Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Not a Pituophis, but they look like them and are much more like them than the other lampropeltine ratsnakes (they even have the modified rostral scale) so...
Does anyone here keep them? I'm almost starting to like my pair more so than my southern pine or bull. I have a 1.1 pair of A. occidentalis that I picked up in Montreal. The species is nearly non-existent in Canada, and I don't know anyone who has kept them. All I can figure out is a) they're not hard to keep b)they eat like pigs and c) they digest their food even faster than my pits do. Has anyone bred them? What size were they? Did you cycle them? Mine are just over a foot long now, and still shedding every 2-3 weeks (they eat an incredable amount - they were a little thin and keel-backed when I got them, so they get 2-3 hopper mice in 2 weekly feedings and they seem to grow well and gain weight on that... I think they'd gladly eat every 2 days if I let them. I'll start slowing it down once they're in better body condition)
I love their temperments. The female is more skittish, but the male is a total food nut, so he now spends all his time at the front of his cage so that he can start begging for food the second I walk in the room. Pretty snakes, and variable... the male is a goldeny-orange (think almost a washed-out corn) while the female is a pretty silvery white with grey blotches and red flecking on her scales.
Alex

Dont keep them, but I have observed them out here in the wild. What do yours eat? As far as I know, babies hunt for diurnal lizards at night when they are asleep. Ive seen babies, they are really small. I personally wouldnt know what to do with hatchlings. If they are doing as well as you say, I would expect them to breed fairly readily after a brumation period.

They eat f/t mice. The store emphasised that they were eating live fuzzies, but the both ate the first dead hopper I offered. I was kind of worried over how small the babies would be, since I'm dealing with a stubborn brown house snake hatchling I'm sure wants to eat some tiny little african skink, how long are they when they hatch?

Like I said, I havent breed them, but I found a few babies last year that were maybe 8 inches long and quite skinny. They were smaller than a california king baby, and what I have read says they eat lizards as young and transfer to mice in early adulthood. It would be cool to captive produce some, Ive never heard of the occurance. Good luck!