Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. I am new to this forum. Although my main passion is varanids, I am very interested in small insect eating snakes. I have been searching pima county, just north of tucson AZ for these little guys and can only find tantilla. I have not been able to get any of these to eat on a regular basis and have released them. The species I have been searching for are Sonora semiannulata, Chionactis occipitalis, Gyalopion quadrangulare, and Chilomeniscus. Does anyone have any experience with any of these snakes. Is their anyone breeding them? Any advice on any of these underrated snakes would be helpful. Thanks. Tyler.

I've had good luck with the mojave Chionactis occipitalis that I've collected here in California. Mine takes crickets readily. I gutload the crickets the same as I do for my insect eating lizards and dust them with rep-cal with D3 and herptivite. Mine prefers crickets smaller in girth than the width between his eyes. If feeding larger crickets, removing the hoppers helps make them more appealing.

I keep mine in a 5 gallon tank with a UTH on one side (not the bottom). There are about 3" of playsand, a cork bark slab and a shallow water dish. Mine spends most of his time underground, but I will see him pressed up against the UTH on occaision and sometimes if I feed him at dusk I get to see him run down his crickets. Although I've never seen him drink, I keep the water dish full and occaisionally overfill it a bit to dampen the substrate in that corner.

From what I've read, the Tuscon subspecies is in serious decline, and there have been petitions to list it.

My usual view:

or:

scared up for a picture:

-Alice