Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can someone help me out. I am having trouble deciding if I want to get a 0.1 CB hatchling ANERY Mexican Night Snake, or an F3 Orange Sears line Hogg Island Boa (CB baby). Can someone please give opinions?

Thanks in advance

Go with the boa, boas in general feed more often and are less of a hassle than the night snakes. Most night snakes also tend to prey mainly on lizards and snakes, although some will eat rodents.

Mike
Michael's Place

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Michael's Place has updated better caresheets
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Definitly the Boa. Night snakes (as Mike said above) can be difficult snakes to work with.

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

Thanks for the replies. I have been keeping and breeding snakes for years, and I am not necessarily looking for a tame, pet snake. Which one is a bit more exotic. This Hogg Island is an exceptional specimen, not one you see everyday. However I have NEVER seen any Anery Mexican Night snakes being offered for sale, so that's why I am leaning towards this. How rare/exotic is an ANERY Mexican Night? Are they commonly offered for sale?

The other two posts are referring to actual Night Snakes, Hypsiglena. The Mexican Night Snake is not a Night Snake but a Rat Snake, Elaphe flavirufa. They are also known as the Mexican Rat Snake, Central American Rat Snake, Tamaulipan Rat Snake and Mexican Corn Snake.

I have four of these and find them to be excellent captives. They are good looking snakes, show good growth, and are consistent feeders on f/t rodents. They do take longer to reach breeding maturity than other species. A couple of mine will skip about 1 out of every 4 or 5 meals. They are more slender than other Rat Snakes so adjust food size accordingly. Husbandry is typical for Colubrids. They will climb a bit if given the space to do so. The only criteria for choosing these over the Boas would be personal preference. You may want to check out or post an inquiry in the Rat Snake forum for more information but I would recommend these as captives.

Randy
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Firehouse Herps

There are several proposed subspecies for Hypsiglena torquada plus the other Night Snake Eridphas marcosensis. Some of these occur in Mexico (All have locality Common Names). My assumption was that at the petshop level a Night snake from Mexico might be called a "Mexican"....

E. Flavirufa; the Red Blotched Ratsnake, has also been called a Mexican Night Snake-as well as the Tamaulipan or Yucatan Rat snake.

Once again the problem with common names.

Before this thread extends further it would definitly be necessary to determine which snake we are talking about.

If it is Flavirufa, that is being disscussed here, then by all means I would take it over a boa any day.

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

Thanks for the replies. I am leaning towards the Anery Night. Here is a picture of the F3 Orange Sears Line Hogg

That boa is pretty, but there's a lot of difference in captive maintenance from the anery night, also called Pseudelaphe (Elaphe) flavirufa. I've had Mexican night snakes before and they are pretty easy to care for. They are fairly easy to find, but not nearly as common as some of the other ratsnakes. Depends on your preferences, whether you want to keep a tropical or temperate snake.

TC
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Ratsnake Haven: Calico and hypo Chinese beauty snakes, Mandarin ratsnakes, Chinese twin-spotted ratsnakes, South Korean Dione's ratsnake, leopard snakes, Great Plains ratsnakes, and corn snakes