Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am really interested in purchasing a vine snake. I would like to know care requirements, feeding habits, and tmperament. I cannot find a straight answer about their toxin either. Please help.
Thanks,
Justin
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0.2 Pacific Gopher Snake
1.0 Bearded Dragon
0.0.2 Western Banded Geckos
9.8 Pacific Tree-Frogs
1.1 Green Anoles
1.0 Western Toad

I ran into the same problem that you did about three years ago. The truth is that is is hard to get information on these snakes, but I will give you what I have.

Asian vine snakes like large heavily planted habitats. I keep mine at bout 95 durring the day and let it drop to 86 at night. The trick here is humidity, the tank should be maintained at 80% to 90% humidity. They usualy only eat lizards anoles and house geckos provide a stable diet. However mine took a pinky yesterday, but I not sure if that is healthy (hence my above thread)

The word on the venom is shakey. Their saliva causes paralisis in it's prey. Mine has bit me a few times without a problem, (their enlarged teeth are in the back of the mouth so they usualy dont invenomate on a defencive bite. The one time he did get be with the enlarged teeth I felt a numbing feeling in the hand that he bit me, but It went away in a few hours.

However I have heard stories of people having bad reactions to it. There was even one related death due to anaphalaxis (the same reaction a person who was alergic to bees would get if they were stung)

I'm not sure how much they cost, as I was given mine, so I was wondering if you had any Ideas.

We have two papers looking at the venom.

Lumsden NG, Fry BG, Kini RM and Hodgson WC (2004) "In vitro neuromuscular activity of 'colubrid' snake venoms: clinical and evolutionary implications." Toxicon 43(7):819-827.

Fry BG, Wüster W, Ramjan SFR, Jackson T, Martelli P and Kini RM. (2003) "LC/MS (liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry) analysis of Colubroidea snake venoms: evolutionary and toxinological implications." Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 17: 2047-2062.

Both can be downloaded from the link below.

Unlike most other colubrine snakes, which are rich in neurotoxins, Ahaetulla has very large enzymes as one of the dominant toxin types. The action of the venom reflects this in that it is much less neurotoxic than other colubrines. However, we don't know where the venom is acting (perhaps the blood, perhaps just local edema). I would rate the potential danger of these snakes as typically of only trivial consequence. A common complaint of bites (including ones I've had) is minimal swelling but a deep ache on the bitten hand.

Cheers
Bryan
Venom papers

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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
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Australian Venom Research Unit,
University of Melbourne
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Population and Evolutionary Genetics Unit,
Museum Victoria
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http://www.venomdoc.com

I have been keeping these snakes for over two years now with some breeding succes. I keep my adult pair in simular conditions as mentioned in previous post.
I however keep them at lower temps all year round. I keep them at 29C (84.2F) day and night. Cycling is not needed to breed these snakes. They will breed any time of the year. I found mine to breed late winter and birth took place after 160 days @28.6C
One in my opinion very important aspect of the care of these snakes is UV lighting. Opinions differ, but two weeks after I placed UV lighting my pair started mating. Coincidence??? who knows! I produced baby's two years in a row. If you have any more Q's concerning prasina's, feel free to e-mail me:
p.j.kwakernaak@student.tudelft.nl
Good luck,
PJ