Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey, im 13 years old and my name is Andrew. When i went to the show last weekend i was planning on getting another leopard gecko, or another bearded dragon. I was looking around at what everybody had, and noticed that a lady had some extremely small baby vine snakes for sale, and she said that they were about 6 weeks old. My dad and i really liked the snakes, and the lady selling them said that they were pretty hardy, and semi arboreal. I remember seeing some stuff about them on animal planet, and i knew they were venemous, but did not think of it at the time. They lady was only charging $7.99 for them, and it seemed like a pretty good deal. I got 2 babys and set them up in a ten gallon tank with some rainforest bedding, and a large bushy vine thing, and a 75 watt heat bulb on one side one the tank. I also have one of those log domes. She also said that they are insectivorious and will eat crickets. I put some tiny crickets in there for them, and it looks like they ate them. Now that my dad and i have done some research on them, it seems like the lady hadnt told us the correct info, just what we wanted to hear. My dad looked up a caresheet for them that says they shouldnt be handled, are completely arboreal, and should never be handled. My dad is thinking that i should get rid of them. I dont want to get rid of them, because i have become very attatched to the little guys. Can somebody tell me what the right setup for 2 babys should be? And any other info would be great. I will put some pics up soon. Please dont flame me, im posting this message so i can get everything right ofr them, not to be yelled at.

Thanks,
Andrew

I used to post pics a lot here on KS but i forgot how... if none of you can see this, can u tell me how i can post a pic?

Go to the photo gallery on this site and follow the directions for up loading photos. They need to be uploaded to a website before they can be posted. It's possible that you do not have vine snakes at all. Many petstores sell green snakes (Opheodrys aestivus) as vine snakes, mostly out of ignorance. Its unlikely that you really do have baby vine snakes as they are rarely bred and would cost in the range of 30-150 dollars. The green snake does eat crickets, and does best when fed a variety of insect fair. I have also noticed that they do better when they are allowed to overwinter, by lowering the lighting and temperatures during the winter months, good luck. Oh, as far as handling is conserned. No small reptile should be handled for more then a few minutes at time. They will quickly absorb heat from you that is uncomfortable to them. If you do have vine snakes, they are rear-fanged as you must be aware, and although they are considered harmless, any venom can potentially produce an allergic reaction and they should therefore be handled with caution.

I agree with rick on this. I have bred vinesnakes and the baby's are not hardy at all and raising them is a real challange!! If they are Vine-snakes I think you have chewed of more than you can handle at the moment. They will need live gekko's in the future and costs a lot of money, that is if they survive that long.
Anywhay like rick said: They are probably not vine-snakes..they don't eat crickets. If you place some pics on the net we can take a look and see if you need to worry.

Good luck,

PJ

Sorry it took so long for me to get the pic up. Its a little blurry, ill see if i can get some better shots.

I was right, it's a green snake, Opheodrys aestivus not a vine snake and is not rear-fanged. It will eat crickets and other small insects. If your feeding them mostly crickets then you should use a vitamin suppliment. Lowering the temperature and lighting during the winter months will also be appreciated by this snake. This is adult size you shouldn't expect him to grow much larger.

Thanks for the replies and the info. I am glad that that is finally cleared up and i know exactly what they are. I did not know that green snakes stayed so small. Do you know if these snakes give live birth, or if they lay eggs?

They are egg layers, and are bred infrequently in captivity. They are short lived and don't adapt well to captivity. I think those are the main reasons they aren't bred more often. That and there isn't a finnacial insentive, since they are so cheap. I don't know what the statisitics are on them, but from my experience most people don't keep them alive for more then a year or two, although they can live up to six years. When I used to work in a pet store, I noticed that people who purchased them, lost them during the winter months when they stopped feeding. Thats why I think that they do significantly better when overwintered every year. They don't maintain a lot of body fat and have strong instincts to stop feeding during the winter and when the temperatures are maintained high, they can't lower their metabolism sufficiently enough to last the winter months. Thats my theory anyway. I also believe that they eat a wider variety of insects and spiders in the wild and a diet of crickets just doesn't cut it for very long. Here a link to a site with more information, good luck, also, you might try the small snake forum for better advice.
Link