Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It was getting buried towards the bottom of the page, and I wanted Herman to see my response, so I copied it from down there.

I am thinking of moving him into a 10 gallon glass aquarium, although it will not fit on my shelves where I have the other snakes, unfortunately.
I also feel that this feeding problem is humidity related, and the tank he is in now is VERY good at retaining humidity. I also have him on paper towels for a substrate. Do you think that I should switch him to carefresh, which is pretty dehydrating?

He only had that one regurge, and I don't even know if you can call it a regurge, as the pinky mouse came up almost as soon as he ate it, unless he never actually got it totally swallowed. It is also possible that since he was trying to eat it sideways when I left him, he gave up on eating it when it didn't go down and he just left it in there under his body and I never noticed it. I put the deli cup that he was in back into his regular tank and removed the lid, but didn't lift it up and look under the snake before I did that, as I didn't want to disturb him. Maybe I should have searched it more thoroughly. The pinky that I found in there was not at all slimy.

Previously he had eaten one frozen/thawed pinky after I had dragged it across the feeding tank. I tried feeding him this past Thursday and he had no interest in the lizard scented pinky. Obviously a pinky would have no irritating hairs or fur, so I shouldn't have to skin it.

He is being kept alone with no cagemates. What temps do you run? Whan you say "jar" of water, would a baby food type jar work, or perhaps just a very small bowl instead? Or would you recommend removing the water bowl during the week and only offering it on a limited basis?

These snakes really seem to require that same care as Transpecos ratsnakes, i.e. the low humidity and the smaller prey items, don't they? Maybe the Texas Bairds are the incredibly easy snakes to keep, but I sure am not finding it so with this little Mexican Baird.
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phflame

Sorry for this late reply, I'm having problems with my PC at home.

I would not recommend catlitter as a substrate for snakecages. If the litter gets attached to the mouth tissue, the snake may suffocate. Cornspill is a much safer alternative. I myself use dried up bark, mixed with pine needles, pine apples and all kind of other stuff I may find while walking around the Dutch dune forest. I keep my ratsnakes in glass cages measuring 120 (length) * 120 (width) * 60 (height) cm. The cages are heated by 65 Watt devices situated underneath the cagefloors. If the snakes need to bask, they coil up above the hotspot. If they need to cool down, they just move to a cooler part of the cage or mount the branches. This seems to work quite well, since my 5 to 6 feet Baird's ratsnakes have no trouble digesting one day old chicks or adult mice. I like to decorate the cages in a natural looking way, with lots of logs, branches etc. Some people might find a cage this large for a couple of medium sized ratsnakes a bit too much, but I don't get any complaints from my snakes and I get to see a lot of natural behaviour in return, so I guess I'm doing the right thing.

Back to the regurtitation problem now. It seems to me that your Mexican bairdi is not really having the regurgitation syndrome. However, you need to be very carefull from now on. I strongly advise to offer undersized food items only, on a once a week basis. I have heard from many experienced ratsnake keepers that the Mexican bairdi is especially prone to digestive problems, and if you keep them the same way as you would keep your guttata or obsoleta, mortality rates can be significant. Think about Bogertophis maintainance instead.

Here's a list of the snakes that I own:

3.4 Pantherophis bairdi, Bandera Co. (Texas). Very nice colours!
1.1 Pantherophis bairdi, Val Verde Co. (Texas). Silver metallic (typically alpine) specimens. The male is a hypo.
2.1 Pantherophis bairdi, Nuevo Leon (Mexico), unknown locality.
1.1 Pantherophis o. obsoletus normal.
2.2 Pantherophis o. obsoletus lavender.
1.2 Pantherophis o. obsoletus leucistic.
1.0 Pantherophis o. obsoletus whited sided.
1.1 Pantherophis o. obsoletus albino blotchless.

Now I'd like to ask a question myself. Can anyone tell me how to attach a picture (jpg, gif, bmp) to my message?

Greetings,

Herman Bronsgeest, The Netherlands.

You can go upload pics at the photo gallery here.Then when you post you can select image and walla.You might have to resize the pics first before you load them...Paul

Thanx. Here's a picture of my pride and glory 6 foot adult male Baird's Ratsnake. It's parents were Vivid stock, so I guess it's safe to say that this animal originates from Banderas County, Texas. There is a lot more where this one came from!

Greetings,

Herman Bronsgeest, The Netherlands.