Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I did not take these photos, simply formatted them for posting to the web. Richard Hoyer (Dad) can further comment on them as he was present when the photos were taken.

The reddish/orange boa is from N. CA Sierras. An unusual coloration to say the least.

The odd colored (dark with bright belly) babies are from a Bay Area female. They come out with a different coloring, and a brighter yellow belly as compared to the pink and fleshy normal color.

I'll throw in the sharp-tail pics too even though they are not germane to this forum.

they are so very cute.I want one of my own. I have been searching for a while now but cannot seem to find one for sale. except for tiny tiny babues or wc that refuse to eat. I especially like the copperish one.

I'm curious, were the sharptails found in the same location as the rubbers?

Were the long-tailed and shor-tailed found in the same location?

I've got a long-tailed sharptail I collected from an area being cleared for development in Santa Cruz County. It's a really neat little snake and I've been trying to find out more about the species. I've had mine for almost 6 months now.

-Alice

Alice,
As for your first question, the answer is no. But the Rubber Boa is found in the same regions and habitat where both species of Sharp-tailed Snakes occur. For instance you can find the boa and sharptail under the same cover object in Santa Cruz County as well as elsewhere.

I have named the new species of Contia the Forest Sharp-tailed Snake. A draft of a manuscript that formally describes the new species has been sent to the individual that is cooperating on this venture. The distribution of both species can be sympatric (they overlap) in certain areas including where you live in Santa Cruz Co. Strangely, only the Forest Sharptail with the long tail have been documented from that county but right across highway 35 (Skyline) on the east and in Santa Clara County my son Ryan has found Contia tenuis which I have named the Common Sharp-tailed Snake. Since there is identical habitat on the west side of that road, certaining Contia tenuis also occurs in Santa Cruz County as well. I have collected three specimens of the Forest Sharptail in Santa Clara Co., one along highway 35 near the junction of highway 9 and two specimens along highway 9 east of the junction with highway 35 towards Saratoga.

Both species have been documented from San Mateo, Sonoma, Mendocino and Trinity Counties in Calif. and from Jackson, and Douglas Counties in Oregon. They certainly occur near one another in other Oregon counties as well but no voucher specimens yet exist for the Forest Sharptail in Josephine and Lane Counties where there is strong evidence that species should occur.

Although there is still a lot of habitat remaining for the Forest Sharp-tailed Snake in your region, just like other native species in that region, it has also lost a sizeable chunk of habitat as well.

After 6 1/2 years, I am still maintaining the original specimen that led to the discovery of the new species of Contia. She was found in Mendocino County in July, 1998. Both species will feed on slugs, slender salamanders and worms. I have some evidence they may take other prey but slugs seems to be their preferred prey.

Richard F. Hoyer (charinabottae@earthlink.net)

Thanks for the great reply!

Although I collected my sharptail in Santa Cruz county I reside in Santa Barbara county, I was just up there for a veg sampling workshop and decided to do some herping after it let out I'd wanted a sharp-tail for quite some time, so I was pretty ecstatic when I found "him". I actually have no idea on the sex, I assume that are only sexable by probing?

When I initially acquired the snake, I tried worms, small insects, a clutch of duds from a sagebrush lizard and small snails in addition to slugs. The slugs were the only things that disappeared. Since then, I've been maintaining him exclusively on slugs. I've yet to see him eat, but the slugs gradually disappear and he's shed twice and doubled in size since I got him, so he must be eating

Out of curiosity, what kind of set up have you maintained yours in?

Let me know when / where the species description gets published; I'd love to read it!

-Alice

Alice,
We may be the only two individuals that maintain Contia although I would guess that now and then, a few others may have or are currently maintaining Sharp-tailed Snakes.

Concerning sexing, male and females can be determined with reasonable accuracy by two methods in both species. In the Forest Sharptail, the relative tail length of males ranges from about 19% to 21% whereas the same values for females runs from about 16.5% to 18.5%. I don't have the exact values in from of me but that is close. With a larger sample, there probably will be some overlap in these values between the sexes.

To obtain relative tail length, you need to place the snake on a meter stick and pin the tail down with two fingers just above the tip so the tip is at zero. With the other hand, grip the snake behind the head and stretch the specimen with gentle firmness to record where the nose of the snake reaches its maximum length. Then record the length of the tail, tip to vent, in the same manner. Divided the tail length by total length and multiply by 100 to get % relative tail length.

The second method is to count the caudal scales from vent to tip. You probably will need magnification. The caudals are divided in Contia so you only need to count one side. In the sample on which I published data, the range of counts for male Forest Sharptails ran from 49 - 57 whereas the range for females ran from 44 - 52. There also is sexual dimorphism in ventral counts but again there is some overlap between the sexes with females having a higher number of ventrals than males.

I have some prelimary evidence that both species may eat small snails. I would have thought that they ate snail and slug eggs but so far, that does not seem to be the case. One way to perhaps get your specimens to eat small worms is to place the worms with slugs to acquire some scent from the slugs. You should have some species of slender salamander in your area and the snake may take that species as well. If you have access to a gram balance, you can weigh your snake then enter food items and weigh the snake 24 - 48 hours later. I just did that today weighing the three Forest Sharptails and one Common Sharptail (from Monterey County) that I am maintaining. I then put 20 slender salamanders in the aquaria and will weigh all specimens in 48 hours.

I have all four specimens together in a 15 gal. acquaria. Substrate on one side of he aquaria is damp earth with damp moss on top of the earth. I then have three shallow bark hides on top of the moss. On the other half of the aquaria damp moss as the bottom substrate covered with three shallow pieces of bark which in turn is covered with a layer of dry moss which are covered with three shallow pieces of bark for hides. In this manner, the snakes have choices. I have a 60 watt light that about 18 - 20 inches above the bark hides on dry moss. I have left the lamp off for some time then turn it on but the slight heat source is governed by a timer so it is on for 8 hours and off for 16 hours at this time of year.

Both species will consume prey in the upper 40 degrees and above at this time of year. They can also digest their prey at such low temperatures with is similar to what occurs in a species of viper in Japan as I recall. Just like to boa, Contia are cool temperature tolerant but differ in that the boa does not take and digest prey at such low temperatures.

On our recent trip to Calif. for Christmas, on the 24th, I found 8 Common Sharptail in a vacant lot in Wheatland, Calif. with temperatures at about 51 - 52 degrees at around 4 - 4:25 PM. It had probably gotten up to 56 - 57 degrees earlier in the day.

Chris Feldman is currently pursuing his PhD degree at Utah State U. and very busy for the most part. He indicated that he would be able to crunch numbers on the data I supplied and review the draft sometime around the first of the year. It is not possible to determine when the manuscript will be ready to submit ot a journal and then be published.

Richard F. Hoyer

Your set-up is quite a bit more elaborate than mine. My sharptail was around pencil lenght and about half the diameter of a pencil when I caught him. I was planning on releasing him if I couldn't get him to take food in a timely fashion so I wanted a cage which was simply set up so I could monitor food intake.

I've got mine in what is probably 1.5 gallon aquarium with a screen top. In addition to the pin, I've got a clamp because the pin doesn't hold the lid tightly shut. The floor of the cage is covered with about two inches of bed-a-beast (a compressed cocconut fiber substrate). A piece of pine bark covers 2/3rds - 3/4ths of the tank floor and I've got a small clay plant saucer full for water on the other side. I keep the area under the bark damp through periodic misting and put various types of greens under the bark for the slugs to eat. I don't provide any supplemental heat, but he's housed indoors so the temps are usually in the low to mid 70's.

When I first got him, I would keep track of how many slugs I put in, and then I'd try to refind them all. The slugs always seem to congregate on the greens under the bark slab during the day, so this wasn't too hard.

He's constructed an elaborate burrow system through the bed-a-beast so I really hate digging him out. I know that I've got one of his sheds stashed somewhere, so I'll use that to give the scale counting a go.

Since I can readily supply slugs, I haven't felt too inclined to press the worm issue. Slender salamanders are not readily availible in my yard and in the locations where they occur in closest proximity to me, they aren't common. It's about a 45 minute drive before I can get to locations that have them in any numbers. Since their habitat (along with that of all the other critters) is rapidly being converted to vineyards, housing developments, etc. I'd feel bad collecting them in any quantity for use as feeders. How necessary do you think they are?

-Alice

Alice,
If you have a ready supply of slugs all year round, then there isn't any particular need to try worms or salamanders. Here in Oregon, slugs become scarce during the warmer part of the year but I can always dig up small earthworms.

Since your sharptail has been taking food and growing, then your set-up is probably fine. Since the specimen came from the Santa Cruz Mt. area, the weather conditions in that region are such that the species is probably active a good deal of the time during he winter except when temperatured fall below 50 - 55 degrees F. In the only full length publication on Contia, Cook (1960) showed that the species is most commonly found in Feb-March and again in Nov. But his data, taken from information in preserved collections showed that the species has been found in all months of the year. This is further evidence that the species is active all year around during suitable temperature conditions which for these species, can be in the mid 50's and 60's.

I have not tried to maintain juvenile specimens of either species for any prolonged length of time. But from recaptured data, the Common Sharp-tailed Snake can more than double its length in a year or less so they grow very rapidly. I would expect the same scenario to occur with the new species.

As far as disturbing your set-up, that should not pose any problem as the snake will re-establish it trials, etc. One reason for weighing and measuring your specimen is so you can document growth over time. No one has done that sort of thing for the Forest Sharp-tailed Snake.

Richard F. Hoyer

I'd estimate that mine has at least doubled since I've had it. I wish I'd tried to keep some kind of records. In California, you're allowed two of most snake species, so maybe I'll try and collect another juvie. Maybe if te species gets split, we'll be allowed two of each

-Alice

The photos were take by an acquaintance here in Corvallis with an older type camera. The coloration in all photos is darker than life and thus the contrast between the dorsal coloration betweeen the two adult female boas is not as vivid as it really is. The contrast of the ventral surface, though darker than normal, demonstrates the constrast between the two specimens.

The female with the burnt-orange dorsal color and orange ventrals is only the second specimen of that morph I have observed. It would be nice to be able to determine the inheritance of that color morph. Some Idaho boas also have orange ventrals but their dorsal coloration is a normal shade of brown similar to most Rubber Boas.

Richard F. Hoyer

I hope all is going well for you. Cool red/orange animal in the pic's.

Jerry Hartley