Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. I am intrested in getting a vine snake. I found one at a local store but I'm a bit concerned. I know they are suppost to puff up and show the pattern on their body when they are agitated. The one at the pet store didn't do this. Instead these small lines that looked like a little piece of about 1/8 of an inch straight in a line down the side of its body flared out down the sides, sort of like a probe or something under the skin. I couldn't find any information on if this was normal or not. They also said he is eating crickets. Nutritionally is this ok? I haven't read about any other instances of this only pinkies and lizards. He is about 3ft long seemingly in good shape (not fat not skin and bones either), he didn't seem to have any mites, handled very well, the last few weeks I've been looking at him he has always been very alert and active. Any more information would be much apperciated.

Thanks,

Lisa
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0.0.1 Green Tree Python
0.1 Akita
1.0 Rottweiler
2.0 Egyptian Maus

What you saw was a good piece of imitation. Some vines (particularly the Langha from Madagascar inflate portions of their bodies to look more like the "nobby" branches they climb on.

Not to worry, it's natural.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Vine snakes don't eat crickets, your probably looking at a Green snake(Opheodrys aestivus). I 'll venture to guess that the bump your describing is a subcutnaneous nematode.

Good catch on the cricket thing Rick (I missed that). This is one of those situations where a photo, a description, or a Latin name (if available) would help a lot.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

There is a petstore in my area that sells alot of exotic herps and does quite well with them, but they always have a cage of Green snakes being sold as "Vine snakes." I get pissed off every time I see it, so I recognize it... it's a pet peeve.