Reptile & Amphibian Forums

cb 10 month old from costa rica.

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- Happy herping!

KE

Whoa - where did you get that?

cant say which one, but its an import from a serpentarium in costa rica.
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- Happy herping!

KE

How did you import from Costa Rica? what, if any, legal hoops had to be jumped through? Was this the maain serpentarium in San Jose or some other? When I was there I talked with a local guide about potential breeding programs to support legal export.

I already said I cant mention where specifically. But he came in a shipment of other snakes, and all red tape was taken care of.
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- Happy herping!

KE

If your Spiloties are from the same Reptile Park that I am dealing with one of their Spilotie adult breeders is mostly yellow. Have they released any yellows or Pseustis yet?

not that I know of. mine is typical of the costa rican variety , very little yellow. I dont think they have a high yellow there, and I unfortunately dont know anything about any exportation of Pseustes, if it happens at all. heres a pic of a wild one we found last april on the Peninsula de Osa in Costa Rica. Theres tiger rat snakes there too, as well as black tail cribos, though we have yet to see either of those sp.

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- Happy herping!

KE

Can you fill us in? I'd love to see pics. Is Costa Rica opening up? I talked to a certain Irish local herp guy when I was there who was interested in the possibilities and planned to look into it. That was 2 years ago.

Haha, I know who you are talking about, he is a friend of mine. The people we get our snakes from, breed them in captivity and I dont know about what laws and paperwork they deal with, but I know there is definately some. all I know is that the last time a shipment of snakes came in, I asked my friend to order a baby spilotes for me. I avoided paperwork altogether, though my friend who actually imported them had to jump through some hoops. You'd have to talk to Cocodrillo Dundee(as I have heard the park rangers in corcovado call him)about any actual projects with exportation and breeding.
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- Happy herping!

KE

Costa Rica is not opening up. I am due to receive animals from a couple that own a reptile park. The animals will be captive bred offspring. They will all have proper paperwork. The names of the people that own the park (husband and wife) are Quetzal and Monica. I met them in Florida at the Hot Show. I agreed to take their entire first shipment hopeing for offspring from their solid yellow Spiloties.

Ive heard plenty of good things about Quetzal, send pics when you get babies from his high yellows!
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- Happy herping!

KE

I am not real computer literate. Once I figure out how to send pics Ill show of some of this/last years Spiloties from my high yellow speckled to speckled breeding out of Honduras.I ended up with some white speckled animals fading to bright yellow posterior. I got orange banded from that same breeding! My focus herp wize will be locality Spiloties and large central and south american colubrids. My speckleds are cooking up their second clutch and eggs should be out soon.

Excellent! Great job with the breeding projects! Definately keep us posted( no pun intended). This little guy is my first spilotes, though they have always been favorites, along with cribos and indigos and pseustes. Eventually I'd like to breed spilotes, though I'm happy with the "danger tape" costa rican variety.

I go to shows and I see these things, wild caught, skinny as a tent, for way too much money, and I think to myself,"why arent these captive bred more often?". Dont get me wrong, I love the oranges, speckleds, high yellows, solid blacks etc, GORGEOUS animals... but I'm one of those nuts who likes to have animals that I myself can find in the wild, and since I'm frequently in spilotes country, I like the "danger tape" variety. Its cool having an animal in your house EXACTLY like the ones you've seen, or could see in the wild. I was understandably thrilled when I found out I could get one like that, CB and eating thawed mice. He is pretty mellow too, so Ive been handleing him. Hes territorial, so I use a hook to get him out of the cage, but once out of his territory he is quite pleasant and curious, looking at things, checking things out, moving carefully and deliberately...Ive heard that curiosity and intelligence is typical in the indigo family. He is one of the more intelligent snakes in my collection, I am very impressed with him.
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- Happy herping!

KE

I also bred banded (danger tape this year).I think if more people could see how girthy wild spiloties are they would put more effort into breeding them. My breeder adults have more girth than my Yellowtail Cribos and are longer as well. I am finding out that my hyper snakes that are sight oriented are very smart, believe it or not my most inteligent snakes are my coachwhips. My Tigers are showing the same aptitude and are now among my favorate herps. I have a wild adult male that will snatch food from my hand with speed and precision that is mind bogling without leaving so much as a scratch on my hand, good clean adrenaline rush.

A friend of mine is guessing that diurnal hunters that have a variable diet, need to be smart in order to make quick decisions regarding food and escaping predators...so yeah I can easily believe that coachwhips are very intelligent. You hand feed your spilotes? I dont have that kind of courage. I have noticed that the spilotes strike is more like a vipers strike than a colubrid's, lightning fast, and all ready and S-ed up to strike again. In general, a very impressive snake. I'll definately have second thought about catching one when I find an adult in the wild, cause they are definately not the kind of snake you can catch with just a hook.
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- Happy herping!

KE