Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone. You helped me back in April identify this water snake from a photo I had received via email. At the time it was thought that he was a Banded. I've been waiting for him since March and just got him tonight. I am totally thrilled with him. He has much more color than I thought he would. He's lightning fast in the enclosure (I am housing him in a 40 breeder), kind of hard to catch him, that will take some getting used to. But once out he is surprisingly calm. He ate within the first hour of being in his new home and has explored it a bit. I love him to pieces already! I can't believe he's finally here after 4 months of waiting. For anyone who remembers, he had a blister over his eye that popped, they thought he'd lose the eye and were waiting all this time for him to shed. Once he shed his eye looked great. It just has one tiny dimple in it that you wouldn't notice if you didn't know it was there. Here are some pics of Ripley!

He seems to be about 2 1/2 feet long or so. Been a while since I was doing the research on them. I forgot how long they are as adults. Is he about full grown? If not, how big should he get?

I love his "Smile"

In his new home...

I am going to get him some live fish this week. The fish he ate tonight was a frozen (thawed) silverside. I set up a tank for the live fish so I can get several and feed them good before he gets them. The feeders at the store are so crowded, not sure how much food they get there. I'm used to gutloading my mealworms and crickets, and feeding my breeder mice high quality food, I figure his fish should be no exception. Thanks for looking at my pics!
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Lyns Lair
Frogwatch USA
WNY Herpetological Society

0.1 Cat (Mia)
4.2 Ferrets (Wolf, Shadow, Verdell, Sullivan, Boo, Peach)
1.0 Carpet Python (Bear)
1.0 Malagasy Blonde Hognose Snake (Wilbur)
1.0 Yellow / Everglades Rat Snake (Pumpkin)
1.0 Russian Sand Boa (Fang)
0.1 Normal Corn Snake (Mysty)
1.0 Banded Water Snake (Ripley) coming soon!
0.1 Golden Greek Tortoise (Sunshine)
1.0 Whites Tree Frog (Trevor)
2.0 Solomon Island Eyelash Frogs (Chompy & Gimli)
1.0 AFT Gecko (Cocoa)
5.6 Leopard Geckos (Trouble, Scooter, Simba, Firenze, Teddy, Nala, Mystique, Freckles, Dotty, Zipper, Twister)

Looks nice. I have 1 banded that is over 3" and fat. I need to post soem more pics of her but just have not got around to doing it. what kind of feeder fish do you plan on using? I have been using shiners and rosck bass(hybrid bream( and have had no problems. Aint a silver side a big shiner? I dip the tail end of the minnow in some vitamin stuff about every 4-6 feedings. Since that is your only one, maybe you should try to switch to mice. They seem to do just as good, but don't need as much. I think this is a pic of her a few months ago. She looks much nicer now.

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Justin

Very nice, I like your snakes soft coloring. Different than Ripleys. Guess they have a variety when it comes to coloring? I look forward to seeing more pics when you post them. I don't know what kind of fish the frozen ones are. They were just labeled Silver Sides and have a silver band running down their sides that I imagine would be flashy underwater if they were alive. Local live feeders are limited to Goldfish, Rosies, and Guppies. I heard Goldfish aren't so good to feed, and the Guppies would be too small, so I was gonna go with the Rosies. also bought frozen Smelt which is supposed to be high in nutrition but is cleaned, no bones, so is not complete. I do have Calcium and Vitamins which I can add to the frozen ones, wouldn't work with the live since I'm going to let him go fishing in his water bowl for them. Can't wait to see that for the first time! I have plenty of mice (I breed them for my other snakes) so I could easily toss some in here or there for him. Thanks for the reply and for sharing your picture!

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Lyns Lair
Frogwatch USA
WNY Herpetological Society

0.1 Cat (Mia)
4.2 Ferrets (Wolf, Shadow, Verdell, Sullivan, Boo, Peach)
1.0 Carpet Python (Bear)
1.0 Malagasy Blonde Hognose Snake (Wilbur)
1.0 Yellow / Everglades Rat Snake (Pumpkin)
1.0 Russian Sand Boa (Fang)
0.1 Normal Corn Snake (Mysty)
1.0 Banded Water Snake (Ripley) coming soon!
0.1 Golden Greek Tortoise (Sunshine)
1.0 Whites Tree Frog (Trevor)
2.0 Solomon Island Eyelash Frogs (Chompy & Gimli)
1.0 AFT Gecko (Cocoa)
5.6 Leopard Geckos (Trouble, Scooter, Simba, Firenze, Teddy, Nala, Mystique, Freckles, Dotty, Zipper, Twister)

I know your probably not going to, but just have to make sure yuo don't feed he mice alive. Especialy to something that over powers without constriction or venom. Yea the coloration variies tramendously with bandeds, and for most water snakes. Some may be bright red and soe maybe brown and som maybe be between like yours and some just have little red likemine. I sure do wish they lived here. I had to buy mine for $15. But that is pretty good.
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Justin

I never thought of them not constricting. I never feed live anyways, but now I'm curious if they came across a rodent in the wild would they try to eat it an how? I have a CO2 setup do euthenize the mice I breed. I talked to the guy who helped take care of him before I got him, he was eating a combo of fish and fuzzy mice so he is used to them.

We found some shed skin from a Northern Water snake while hiking today. Saw a lot of Garters but no Waters. I'd never seen any snakes at all out there so I was thrilled just to see the Garters. They were huge, but too fast to catch.
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Lyns Lair
Frogwatch USA
WNY Herpetological Society

0.1 Cat (Mia)
4.2 Ferrets (Wolf, Shadow, Verdell, Sullivan, Boo, Peach)
1.0 Carpet Python (Bear)
1.0 Malagasy Blonde Hognose Snake (Wilbur)
1.0 Yellow / Everglades Rat Snake (Pumpkin)
1.0 Russian Sand Boa (Fang)
0.1 Normal Corn Snake (Mysty)
0.0.2 Anery Corn Snakes (Suezo & Mocchi)
1.0 Banded Water Snake (Ripley)
0.1 Golden Greek Tortoise (Sunshine)
1.0 Whites Tree Frog (Trevor)
2.0 Solomon Island Eyelash Frogs (Chompy & Gimli)
1.0 AFT Gecko (Cocoa)
5.6 Leopard Geckos (Trouble, Scooter, Simba, Firenze, Teddy, Nala, Mystique, Freckles, Dotty, Zipper, Twister)