Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here are a couple of pics of my female Pseustes poecilonotus. She has lots of personality, most of it "mean" but of all my snakes the Pseustes seem to enjoy their lives the best by the way they hang around in their terrarium.

I had also posted this previously in the Ratsnakes Forum.

Malcolm

They are awesome snakes, I moved my yearling male from a rack into a 2x2x2 cube with lots of arboreal opportunities and he has become my favorite snakes. He climbs all over the place and watches my every move when he knows I am in the room. Once he sees me he freezes and then slowly slips to the ground and then to the front of his cage. Then his head pops up below the bottom lip and he sits there watching me. haha

If I catch him out and about he freezes like I said before. This time he spotted me in the mirror behind his cage

This guy is from Peru, where is your girl from??

Jason

You have nice looking pseustes. They do have personality. I am finding that they are "mellowing" (if you can use that term for a pseustes) ever so slowly. They used to get upset and go into their threat and strike mode whenever I put my hands into the cage. Now, as long as I don't touch them, they just ignore me if I change their water or such. They are even mellowing abiut when I feed them. I still have to put their heads in front of their mouse but they swallow much more easily and they take the f/t fuzzy into their mouth on their own sometimes and eat it.

They also hang stretch out in their cage in the most interesting ways. Sometimes the female will stretch out along the floor of the cage and then up the wall or above the perch, om the perch and then down. Its so cool to see them "relax" that way. Of all my snakes, they seem to have the most personality. The green tree python and bamboo rat snakes I have are very cool but the peustes have the most interesting personalities so far.

I am not sure where my pair is from. As I mentioned in a previous post, I got mine from Ken at Exotic Pets in Las Vegas. He said they had been captive born in a zoo although he did not know which one. I wish I knew where they are from. Is there any way of telling from adult coloration which areas they come from? I know they have wide variations in coloration. Where did you obtain your Pseustes from?

At any rate, your snakes look very nice and their cage set ups seem to please them. My snakes are between 20-24 inches long. Does that seem right for a growth rate for yearling pseustes?

I hope your snakes continue to do well and thanks for the pics, it really helps to know there are others who are keeping these snakes and to share experiences.

Malcolm

Oh ok I did not recognize the screen name, sorry. This male is from Peru by way of Ben Siegel. If your animals end up with some outrages colors they are likely from Costa Rica. There are not many animals coming into the country right now and of the few that have come in most have been Costa Rican with the Peruvians being in the minority even though they might not have as good of a chance to end up as colorful as adults they are a little more special to me in that they are less common. That said SoLA has his male Peruvian much bigger than mine and his has a really neat rose color that is beautiful. I see that in mine a bit and they are supposed to be siblings so maybe I will get lucky when he gets bigger.

There are uni-colored Pseustes in Costa Rica along with the multi-colored animals that get in all the photos. Someone posted one from Venezuela that was a crazy red. There are also some awesome yellow and black ones out there... these snakes are so freaking cool!!

Jason

You are certainly right, these snakes are very cool! I am actually going to Costa Rica for a week vacation during Thanksgiving week this year. It would be so cool to see a Pseustes and other reptiles in the wild. My wife spent 2 years in Guyana doing volunteer work as an occupational therapist and she spent sometime in the rain forest and saw a number of reptiles...caimans, snakes....leatherback sea turtles laying eggs etc. She was a lucky lady from that perspective although she is not much of a reptile fan.

The trip to Costa Rica should be interesting at the very least.
I appreciate your comments on the coloration of the different Psuestes variants. I am curious, have you ever heard of anyone having Pseustes shropshirei in captivity? From its pics, it looks very cool.

Malcolm

As far as I understand it the Shrops are all in countries that do not export animals or do not like the USA much (Venezuela)so there are not any in the US market that I am aware of. I have a friend in Germany that has interest in them as well and if anyone can get them the Germans can. So if he finds them I will be tops on his list for "extras" I also have him looking for any other Pseustes for me that he can find in Europe.

Jason

Good luck. I noticed that for quite awhile, BHB was selling a 3.5 CB male Pseustes poecilonotus on Kingsnake.com.

Malcolm

In what section?? I only ever saw the 1.0 animal in the "other snakes" section.

Jason

That was the Pseustes I saw. It was in the "Other Snakes" section. It said he had originally obtained it from Ben Siegel but had decided to sell it. It was on for $300.00 for the longest time and recently went to $200.00. I don't see the add any more so I guess it sold at that price. A good deal for someone perhaps.

I was going to start a new thread but it almost seems like we Pseustes fans are trespassing here or something. haha So I will just tag on with you here.

Took some pics of my little Peruvian male today showing off his attitude

Bad Lighting/camera settings but still looking cute

Look how big and tough!!

Wicked body fold

That is a "cricket boat" from top hat crickets aka cage furniture

Huff and I Puff

Ok that is enough I guess, I really love all the character these guys have and for all the "meanness" when they bite it is a bit with no commitment, mostly just an open mouth headbutt. But considering they are not constrictors or venomous and they only grab and swallow they prey I have a feeling they can pack quite a bite if they commit.

Man look at all those colors, red, orange, cinnamon, purple, brown, gray, green, and tan and he is my "drab" animal. These things go through a complete color change from baby to adult and you have no idea what you are going to get since they all look pretty much the same as babies. These things are so unknown and under appreciated!!

Jason

Jason,

Those are awesome pics. You have quite the beautiful snake there. Lots of attitude, just like my 2 characters. My Psuestes are lighter in coloratiuon though. Interestingly, my male is quite abit lighter than my female in coloration. Mine still have most of their "baby" colors. When do they start undergoing their ontogenetic color change..at what age?

Do you have a female for your Peruvian male? It would be interesting to see if Pseustes from different locales would be genetically different enough to form subspecies such as the Bamboo RatSnake...Laticinctus, Coxi, Pulchra...etc.

Those are great pics...thank you....IK think I need to sharpen up my photographic skills. My cage set up is pretty basic compared to yours although, I think I will jazz up their next cage more, when they get it in a few months.

Malcolm

I lost my female for this male in a overheating accident this spring. I have a Costa Rican pair but they just ate tonight so I didn't want to stress them. They are much more colorful than this guy but they are a year younger so they are still in their baby colors.

Jason

These are my Costa Rican animals, they might look more colorful than the Peruvian when they get older. They are from this year.

One of them hiding on the ground

This one had a better idea on how to hide

If you touch the tail they come around to see what is happening

Generally not too happy with being touched. haha

But so pretty

Though not a fan of the flash

Tried to adjust the colors to better match the in person look of them but it is still off

I have this combo light that has fluro and halogen in one with a blue light for the halogen bulb and it is a beast to shoot against

Hope you enjoyed

Jason

Great pics. You truly have some nice animals there.