Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have any experience keeping or breeding these guys? I currently have a group of 2.3 that have been in my care for over a year and seem to be doing great. I have been unable to find very much info on keeping or breeding them. . Any notes, tips or breeding advice is much appreciated.
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Greg Power
B.O.A. Inc
boainc@gmail.com

You could check the caging forum for Chris Harper. He keeps them, and may be able to help.

Breeding G. oxycephala that are otherwise doing well in captivity is pretty easy. In fact I have produced fertile eggs everytime I have paired up adults I felt were ready. Now, hatching the eggs is another story. FYI, a contact of mine who has been very successful with this genus is hope to launch a website with some help from me within the year. He will go into egg incubation in detail.

But getting them to breed is pretty easy. Keep the snakes in a group and drop temperatures at night. The only times I have witnessed copulation was when temperatures were in the low to mid 60's. I think misting at night and early morning also helps.

Females are very obvious when they are gravid. They can be absolutely bizzare about ovoposition, so be prepared to look everywhere when a female suddenly looks thin one day.

How are you keeping them now? Individually or in groups? What sized cage and how is it decorated? What temperatures?
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Jave local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

Thanks for teh info! Chris, I am sending you an email.
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Greg Power
B.O.A. Inc
boainc@gmail.com

I hope to be breeding F3 snakes this season. As Chris can attest, wc adults almost always break your heart! They're famous for cruising along fabulously then crashing in a remarkably short period of time. They are extremely succeptible to UR infections.

All of my hatchlings fed best when split brained pinky mice/fuzzies were put UP in the leaves/branches of fake plants. Items left on the floor of the cage were ignored. Over time they'll eat anywhere but this was a key to getting hatchlings started that I lucked into.

I house my adults together year-round in 48"x 24"x 24" cages lined w/melamine. I have wooden Cocatiel nest boxes situated 10" from the top (where the heat source is) and another one 1/2 way down. Lots of grapewood and fake plants w/water bowls mounted to the sides of the cages at 2 different elevations. Automatic mister comes on for 3 minutes at 9:00AM and again at 2:00PM. Humidity peaks at 78% (I live in Vegas so humidity is a constant battle lol). Temps peak at 85F and drop to 78F at night. I'll drop this to 82F down to 75F when I begin to cycle my Chondros and ETBs as they're all in the same room.

A good sign they're breeding is that the cage will look like a battle has been fought! I've never witnessed copulation but have seen the disarray courtship causes - scattered plants, tipped/empty water bowls, etc. When gravid, each egg is easily seen individually.

They stress easily, my philosophy w/all my herps is the less you mess w/them the better. I NEVER hold any of my snakes unless its absolutely mandatory. Make sure the cage is heavily "planted" w/fake plants and a few hides.

Good luck,

Bill

I bred Gonyosoma to F3 from 1990-2000 and would also agree that the breeding was not the challenge - egg husbandry was.
For me, several of my first clutches went full term and never hatched - leaving me disappointed with fully developed babies dead in the eggs.
After those failures, I took a stance to manually pip all eggs at day 90 and never lost a single baby after that. It is now more common knowledge that the species should have relatively low incubation temps...but at the time I could find very little info.
After several years of regret with my decision to have sold off the last of my Gonyosoma , I now have acquired 1.2 CB silver phase and look forward to rebuilding a breeding group. They are awesome snakes - best of luck to you.
You can e-mail me as well if I may be of assistance.

Cheers,
Pat

Pat,

Good to see you're back in the world of Gonyosoma. Other than a group of Rhynchophis boulengeri, Gonyosoma is all I have kept for three or four years now and I enjoy them more than ever.

I'll see if I have one of your old emails saved and drop you a line.

Chris
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Jave local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

Hey Chris

Yup - I finally got my hands on some, and they are doing great.
I haven't taken many photos yet - here's one not so great shot (tough to keep these little snappers still long enough to stay in focus!)...and a couple of some of my other recent additions, all of U.S. breeding.

Yeah - I bit on some Ryhnchophis also. My pair are still TINY...and only one is feeding so far. I am reluctant to want to go to fish (disease mongering critters)...any tips?

Cheers,
Pat

They seem to do well with the deli cup approach, or my leaving live pinks up in an elevated nest. Or defrosted pinks draped over branches.

A friend of mine gets them to feed by taking them out of the cage and holding them in one hand while he tease feeds them with the other. Once they strike and hold he sets them back in the cage.

One of the most odd things I've ever seen, and it did not work for me.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Jave local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

Pat,

Do you still have the same emails? One has corallus in it, the other your work email?
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Jave local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

Hey Chris
Yup - same e-mails.
I prefer you use the corallus e-mail though as my office mail server has small limits on inbox and it fills up too quickly!

Cheers,
Pat

Just scent a pinky with fish and take them both and set them in a shallow bowl of water and make the pinky move around alot make sure you scent it really good I have a Rhino Rat he was on fish when I got him from my boss as a birthday gift I brought him home and the next day I tried that and it worked for me he is know on fuzzys unscented. sorry no pics