I'm the proud owner of one of a beautiful Scarlet Snake. I purchased him at a Flea Market in FL. The Seller told me that he had him for a few weeks and it hadn't eatten. I gave him $30 for it not knowing anything about the Snake. I researched and researched everywhere possible and I couldn't find any info on them. I looked on the internet, in books, I even asked a close friend who is a herpotologist and he had nothing to say other then it's gonna die.
I tried feeding it pinkies, fish, anoles, treefrogs, even a mediterainian gecko and wouldn't take anything. Well, I finally found out that in the wild they eat eggs and for the most part nothing else. And for that reason they are almost never kept as pets.
Well I got mine to finally eat strips of raw chicken soaked in a raw beatten egg. I've got him sat up in a 5 gallon tank with a loose dirt/sand mix because he likes to dig and I give him one spray a day. It stays bettween 75 and 80 degrees and I give him fresh water daily.
The reason for this post is that I would like to know if there are any other owners out there and if so what they feed it and how they house it. I would also like to know if anybody knows anyone who sells these beauties and what a healthy, eating, beautiful Scarlet would go for. If you have any info please leave a post. Thanks
Reptile & Amphibian Forums
Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.
The Mysterious Scarlet Snake...
Replies (7)
Scarlet Snakes aren't really all that mysterious dude. In the wild they will eat reptile eggs, snakes, lizards, mice and bird eggs. I've heard of other people having them feed on small skinks and small snakes as well. A good price for a scarlet snake is around $20, there is one on the classifieds for sale for $100!! I find that absolutely obsurd. The owner will even give you corn snake egg shells to use to get the snake eating regular eggs. I think that's garbage though, and I'd never pay more than $25 for a scarlet.
Michael
Michael's Place
25 is good price, I would go as high as 40. You feed them just chicken eggs and they do fine, just remove their water a couple of days before feeding and crack open a couple of stirred up eggs into their empty water dish,and they'll suck it down. These snakes are very secretive so make sure you have a couple inches of substate for him to hide in. Its funny how many herpetologist lack actual husbandtry knowledge, they must concentrate on taxonomy or something.
Thats neat that you got him to eat that. Is he very secretive? I never heard of them thought only scarlet was a scarlet kingsnake.
Lia
I am presently working with a Scarlett that is 27" and a victim of poisoning acording to the person who presented it to me (who is rather knowlegeable). I am assist feeding it pinks till it gains back enough weight to try other foods voluntarily (so far it is coming back fine).
Back in the seventies I got two small Scarletts as and raised them both to over 30" as follows:
They were housed together in a ten gal tank. The bottom was covered by two inches of peat. There was a water dish and I lightly misted daily. Into this (because I had a large supply back then) I released Mole Skinks, netonate Blue tail Skinks and Dekay Brown snakes. I never saw the Scarletts feed but the food animals disappeared and the Scarletts grew like weeds.
Frank
-----
"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."
Frank,
How often did you put new prey in there? And was the substrate just peat or peat moss? I'm thinking about getting a scarlet snake or two very shortly.
Michael
Michael's Place
The scarlet snakes wont eat each other ?
Lia
Lia....Never saw one try to eat another. it's possible, but I was more concerned with breeding at the time as the two were a pair. Unfortunatly they never bred.
I added food Mike as I caught it. Another trick I used was that the tank was near a window (no direct sun)and I found that I had Bull ants that patrolled near there so I took piece of hard candy and left a candy trail into the tank. The ants would come in for the candy. The skinks ate the ants and the Scarletts ate the skinks.
Worked like a charm as I never found an undernourished skink or snake in the settup.
Frank
-----
"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."
