Reptile & Amphibian Forums

inigos vs mussies, i was wondering do mussies have a stronger better constriction ability

i also wonder if mussies would eat indigo snakes that are larger then they are

last i keep wondering what does a mussie have that a king snake does not have, people act like mussies are so much more powerful then a king snake but what do they have that makes them so special

Being a big fan of both, and having kept both I'll give you my two cents. Mussuranas are easily the most powerful constrictors, pound for pound, of any snake I've ever worked with.

If you took indigos and mussuranas of equal weight, the mussurana will kill and try to eat the indigo every time. Mussuranas are specifically designed to kill and eat snakes.

What do mussuranas have that kingsnakes don't? In my experience, they are much stronger. They also have rear fang venom. Over the years I've heard several stories about some crazy feat of strength or action a mussurana has done. You never really hear that about kings or indigos. In fact the story that first turned me onto mussies was one of a Clelia chasing down and constricting a Cribo with such force as to break ribs or separate vertabrae (whatever the cracking sounds were). This story came from a famous herpetologist.

Indigos have much more powerful jaws, are more opportunistic, more visually oriented and seem "more intelligent". They're also much bigger than mussuranas. A big bull YTC is gonna be double the weight of a big mussurana.

But none of this makes them more "special" really, unless those traits are what you like to observe.

Doug T

>>inigos vs mussies, i was wondering do mussies have a stronger better constriction ability
>>
>>i also wonder if mussies would eat indigo snakes that are larger then they are
>>
>>last i keep wondering what does a mussie have that a king snake does not have, people act like mussies are so much more powerful then a king snake but what do they have that makes them so special

i just cant find much information on mussies tho like i wanna read more about them but there is like hardly anything

sure some breeders have a bit info on their sites its nothing tho

can you tell me the size of a mussie is it about the slize of a florida king snake

also what is the max weight of both snakes

If captive care info is what you're looking for, there isn't much out there. Then again, there isn't that much to know.

Max weights... I don't really know. I've heard of stories of 8 foot mussuranas but they would be much lighter in build than an 8 foot indigo. If memory serves me correct, my big indy male was 10 lbs.

DT

>>i just cant find much information on mussies tho like i wanna read more about them but there is like hardly anything
>>
>>sure some breeders have a bit info on their sites its nothing tho
>>
>>can you tell me the size of a mussie is it about the slize of a florida king snake
>>
>>also what is the max weight of both snakes

well i meant information in regards to their feeding habbits

i wonder though do they really take yellow tail cribos in the wild

like would a six foor mussie go after an 8 foot yellow tail like some herps have said

Yes, they will kill and eat YTC's in the wild. As for killing and eating one that is 2 feet longer than itself is unlikely. They might manage to kill it, but they couldn't ever eat it.

More likely the 8 foot cribo would eat the 6 foot mussie. Then again, an 8 foot ytc will be 3 times the weight of a 6 foot mussie.

Simply put, Drymarchon and Clelia both eat snakes. Clelia can kill and eat proportionally larger snake meals than Dry's can. They will both hunt, kill, eat the other if appropriately sized.

So in the Godzilla vs. Rodan battle, Godzilla always wins.

DT

>>well i meant information in regards to their feeding habbits
>>
>>i wonder though do they really take yellow tail cribos in the wild
>>
>>
>>like would a six foor mussie go after an 8 foot yellow tail like some herps have said

crazy thing is YTC and mussies that meet in the wild the YTC is probably always going to be the larger one they grow so fast