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I got a pair of G. oxycephala silver phase three days ago, they are wild caught so will need worming shortly after they settle in.
Today I tried feeding them and both eagerly took a day old chick and a large defrost mouse. Must be doing something right.
The female is smaller 5' and has more of an orange colour, the male is silver and 7'. Will the female egventually turn silver like the male or stay the same.
Temps are 88F dropping to 82 at night.
Humidity 80-100%

Cheers JohnG

>>I got a pair of G. oxycephala silver phase three days ago, they are wild caught so will need worming shortly after they settle in.

Congratulations, these are great snakes.

>>Today I tried feeding them and both eagerly took a day old chick and a large defrost mouse. Must be doing something right.

Eating is an excellent sign with this species. I have purchased about 20 imports of this species in the past year. All the ones that ate right away survived for at least a year. The only exception is one female who died due to ovoposition difficulties. To be fair, the other specimens arrived in horrible condition and were either given to me for free or at a discount. It's not a surprise they died.

But these are still problematic snakes... I have also had imports die for no apparent reason after doing well for over a year.

All of my other mortality was due to a flood or ovoposition difficulties. Of course that's based on my memory only, all my records were lost in the flood as well

>>The female is smaller 5' and has more of an orange colour, the male is silver and 7'.

Wow, are you sure that's a male? The biggest male I ever had was just over 5'. I had a male breed successfully at just about 4'. I believe he was about 300 grams when he bred, but again, I can't say for sure due to losing my records.

>>Will the female egventually turn silver like the male or stay the same.

Very difficult to say. I purchased an orange female who has changled color with every shed. For a time she was orange, then turned more grey/silver after a few sheds, and now seems to be turning orange/yellow again.

This is a picture of her after her first shed. The picture came out so bright I actually had to dim it down in photoshop to better duplicate her actual appearance. Of course I've since found out she's a different snake with every shed so I hardly even recognize this picture.

Please contact me off board. I maintain something of a Gonyosoma listserve in my e-mail inbox for the exchange of information regarding this species.

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1.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.4 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

I just read my post to see how the picture turned out and realize I made a bit of a mistake.

I've purchased about 20 G. oxycephala over the past 3 years, not only in the past year. These have been shared between myself and a friend.

If you read my post and then look at my signature it gives the impression I've lost a lot of snakes in the last year. Not true.

Even with the flood, ovoposition difficulties, and the near-death "freebies" from the importer my mortality has been less than 50%.
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1.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.4 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

Hi,

I'm a Belgian hobbyist, and Gonyosoma is truely my all time favorite snake. I've had also lost some wild caught animals. All were doing very well, eating like champions, and then died after 8 to 15 months in captivity. Imports were all green, and Indonesion or Malayan. I must say that the Indonesian type were easier in getting well established in captivity.
I did also had a couple of such grey-yellow specimens earlier this year imported from Malaysia. They were not easy at all and died after a short period of 4-6 weeks of being in my care. The good news was, that there were eggs led. A small clutch of 4 eggs, with 2 eggs rapidly turning bad. There hatched 1.1, unfortunately the female was heavily deformed on the spine, but the male is healthy as can be, eating like a pig en growing real fast. He was born entirely grey, with only the head showing some shades of green en fewer, less noticible shades of yellow on the shin. Now he's turning more yellow with each shed.
The pages on where my pictures are uploaded is down for the moment, I will post some of them later.

The Indonesian vs. Malasian comparison is interesting to me. All of my specimens have been imported from Java, Indonesia and I've found them to be "easier" than this species is made out to be. But still, they certainly are not an easy snake.

Have you noticed any difference in how arboreal Indonesian specimens are compared to Malaysian specimens?

I ask because my Java specimens have not utilized perches much at all. I did have one green G. oxycephala of unknown origin who was quite the climber. She looked significantly different from my other green specimens, all of which were from Java, so I have speculated that G. oxycephala from Java are naturally less arboreal.

My black G. janseni have also exhibted more of a fondness of climbing than my G. oxycephala.

Of course these are all anecdotal observations made from a limited number of specimens. Since I have had specimens that climb I assume the way my perches are setup is not an issue.

Appreciate any input.

I look forward to seeing your pictures.

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1.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.4 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

There is a difference indeed between the two localities. The Malaysian Gonyosoma's are a bit more anxious and more rapidly agitated. Their activity level is a bit higher and they are farely easy stressed. It could be that this difference is a natural occuring thing, but I strongly believe that the conditions in what they are transported, and the time that takes them to arrive is worse and longer then for the Indonesians. And I think that this might be the problem why those Malaysian wild caughts are more difficult.
They also differ in physical characters. The Indonesian snakes are mostly of a lighter green, yellow shinned, missing the black stripe on the eye, and havin' a lighter grey tail. The Malaysian snakes are much darker green, and there is a little number of snakes that carry any yellow. Most were green on shin and belly, and others had a clear with chin. They more often show the black stripe on the eye, and there may be a certain amount of black on the bodyscales too. Their tails are also darker, and show more reddisch color in it.

I did not notice a lot of diffence in climbing habits. Here they all climb, I have just one adult caught female that is always on the floor of her terra, and she is an Indonesian.

I'll try to place some pics here:
This is de captive born grey-orange male, turner more yellowisch each shed, nasty fellow

This is also a captive born male, also Malaysian showing some yellow.

This was the adult couple imported, just arrived at my place. First one is the male.


This one is also a Malaysian male CB02, an older pic of him. But this is a white chinned animal, and with many black markings on the bodyscales.

greetz

After seeing all your pictures I would now call mine the silver phase. I thought the orange was more a touch of orange than a true orange.
The picture here is the Male I think I said he was 7' I measured him today and he is more like 5' 8".
As far as I know they are from Indonesia, I'll see if I can get a location from the importer.

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********************************************************************
1:2.. Pituophis catenifer (melanoleucus) sayi (Bull Snake)
0.1.. Boiga Cyanea
1:1.. Gonyosoma oxycephalum (Silver Phase)
1:1.. Lampropeltis getula "goini" (Tangerine Phase)
01.. Eryx miliaris nogaiorum
1:1.. Elaphe o. obsoleta (liquorice stick or white sided rat snakes)
0:1.. Eryx jaculus
1:1.. Lampropeltis pyromelana woodini (Huachuca Mountain Kingsnake)
1:2.. Elaphe bimaculata (Twin-spotted Rat Snake)
1:1.. Candoia carinata paulsoni (Soloman Island ground Boas)
Lizards
1:0..Tupinambis teguixin ssp. (Golden Tegu)
0:1..Uromastyx acanthinurus
1:1..Pogona henrylawsonii [brevis] (Rankins Dragons)
Arachnid’s
Pterinochilus murinus
Kilimanjaro Sootyback
********************************************************************

That's a very large animal. At least it appears so from the picture. I'd love to hear actual locality data on the animal if it's available.

The both look different from my specimens. I'll try to get pictures soon.
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1.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.4 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

Nice lookin' Gonyo!!!

This is the female.

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********************************************************************
1:2.. Pituophis catenifer (melanoleucus) sayi (Bull Snake)
0.1.. Boiga Cyanea
1:1.. Gonyosoma oxycephalum (Silver Phase)
1:1.. Lampropeltis getula "goini" (Tangerine Phase)
01.. Eryx miliaris nogaiorum
1:1.. Elaphe o. obsoleta (liquorice stick or white sided rat snakes)
0:1.. Eryx jaculus
1:1.. Lampropeltis pyromelana woodini (Huachuca Mountain Kingsnake)
1:2.. Elaphe bimaculata (Twin-spotted Rat Snake)
1:1.. Candoia carinata paulsoni (Soloman Island ground Boas)
Lizards
1:0..Tupinambis teguixin ssp. (Golden Tegu)
0:1..Uromastyx acanthinurus
1:1..Pogona henrylawsonii [brevis] (Rankins Dragons)
Arachnid’s
Pterinochilus murinus
Kilimanjaro Sootyback
********************************************************************

>>This was the adult couple imported, just arrived at my place. First one is the male.

That specimen looks identical to the orange female I have. She is supposedly from Java but now I think I'll have to re-check.

Regardless, thanks for the pictures and the anecdotes.

Please feel free to e-mail me off board so we have each other's information.

I especially want to have contacts with European breeders as you all seem to have more success with this species. That fact that your English is excellent is a bonus. The only thing I know about Belgium is a bit about the beer
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1.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.4 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

Yes all of the snakes shown are malayan wild caught or captive borns, 100% sure of that

Haha, they all know our beer , we'll keep in touch allright, Gonyosoma is my all time favorite colubrid snake

greetz

Hi Chris

Beautiful animals you have....I kept and successfully bred gonyosoma (and many other snakes) for a number of years but got have been out of the hobby for some time now.
I read your post that said you maintained a database of info on this species and may have something to add as I had to overcome many problems in developing a successful routine for hatching out Gonyos
I am also looking for some sources of quality Gonyosoma as i would like to get back into it.
I wish you best of luck - post to my attention if you are interested.

Pat Dollard