Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi guys,
I just received my first snake from a breeder a few days ago. He's a young plumbeous water snake and sadly there is not much information online about keeping these snakes as pets. He's a few months old and seems healthy, he ate two small fish on his second day home and comes out briefly every night for a drink and a dip in his waterbowl. I've kept handling to a bare minimum. Overall he seems fine.

However, I'm not really sure about the humidity levels required. I'm using a coco peat substrate recommended by and received from his breeder and I was told to keep it damp. Alternatively I read online (not for plumbeous snakes per se, but generally for water snakes) to keep a dry substrate because too wet could cause water blisters. So what's the verdict? Anyone have any information that could help? (:

Water snakes are content w/ newspaper, a hide box, and water bowl. Keep them dry is the key. They do like to bask, so a good light source is a plus.
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I also have an enhydris plumbea and found that they are nothing like North American water snakes in terms of husbandry. I've had mine for over a year, and it stays submerged in water 99% of the time, so I keep her like I would with tropical fish, except that I provide a floating piece of cork in case she wants to leave the water. Check out the care sheet for enhydris chinesis at acrochordus.com (http://acrochordus.com/homalopsinae/enhydris/ecaresheet.htm). Plumbea can be kept similar to chinesis. Good luck.

That's really helpful, thank you! I'm subscribed to another snake forum but nobody there has the same snake as me and most people are saying they're more like garter snakes, where you keep them dry and give them a water bowl. Thanks so much! Really appreciated. Any other tips you can offer? I still know next to nothing about this snake, I've had him for just over a week and we're still getting to know each other!

I was in your position about a year ago and ended up carefully reading this paper, which discusses the temperature range and water quality of e. plumbea's natural habitat.
http://www.fmnh.org/research_collections/zoology/pdf/Voris_Karns_1996.pdf

As you'll see, they're mostly aquatic, unlike garter snakes or north american water snakes, which would easily get scale rot in a truly aquatic setup. I've basically tried to mimic the environmental factors described in the paper through a riparium setup. I keep the water level around 2-3", provided plenty of driftwood for the snake to hide in underwater, and use a submersible heater to warm up the water to around 82 deg. F. I provide a large piece of cork for when the snake wants to leave the water, which is almost never. I've also seen other keepers build a small island out of gravel and driftwood, which probably works better than cork. I try to keep the water slightly acidic (~6.6 ph) and do partial water changes weekly, depending how foul the water is.

As for feeding, I use a mix of freshwater fish, including minnows and danios. If you get a chance, check out the little rear fangs at the back of the snake's mouth. Really cool little snakes. Let me know if you have any other specific questions.

That's very helpful, thank you! I'd definitely come to you for more advice later on (: