Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi

I was wondering what the differences between the different subspecies are in drymobius margaritiferus, and what subspecies mine is... any help?
thanx in advance!

hey apophis nice snake, we have one subspecies in our range D. m. margaritiferus the other 3 are D. m. fistulosus, D. m. maydis, and D. m. occidentalis

heres where i found it

http://www.herpseeker.com/worldspecies/Snakes/colubrids/drymobius.htm

as far as scale counts and all that it doesnt really give anything about it so im not sure youd be able to tell what subspecies you have.

by the way, whered you get that one? ive been trying to get one from mark lucas for a while and every now and then one will pop up but dissapear almost instantly. anyway good luck with your snake and i hope this helps

hi Lachesis1

The site you mentioned didn't say anything about the differences unfortunately... I found mine at a local reptileshop here in the netherlands, but i guess that's a little too far off for you right? -lol- Goodluck finding one!!

haha sorry, theyre not too commonly worked with i guess so info on determining the different subspecies doesnt seem to be readily available. again sorry i couldnt help you, good luck with your snake. hopefully ill be able to get one sooner or later.

I have a pair of Drymobius margaritiferus and I am thinking thats what you have, they are by far the most common ssp. sold.
nice snake btw, mine are not mellow enough to handle to well.

Thanx for the info! I was guessing margaritiferus, but i wasn't sure...

Mine isn't too mellow either, but he usually doesn't bite. He really doesn't like to be picked up though, and every time he thinks he has a chance to escape, he takes it! so caution is adviced!

It is D. m. margaritiferus, there are other color phases of the same species, green, yellow and blue, yours is a blue.

Thanks Rick!

That's the info that i had been looking for!

where did you purchase your pair from if you could e-mail me at rjohnson2110@houston.rr.com to let me know i would greatly appreciate the info
thanks robert

Nice specimen! Many of them lack the aqua color. I can't believe you were able to photograph a drymobius on your hand without it biting you. Mine would have been chewing on my fingers while trying to escape my grasp.

Thanks!

What sex are yours? I read somewhere, I can't remember where, that females tend to bite, and males tend to be more mellow. Mine is a male, so it could be true...

Howmany have you got? Have you bred them? I'd love to find a mate for mine once, but they are extremely rare over here in europe...

Mine only tries to bite inside his cage, and only occasionally. As soon as I have him in my hand he usually settles down within a few seconds. he will try to escape whenever he feels he has a chance of escaping though, and he doesnt like sudden movements either!

Anyway, they're great snakes!

I have three. Two females and one male. They all bite! I had to build a walk-in cage for them because they were too difficult to work with in a regular cage. They are so fast that they would fly right past my head whenever I would open the cage to feed them. Be careful on feeding them rodents. They will become obese very fast. I lost a female to obesity. I try to alternate between fish and rodents.
I like a fast and mean snake. I also have coachwhips and other racers.
The Drymobius act, look like, and feed like a garter snake to me. What do you think?
The only place I ever see them for sale is from Strictly Reptiles and they are not always in the best of health.

steph

Hi steph

I've fed mine fuzzy mice for as long as i have him (almost a year now) and as you can see in the picture he is not fat at all. Or do you mean something else with obesity? (english is not my "normal" language) Anyway, I'll keep a close eye.
I don't have any experience in keeping garters, so i don't know if they act and feed like drymobius, but IMHO Drymobius look ALOT prettier than most garters... ;-D

Sietse

If you want to breed them the key is to keep them well fed, the females will eat daily while gravid and prior to mating. Gold fish are your best bet since they are cheap.

Thanks for the info!
But first i have to find a female, and that's not going to be easy i'm afraid...
I have found only 1 person here in the netherlands who has kept them aswell, he got two hatchlings, but both wouldn't eat, and the stress of forcefeeding was too much for them, and they died....
I really hope to find a female someday!

again, thank you for the info!

sietse

The hatchling are tricky. I wish you luck, and if you are successful in finding a female and breeding, start the hatchlings off on both tree frogs and rosy red minnows. Frogs are their natural food, as they become bigger they will be more likely to try other food items, but as neonates, they tend to prefer frogs. About 30% will eat fish right away, so you definitely want to keep those eating fish.

n/p