
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