Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi - I last got on this forum to ask some advice in caring for a baby redgreenrat I rescued from a petstore. Well, it has grown from 13" to 24" now and seems to be well established. I have never wormed it. It prefers to be aboreal, seems to like high humidity, and does not like to be messed with. It has never bit me, but I have been careful enough with it and do not "play" with him/her. The most frustrating part of caring for it has been its eating habits. It will not eat in ANY stage of shed. It will not eat while you watch, it prefers night. At times it has not touched a live fuzzy for 3 days, and it has eaten a f/t fuzzy left in for 2 days. It is housed in a 20 quart sterlite container with only one row of holes drilled around to help keep humidity in. The translucent plastic helps it feel more secure and it is almost as high as long, so there are plenty of branches for him/her to climb and rest on. It prefers to rest on the highest branch in the darkest corner, laying just a green tree python would, it's head in the center of the coil. As with a previous specimen and white lipped vipers I have kept, it seems to be natural for it to reach down from its perch and grab food. I have read that some of them show no interest in being aboreal.
Somebody indicated to me that they had never seen an oxycephalum prosper in captivity, but they had seen plenty of imports die quickly. I would like to get in touch with people working with these. If he/she continues to feed well, it could be close to breeding size soon. The tail does not appear overly long and seems to taper quickly, but I do not have anything to compare it to.
I hope this helps anyone who comes across a specimen at a show or pet store. If it looks emaciated, forget it. But if it still has decent body weight and strength...Keep it in a private enclosure with high humidty (it will probably be dehydrated somewhat, keep it moist) and plenty of places for it to crawl and hide. Leave it alone, let it settle in, do not disturb it. Offer a small live food offering (mine have eaten pinkie,fuzzy, weanling mice, keep it on the small side) before you go to bed after a few nights. Leave it in overnight. If it does not eat, check for any signs of shedding, and offer again in a day or two. There may be some other food items and methods that some more experienced folks can relate, but this has worked for me. These are beautiful animals, not very expensive, and have a lot of different color morphs. Does any one have any good shots of some of these?

Hi Mike,

You e-mailed me through my name-link many months ago and I was unable to respond. There was some sort of problem where I could not respond to e-mails that were sent through my KS profile.

I believe that problem is resolved so please feel free to try again. I will respond on this forum later today in more detail. I have friends in town that I need to spend some time with.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. Stay in touch and we'll see about getting your specien paired up when it's older.

I have been keeping Gonyosoma for a couple of years now. I have kept them previously in the last 15 years but not for any length of time. I have produced 4 clutches of fertile eggs from two different females but have not been able to hatch any out.

The most two recent clutches were produced by females who later died. Maybe the eggs were doomed from the start - I don't know. The other clutches were lost during a move and a flood I had in my basement.

Currently I have 5.3 G. oxycephala. 1.1 of them are the grey/yellow specimens, the other 4.2 are green. All were imported as adults or sub-adults except for one of my males that was hatched from an egg produced by a field-inseminated female.

I also have 2.1 Gonyosoma janseni from the "melanistic" population.

::The most frustrating part of caring for it has been its eating habits.

I do have specimens that are very "shy" feeders. I have a male that typically won't eat until the middle of the night. He does eat frozen/thawed but even if I offer the prey item in the morning he won't eat until until late at night.

This is frustrating as he is a very aggressive breeder. I'd love to basically keep him in a harem but I'd never be able to get him to eat in a cage full of hungry females. I have tried pulling him into a separate feeding container but then he refuses to feed altogether.

I have other specimens that eat vigorously.

My specimens show little inclination towards arboreal behavior. It's worth noting that all of my specimens are from the island of Java where the Gonyosoma are said to show more terrestrial behavior in captivity, especially the grey/yellow specimens. I did have one female of unknown origin and she climbed on a regular basis. She was green but looked quite different from my other green specimens from Java. Perhaps the arboreal habits of this species is population-specific?

The only thing I might add is that I have a different strategy towards humidity. Gonyosoma seem very susceptible to skin and upper-respiratory infections. Instead of keeping them in cages with low ventilation I instead use as much ventilation as possible and supply humidity with moist hides and frequent mistings. I like my cages to dry out within a few to several hours after a heavy misting.

This approach is used quite a bit for other delicate species with high-humidty requirements. Anything from tree vipers to orchids have thrived under these types of conditions.

But that does not necessarily make it right for Gonyosoma.

Here's my nicest male.

This is what my grey/yellow female looked like the moment I unbagged her.

She shed the first night I had her. The next day she was orange!

The picture came out so orange I actually had to dim it down in photoshop to make it look like she actually appeared.

She has since shed several times and has bits of green, yellow, and orange sprinkled throughout a grey background.

Will try to take a picture in the next couple of days.

Thanks for the great response. The first picture looks like mine, but mine has more of a bluish tinge to it and no yellow. Maybe it will change as it grows. It ate another f/t lastnight 10 mins after I put it in, so I actually got to watch it eat. Where are you located? I am in NC. Who would you suggest I contact to see about getting some reasonably healthy specimens?

I would contact Chuck at Central Florida Reptile Breeders. I have not purchased this species from him but we have discussed putting a order together. He seems like a good guy.