Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I received these from my friend who shot these photos a couple of months ago. I will try to get updated pictures soon.

And as a bonus I'll throw in two reasonably decent pictures of my male mandarin ratsnake from the same photosession:

Kind regards,

Bert Grit
The Netherlands

Of course I especially like the mandarin photos. Best of luck

John

Hahaha, ofcourse you do! But I guess that for someone who cannot see the colour red (and to a certain extent orange) red bamboo ratsnakes aren't much to look at (?)...

Regards,

Bert

Bert:
My perception of red is definitely very different from someone's with normal red-green vision (and hard to explain). That being said, the pattern and color (and iridescence) of lati's have always appeared fantastic to me. Someday I hope to work with several of the porphy subspecies. But I still always come back to the mandarins. They are a kind of fixation for me.

Regards
John

Gosh those Laticinctus sure are awesome snakes. Where did you aquire them? those and the coxi are two of my favorite snakes

Peter VE
-----
Through physical pain comes spiritual enlightment.
Praise the Cabbage.
Never doubt me!

Peter,

I acquired this male from a German breeder who breeds Asian ratsnakes and pitvipers. The parents of this animal were collected by the breeder himself a couple of years ago in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia.

Kind regards,

Bert

Bert, those laticintus babies are gorgeous, and put me in mind of leopard rats a little bit. Could there be any relationship?

The Mandarin is really nice, also. I think I like the ones with lots of black.

Terry

Terry,

I find the appearance of hatchling laticinctus also very attractive. In fact, I wouldn't have mind at all if adults kept this appearance! However, I'm also very interested in watching my male slowly turn into a red coloured adult snake!

Regards,

Bert

Bert,

I remember that with conspicillatus too, when I had them. I watched the babies slowly turn to the adult colors, almost unicolor. Both fabulous species. Enjoy the process.

Cheers...TC

This is a gorgeous snake, Bert. Please excuse my ignorance as I'm not all that knowledgeable about Asian ratsnakes - I keep Elaphe helena and enjoy looking at people's beautiful snakes on this board. I gather these are a kind of Chinese bamboo ratsnake? Normally if I haven't heard a Latin name before I put it into Google to find out the full species name and English name, but on putting "Laticinctus" into Google, all I could find was stuff on subspecies of copperheads. Can you enlighten me?? Thanks, Jessica

Hello Jessica,

This is the subspecies Oreocryptophis porphyraceus laticinctus/Elaphe porphyracea laticincta, or the Broad-banded Red Bamboo Ratsnake. This subspecies is found in Malaysia and on Sumatra. This male is a F1 captive bred specimen from parents that were collected by the breeder I bought him from in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. I have been told that all wildcaught O. p. laticinctus that have been exported and are still being exported are all caught in this part of Malaysia.

These snakes will turn orange-red as adults. I will help you with your search for more information (and pictures) by providing a few links:

www.elaphe-mandarina.de/laticincta.htm
www.naturemalaysia.com/olaticinctus.htm
www.naturemalaysia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=83
www.proexotics.com/ca_colubrids.html

Kind regards,

Bert Grit

Thanks very much, Bert - I've learned something today. I can see why people like Asian ratsnakes so much - the ones in your links are amazing - especially in the last link. I should have looked more carefully at the end of the Latin name, as I had found this link before in my search for bamboo ratsnakes - http://www.ratsnakefoundation.org/modules/xcgal/thumbnails.php?album=21. Thanks again and good luck with yours - I like your mandarin ratsnake too.

Hi Jessica,

Laticinctus are amazing animals. That two pictures of them on pro exotics are exctualy mine and that from ratsnake foundation also ...
If you want some info on them you can also take a look on mine site: www.rareratsnakes.com it is not finished yet but most is updated please take a look .. (btw the e-mail addres is incorrect it must be gidivandebelt@gmail.com)

I just got some hatchlings 1.3 .

Best regards,
Gidi

Gidi,

Thanks a lot for your reply. Unfortunately I can't get onto your website - the search engine doesn't seem to be finding it at all. Those little hatchlings are stunning. Are they easy to feed and keep?

Jessica

Jessica,

I've been told that this subspecies quite easy to keep (even wildcaught specimens thrive in captivity). My male ate from the start frozen thawed pinkies without any problems. Up until now he's also produced perfect sheds (I keep him on paper towels and provide a box filled with damp moss for the humidity). He also responds well to rather large fluctuations in temperature. The only thing that distinguishes him from, for example, a Cornsnake is his attitude: the snake is very high-strung and doesn't tolerate handling. I'm not sure wether this behaviour will stay this way. Gidi told me that his adults are tame as a Cornsnake, but I've also heard from a Malaysian exporter that most (wildcaught) animals will bite when handled.

Regards,

Bert

Thanks Bert. I'd like to get a pair of one of the rarer, exotic ratsnakes like these and try to breed them eventually, but of course would do a lot more research first. I don't mind about not handling, because despite the fact as you say corns don't mind being handled, I still think they prefer to be left alone; so I don't handle my corns, kings or trinkets much anyway. As I'm sure you know, by the time you own a certain number of snakes, you don't find a lot of time for handling with all the cleaning and feeding! I do think often over the months, snakes calm down just with smelling your hand in their tank when you change the water etc - that's the technique I use with my hatchlings. I don't handle them - I just leave them alone; and then I find after a few months that they don't rush off and hide any more when I take the lid off. But of course species like these may well not calm down nearly so easily.