Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Are all water snakes relatively snappy and bitey or do they mellow out with handling?

How about communal living--good, bad, OK with extra space??

I've never kept mud or water snakes but I've been considering it for a while and just wanted to hear what you guys have to say on the matter......

Thanks

hey, i just recently started keeping water snakes i only have one florida water snake, but i have caught alot before and what ive realized is they arent all mean but some are, you just have to find one that is nice and that is probably not gonna be a adult so try to find a baby and tame it as a baby.

i forgot to say in the last reply that having more than one snake in a tank is fine if you feed them seperatly because i had my other water snake that i had die because the other was eating all the fish before he couyld get to them.

Hey, just reading the forums and BLOGs about watersnakes. I just caught a baby last night. Its about 5''-6'' long. I have no experience with snakes at all, sent the picture to 5 breeders and 4 out of 5 said it was a water snake. Somebody said its a Banded X Brown water snake ?!?!?! My main question is, Is it possible to switch them over to Pinkies.... and if not, How do you feed them fish????

Drop them in the cage and lety em' flop????? Or put them in a shallow water dish?

What kind of fish?

Thank You!

Thanks, hondo! I've looked at them for quite a while but have yet to make the leap, so to speak.

I have four different water snake species (7 individuals) and they make very interesting captives. They tend to calm down a lot in captivity but they are still a little more likely to snap if they get really nervous. But that can vary with individuals and most of mine are pretty docile. I don't even handle them at all except when necessary. They don't bite and most don't musk.

I have four living communally and they really seem to do well with it. As far as snakes go they're an unusually social species. They often curl up together even when there's plenty of room with identical temps. I use them for presentations on identification and I've got this tank with four separated little areas and until I but some blockers they would manage to squeeze their way under the lips of the dividers in order to all be together. I think they choose it that way. I would keep only nerodia with nerodia... but they also seem to do adequately when housed with garters and ribbons as well.

Feeding communal nerodia can be a problem if you aren't careful. Some snakes just are better hunters than others so you might end up with shyer snakes not getting enough to eat. If this happens then I'd separate them. Another issue is that the snakes tend to fight over fish. Even if there's a bowl with 20 fish, they'd rather fight over one fish instead of going and catching their own. So far I've never had a snake attempt to eat the other though. Usually one relinquishes the fish and if it gets bad I break it up.

I tend to feed a variety of fish. Rosy red minnows, shiners, and guppies are the usual food. I'm pretty sure that rosy reds and shiners have some thiaminase (bad enzyme that can eventually kill snakes) in them but they're at least better than goldfish. I do occasionally feed pinkies as well. They're really very easy to switch to mice. They react strongly to fish scent so you can either rub a fish on the pinky and dangle it in front of the snake (once snake's used to you) or you can put pinky in with a bowl of fish. They'll literally eat anything if it's in a bowl with fish. As far as amounts go they metabolize fish very quickly so you'll want to feed 2-3 larger fish or 4-6 smaller fish at a time. They've got extremely stretchy jaws and there's little that they can't manage to swallow.

Another thing I've found is that some water snakes really like to climb. Try putting in branches and they might bask just like any arboreal snake. Pretty cool to see them droop down over a bowl of fish and snatch one from a branch.

Also wild caught nerodia are extremely likely to be carrying parasites so a vet check up would be recommended if you really want to keep one long term.
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1.0 sumatran short tailed python
0.1 ball python
1.0 woma
0.1 rosy boa
0.1 corn snake
1.1 mexican king snake
1.1 buttermilk racers
0.0.1 texas rat snakes
0.0.2 broadbanded watersnakes
0.0.2 yellow bellied watersnake
0.0.1 diamond back watersnake
0.0.1 blotched watersnake
0.0.1 ribbon snake
0.1.1 Texas brown snake
0.0.1 rough earth snake
0.1.1 western cottonmouth
0.0.3 southern copperhead
0.0.1 rattlesnake
1.0 bearded dragon
1.0 leopard gecko

Here is something I've found that helps. Animals like to be on the same level as people (i.e. on a table), so they can get used to you being in the room. When the tank is on the floor, their reaction is "oh no here comes the hand". I don't know if keeping them together makes them calmer, but it does encourage picky eaters to eat when they see other snakes doing it.

Len