Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Wow just got back from a 4 day trip to big bend. I had my eyes peeled the whole time but everything was still asleep underground. On the last day we stayed at a cabin outside the park and I felt a little better about digging around as there are strict rules while inside the park about removing anything. Spent all day turning over rocks. Nothing. Then the next morning before loading up and going home I turned over my last couple of rocks and found some shed skin. The next rock near by had this guy sleeping under it.
Nice surprise. I am getting him set up now and will try to offer some food at the end of the week. Comments and care suggestions greatly appreciated.
Travis

one more picture

Hey man,

Nice snake, I'm not the best at IDing snakes, but to me that looks like Tantilla. A small species of snakes, grows less than 10 inches long, and preys mainly on centipedes and insect larvae. ErikNM can help you with the ID, if he checks out the thread, I'm sure these are in his range.

With care, I say set it up in a small enclosure packed with leaves, moss and dirt, and leave it there. Let it adjust to it's new surroundings for about a week. Then, drop in maybe 4 or 5 frozen/thawed centipedes and if the snake is hungry enough, it will eat.

Let me know what happens...

I offered the albino earth snake some worms today, he seemed interested, but didn't take. He moves around alot whenever I turn the lights out in my snake room, I'm thinking the species is nocturnal, but I haven't checked to see if they are or aren't yet. Tomorrow or Wednesday I'm gonna leave 2 or 3 frozen/thawed worms in his tank in different areas, I hope he'll eat soon.

Mike
Michael's Place

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Michael's Place has updated better caresheets
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Good advice. I was thinking of doing the gradient substrate thing you described for the ground snakes but it seems like it will not need as much moisture(moist moss) being a desert species.
Man I hope that little guy you have gets his appetite on. I think alot of people are cheering for him.
T
P.S. where does one get a supply of centipedes?

I found a couple under some logs yesterday while worm hunting.
Michael's Place

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Michael's Place has updated better caresheets
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It looks like a western ground snake (Sonora semiannulata)with atypical coloration to me. Does it have a loreal scale (this would differentiate it from Tantilla / black-headed snakes)? Could you post a pic showing the scalation on the side of the head?

-Alice

Any Tantilla in that area would have jet black heads (I don't believe Tantilla gracilis range that far west). Ground snakes are extremely variable, however, but they don't really look like anything else.
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Thanks for the help on the ID. I will post another picture in the morning. I just set him up with two types of substrate. mulch/dirt and aspen. What about a third gradient of that fine gravel. He seems to like the dirt/mulch best right now. THis weekend we feed. I will try some worms. Any suggestions besides centipedes. THey are really hard to find around my house.
Travis

Travis,

Give it a substrate to burrow into.

The species only preys centipedes, spiders and scorpions. My buddy had an albino specimen that he got onto pinkies, but I don't know how.

Mike
Michael's Place

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Michael's Place has updated better caresheets
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake

I agree that it is a ground snake (Sonora).
I have kept them for a couple of years and mine eat crickets with their
hind legs removed just fine. You need to remove the hind leggs
so they are more easy to catch by the ground snake.
I also feed mine spiders
(small house and wolf spiders mainly) and centipedes occasionaly.
They seem to be uninterested in worms, beetles, beetle larvae, and rolypolies
(potato bugs).

Brian Eagar

>>Thanks for the help on the ID. I will post another picture in the morning. I just set him up with two types of substrate. mulch/dirt and aspen. What about a third gradient of that fine gravel. He seems to like the dirt/mulch best right now. THis weekend we feed. I will try some worms. Any suggestions besides centipedes. THey are really hard to find around my house.
>>Travis