Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone working with these, or has done so in the past? I've got a pair and was curious how my husbandry of them compared to others.
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"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."
- Anna Sewell (1820-1878)

Are yours imports? If so, how recently?

Bill

>>Are yours imports? If so, how recently?
>>
>>Bill

Yes, not sure how long they've been in the country but I picked up my female and first male the day they came in three weeks ago. First male died three days later, while the female fed on four mouse fuzzies two days after I set them up. Picked up a second male a week later, after waiting a few days and seeing that he fed on a small adult mouse at the store.

Offered rat pups the next two times I tried feeding them with no luck. Left fuzzies again overnight last night, looks like the female ate four again.
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"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."
- Anna Sewell (1820-1878)

Good luck! Imported Moellendorphs have probably the highest mortality rate of any snake I know about. Typically they seem to do well then "roll" after a few weeks/months. One importer theorized that the Asian exporters keep them in large numbers in used kerosene drums as they reeked of kerosene the times he got them in...he quit bringing them in after the 3rd occurrence. He feels the fumes overcame them though it takes a period of time for them to finally succomb....all theory at this point.

Keep them in the 70s max and have a very moist hide and a dry hide. Don't handle or mess w/them at all. Get them feeding and get fecals done asap and have them treated accordingly. Might be a good idea to keep them separately as well.

Bill

Mine are in a planted 322 vision cage with a couple of 2.0 and 5.0 compact fluorescents on there for the plants. When I initially brought them home it was much cooler, and instead of the 5.0 I had a low wattage day bulb for the 'basking' spot - the female regularly came out to bask while it was cooler. It's been interesting watching them; the female is definitely settling in well but I think it's going to be necessary to separate out the male regardless of how many visual barriers I've put in there.

I've had a hard time finding anyone who actually knows for sure (not hearsay from someone who heard from someone else or read in a little snippet online) where these things are found in the wild. I've read a couple of 'fact sheets' that say they're found in the cold, mountainous regions of southeast china - but southeast china is one of the most tropical regions of the country, with temperatures in the summer that range close to 90. I think I'd give a toe to hear of someone who caught a few in the wild or who knew which province or city they were routinely found in.

Mine have both shed and so far the female at least seems in good shape; we'll see if the male starts feeding as well. Super fascinating snakes.

~jenny
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"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."
- Anna Sewell (1820-1878)

I would put them in a dark quiet area that gets very little traffic.
Don't try to feed them too much, keep them in a simple, dry, clean cage but provide moist hiding areas.

If you really want to work with the species, I would highly recommend finding a captive bred animal, they present few problems.
I had tried imports many times and each time ended in disappointment.
But some do survive, how many is the tough question.

I've been breeding moellendorffi for 8 years and now have a hypo melanistic project going on. As the pevious posts have stated, wild caught noellendorffi are almost impossible to get to suvive. That being said the original hypo female I have been breeding for 5 years was an import and must be at least 27 years old. She layed 8 good eggs last month. Other than the hypo female I have only worked with captive bred or captive hatched moellendorffi. They come from a relatively small range in Southern China and North Vietnam. They live at low altitude that has long hot summers and short winters. The key is they spend most of their time underground in lime stone caves where it's cool. I keep mine at 77 degrees for nine months and 60 degrees for three months. The cool period is also in total darkness. They are easy to keep and get big. My largest male is 9 feet long and as big around as your arm. Good luck, they are grat animals and really intelligent

Wow, hypos? Do you have pics to share?

How did you acclimate your original female?

My female was doing well and had fed twice for me, but some [bleep]ty circumstances (roommate wasn't paying rent and didn't tell me - we got evicted. thankfully I wasn't on that lease!) led to non working AC for a week and then an abrupt move to a place that did have working AC that I could keep them in. Unfortunately, ice packs didn't help at all during the heat - the next morning after moving them they both passed. Female died last and I was able to watch and see what was happening - she spit up some clear fluid tinged with blood, then slowly convulsed and eventually died. I'm sure the stress of the move significantly contributed to them dying, but the fluid beforehand makes me think the lack of AC immediately prior was the initial problem, and the move was just too much on top of that.

I want to try again - took out a lease with a stable friend in a better situation, so I'll be able to get back to the right conditions again. Mine were in a planted vision cage with a low wattage basking during cool days (below 78) and 2 compact fluorescent uvb lights on warmer days (one a 5.0, one a 2.0). Like I said, the female was feeding every other week but the male had yet to feed for me. I'm trying to find others who successfully acclimated their WC originals - I'm looking for the challenge! Just curious what has worked for others in the past. Love these things, and I've had success with other imports. I have a breeding trio of holapsis guentheri and both females have double clutched for me. no one's hatched those out yet so it's been a pain figuring out how to incubate them. Should have 1 set of eggs due to hatch any day though!

Thanks again and please! Pics of the hypo!! I'm super curious!

~jen
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"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."
- Anna Sewell (1820-1878)

The wild caught female hypo was aquired by a friend 18 years ago and all he did was treat her for parasites. I think he was just lucky to get a freshly caught one that hadn't been kept for long in the terrible conditions imports from China usually go through. My experience with wild caughts from China is that they are so damaged by the abuse they recieve before coming to the states almost all will die no matter what you do. My hypo moellendorffi pictures are too large to post here. I'll try to take some smaller ones.

I have been very interested in this species and have seen WC imports for sale at reasonable prices but have declined because I'll not buy WC snakes due to the abuse and extremely high mortality. To buy WC imports is to support mass collecting for sale (poaching), something which I believe we, as responsible keepers, must not condone. I encourage others to practice such restraint as well.

...but since you already have them. I wish you the best of luck and hopefully you'll be able to produce some offspring to provide an alternative source for this species.
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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com