Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've always been interested in these animals so
i went ahead and took the risk. At the hamburg show on august 7th I picked up a small female for only 15 bucks. So far with her the only myth about their attitude I have found to be true is they are EXTREMELY hyper snakes. On the ride home my gf held her for about 2 hours without a nip. As soon as we got home we settled her in a small tank and threw in a mouse. At first she paid no attention to it then 10 minutes later ate it without a problem. The next day she ate another mouse, this made me real happy. She does seem to be very skitish (hiss's a bit and if i touch her she zips around the tank) but I expected that. I was wondering if anyone has had any females rocks since they have been young, and whats the growth rate on these guys compared to burms. If she has a growth rate even close to my young male i should have a monster within the next year. Any help or info is more than welcome. ~Matt

i got a afrock at the hamburg show as well. i would give him a week to settle in before you start to handle him. afrock do grow pritty fast like most large snakes. good luck with your rock.

CrazyCody

I have raised several rocks from babies and have rescued many other adults. They are far more unpredictable than burms and probably more along the lines of anacondas; some are great and some, if not most, are real terrors irregardless of how much they are handled. Regular handling will undoubtedly make a big difference but some rocks are just hard wired to be very nervous and ready to defend themselves (BITE). Make sure you develop very good handling/maintenance habits: use tongs when feeding food, wean your snake on to dead prey, USE A SNAKE HOOK when taking the snake out of its cage, have two people or more once the snake reaches more than 8', make sure you have a very sturdy cage that is locked that is also kept in a locked room, etc, etc....you get my point. Good luck.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
Lake Forest, IL

I dont have a female Rock, but i have a little Male...in the beginning i had problems with him(Giardia) but thats all fixed now. He just recently started eating for me again, so he will start to grow . And yes, he is a VERY hyper snake, move around like a colubrid, lol.

I have a baby that I picked up at the Sac show last year. It is a male about 4.5 ft. I'm raising him slower feeding him only f/t and he doesn't eat f/t like live but nontheless he is a fat healthy STRONG animal. He remains skittish and fast but still supertame. I have to say he is one of my favorite snakes. When he gets to be 8ft plus I will definitely give them the respect that they deserve. They aren't Burms. Good luck with yours. I would love to see some pics. I'll post some of mine later.

Take care,
Alex