Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I found two Diadophis punctatus pulchellus - Coral-bellied Ring-necked Snakes while moving old lumber at a friend's house. Also in this place were black crickets, ants, and other sorts of insects.
My question is: do these coral bellied snakes eat crickets? If so, will they eat domestic brown crickets or should I feed them black field crickets, which is what is under the old lumber? I raise both type of crickets so have plenty of both.

I have tried to duplicate the moist soil type habitat where I found them with a few inches of clean moist soil. Have put numerous small earthworms in here as well. Normally the snakes have bark hides but I lifted them to photograph the snakes. I've had these snakes several days now and they actually seem plumper than when I found them. They come out at night and look around.

They are in a 12 quart sterilite tub. Crickets are also in this, that is what the jar lids of food and water crystals on top of the bark hides are for. The crickets roost on top of the bark hides under the jar lids. They don't go under the bark and bother the snakes. I do think the snakes come out at night and get them, though. I have read that these snakes eat salamanders and slugs but where I found them there were no salamanders or slugs but crickets and ants and other small bugs where plentiful.

Very beautiful snakes!! I have often speculated on the total diet consumed by ringnecks. I actually saw one try to swallow a green treefrog many times the size of the little snakes head when the two were in a jar together right after capturing. It had the whole leg up to the rear end down its throat!! I would venture they eat softbodied insects like grubs and crickets as part of their diet. I have read they also eat smaller snakes. They sound extremely opportunistic.

I doubt they eat crickets. Also too many food items in the cage will stress out the snakes. Ringneck Snakes are not the easiest reptiles to keep (in his book "Snakes of the United States and Canada: Keeping them Healthy in Captivity" John Rossi rates them a 4 on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the most difficult).

I've found many, many Ringnecks in the wild and there's almost always salamanders in the vicinity. Though they do eat other things, salamanders are considered a favorite food item and many will only eat salamanders in captivity.

Tim

Third Eye

Ensatinas; the main type of salamander on my property. I won't feed these beautiful little things to snakes, I would rather take the snakes back to my friend's property and release them.

Stunning salamanders and yes don't feed them to ringnecks esp when so many types of salamanders are threatened .

We have ringnecks here in Florida and no salamanders here but I know they eat mosquito fish in shallow puddle like water as saw a ringeck grab one last yr.

that bigger one is pretty nice looking.

there were pics a couple years ago of a coral bellied ringneck snake eating a baby mountain kingsnake. for the most part I'd bet their diet is snakes, salamanders and frogs. you could attempt fish, maybe put a bowl of guppies or rosy reds in the enclosure.
make sure they have a dry spot and a moist spot.

and crickets are a no-go for ringnecks.
-----
Mike
KingPin Reptiles
www.kingpinreptiles.com

I have removed the crickets and am putting earthworms in the tub. It appears the snakes are actually eating them, as the worms are disappearing and the snakes both look like they have increased in girth. I have tadpoles; I might try putting a bowl of tads in the tub and see if that is an option.
Also have found several small ensatina salamanders but just can't bring myself to feed those to the snakes.

Today I found another small ringneck while doing yard work at the same place I found the other two. I let them all go in my fenced in front garden, which is free of cats but has slugs and earwigs and other garden pests. I figure the snakes will do more good in this garden than in a tub in the house. Ringneck snakes like this garden; I see them frequently when I lift up things.

Ringsnakes primarily feed on salamanders, but will take worms if hungry enough. I keep a few pet salamander to sent the worms. Those ensatinas are beautiful, care to trade a few? I live in maryland we have slimy, two lined, marbled, spotted, red back, lead back, reds, and duskys, let me know if your interested in any of those.

I don't know about shipping salamanders. They are pretty fragile. Also I don't keep salamanders as pets because I can't provide the cooler temps they need in the summer.

They make pretty good pets, some are quite friendly and aggressive eaters and all are beautiful. We keep our house in the 60's which comfortable enough for them. I do over-winter mine out doors. Shipping them is easy, you can styrofoam and cold packs, and fed-ex over-nite. You could easily sell those on the classifieds here and make a few bucks. I am not sure what the going rate for ensatinas is, but I rarely see them available so I would venture you could get 25-55 each.

California has strict laws about selling wc animals so I don't think actually I could do that.
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:vB-0_t_199gJ:www.dfg.ca.gov/licensing/pdffiles/fg1502.pdf california state snake propagation permit&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESi4EH6YAiIYK2uwYjjoOLzLEcBeRvpQF30qeTF_rQMdXg3NfCZlzs09J7xBPn8aTWda-sEJ9BOSc7WvdwHIrh4TUkd5RFvvrm_eJJU4ZbKVZHEAnDeb20SQCPdlqwLdcNG57KX0&sig=AHIEtbRh6xAU6BZ5cALCPjUxd28IWycuxQ

Probably why I haven't seen them available!

I find ;ots ringnecks-green snakes ,etc my motto is just because I can doesn't mean I should remove them from wild.

We even found few scarlet kings last yr 30 minutes from here and let them be .

The ringnecks here are probably the most unattractive of all the ringnecks.

You might want to try scenting a newborn pinky mouse. Live or frozen should work. Try cage feeding it at first so they wont be stressed out. Some snakes go on defensive mode rather than feeding mode when first taking to box feeding. I would also recommend using long feeding tongs when feeding. The snakes in the photo were gorgeous. I wish you the best of luck. Maybe someday a clutch or two might drop for you.
HAPPY HERPING.

I have released my ringnecks in the front garden to eat slugs. They seem to have made quite a dent in the slug population, much less slugs of late. All the ringnecks I find have gone into the garden now. They are safe from my cats in this little garden, but the nasty slugs are not safe from the snakes!