Reptile & Amphibian Forums

man, guess it was just good timing, early morning, cool the night before...

Eastern boxes(all found eating berries!)

Unidentified salamander..

unidentified skink...(dang these things are hard to hold on to!)

REAL skinny cottonmouth...

NOTE TO SELF: Watch your step in the swamp, you may just end up in mud up to your waist! They WERE my good shoes, lol!

Poor young moccasin!

Here's a pic of a nicely patterned, fairly healthy young juvenile from Darlington County, SC and a pic of a juvie from
Richland County,SC. The second cottonmouth was full of some kind of prey item (most likely a Nerodia).

Justin

Whoops, that 2nd pic was of a nice eastern king from the same area as this bloated cottonmouth

Justin

Here is a pic of my juvie female from Pearl river county, Mississippi. The ones from the locale where I got her tend to keep their coloration even as adults. She is a monster, eats frozen thawed everytime! The only problem is that I haven't been able to get a mate from the same locale. Everytime I get one to pair up, it never eats no matter what I try, so I end up returning it a few days later. Most everyone around here kills them(and every other snake), so I am pretty secretive where I spot them, because I don't want anyone harming them.

I've only captured and kept two cottonmouths over the years and both took mice at first, but seemed finicky for awhile. It sounds cruel, but if they have some body weight on them, you can let them fast for awhile til they get hungry and they will usually accept mice. One of mine prefered live prey initially while the other preferred dead. They were both sporadic in their feedings for the first year or so, especially during the winter months. However, after a few years of captivity they both became hogs over time, eating frozen/thawed rats and mice to the point of obesity. I got them to copulate one time, but without a brumation period, the female never produced young. Kept them for almost ten years before having to sell them due to lack of space.

Justin

Yeah, my little female is a pig and a half. She has taken everything alive and dead since the first night she was at my house. Finding a mate is becoming tricky business though, I have already tried two different ones for about a month and ended up letting them go. Years ago I had a florida that got to be around 6 feet, she would eat frozen thawed jumbo rats everytime. Was actually really really docile also. Guess she just figured she had it made with a live-in servant, lol.