# Colubrids > Ratsnakes >  Spilotes pullatus

## Roman

Hi,

I would like to show you some of my snakes...

I keep 2,1 Spilotes pullatus (Tiger snakes). I got my first male in 2009  and another pair October 2011. All three of them are captive bred in  Germany. Currently I keep all of them in the same enclosure. All three  are about 2.8 m (thats about 9 ft) long. They are very allert, but in no  way aggressive.

The size of the enclosure I keep them in:

backside 2.5 m (> 8 ft)
frontside 2.0 m (> 6 ft / 78,7 ")
depth 0.90 m (3 ft)
height 1.5 m (5 ft) plus additional 0,3 m (1 ft) for a top cover  where the technical components are located, so total height is 1.8 m  (6 ft)

It has an aluminium frame and all sides which are not glas are PVC

I use 2 HCI 70 W (metal halide lighting) for lighting and in addition a 75 W spot that emits some UV-B.

There are two heating panels, basicly each a heating cable within a  metal frame. They are located above the front glas doors. On each panel  is a small fan attached which blows the warm air down into the  enclosure.

The original plan was to have a humidifier, but this one is (not yet) installed.

I have a combined thermostat and hygrostat, the thermostat controlls the  heating panels, the hygrostat is currently out of action.

In combination with the lighting I get a temperature range from about 25  degrees C (77 degrees F) and 30 degrees C (86 degrees F).

Humidity is controlled by the plants , I just have to spray some water  in the morning and have a humidity of 90% plus, which decreases to about 85% until next morning.

The enclosure was built by a friend of mine who owns a reptile shop.

When I planned the enclosure I had a pair of Spilotes in mind. As I  mentioned before, I got my first male in 2009. When the enclosure was  finished I was looking for a matching female. I was very lucky to find  one, but it came only as pair, so I had two males and the female. I was a  little worried but decided to give it a try.

I keep them together since 2 years and there were/are no problems at  all with one exception I would like to discuss in a separate post.  Basically their behaviour is similar to other snakes which are kept  together. They ignore each other most of the time, sometimes they lie  together at the same spot or hiding place.

Spilotes is a territorial snake, so it is necessary to keep them in  pairs for a long time for successful breeding. i hope my pair will mate this year.

Feeding them works good with the right timing. I tried to separate them  first, but when I put them in a feeding box they did not respond very  well, either it took very long until they ate their rat or they did not  eat at all. I feed only frozen or prekilled rats. My female prefers to  lie on the cork tube in the right corner of the enclosure. So I wait  until one male is in the left part of the enclosure and give him his  rat. As soon as he starts eating I give the next rat to the second male.  The female comes last. Spilotes are voracious and jealousy, so I have  to supervise the feeding as long as the rat is completely swallowed.  After having eaten their rat the snakes move around for some time in  search for more food but are not aggressiv against each other. During  the last feedings I separated my second male, but kept the first male  and the female together, this did also work out, so I will do it that  way.

Here are some pictures...

My enclosure










My snakes












Roman

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_Aes_Sidhe_ (04-01-2014),_AlexisFitzy_ (01-01-2014),_cmack91_ (01-02-2014),_eatgoodfood_ (01-01-2014),_Flikky_ (01-01-2014),John1982 (04-02-2014),lmtrej (04-09-2014),_Pyrate81_ (01-09-2014),_satomi325_ (01-01-2014),_Seth702_ (01-01-2014),Skiploder (01-01-2014)

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## Skiploder

Awesome set up, awesome snakes.  Well done.

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Roman (01-01-2014)

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## Roman

@Skiploder - you wrote in an older thread

"Spilotes for example, eat mainly frogs, lizards, other snakes, birds with the _occasional_ mammal."

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...lotes-pullatus

I have no doubt that Spilotes will eat all of those in the wild, but from all sources I have their primary food would be small mammals and birds and occasionally something else

Gunther Koehler: Reptiles of Central America
Alejandro Solórzano: Snakes of Costa Rica
James R. McCranie: The Snakes of Honduras

to name only three references. 

Do you have any report which states that they prey primarily on frogs and lizards as you wrote in that older post (I am just curious because I never read something like this before) ? 

Roman

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## Skiploder

Roman, I'd have to look it up.

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## 4theSNAKElady

Wow! That is a kick ass enclosure! Looks like a zoo quality piece there.

sent from my incubator

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Roman (01-02-2014)

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## eatgoodfood

Roman, stunning enclosure, great looking snakes.  If you do not mind my asking where at in Germany are you, and what reptile shop built the enclosure?

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## Raven01

That is one nice looking display set-up.
Nice Spilotes as well.

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Roman (01-02-2014)

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## Roman

> Roman, stunning enclosure, great looking snakes.  If you do not mind my asking where at in Germany are you, and what reptile shop built the enclosure?


I am living near Frankfurt / Main. The reptile shop was called "Cityzoo" in Buettelborn, but the owner had to close his shop. He is currently opening a new shop which specializes on building enclosures.

You may find some information at his new Website 

www.terrarien-bau.de

Roman

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## eatgoodfood

> I am living near Frankfurt / Main. The reptile shop was called "Cityzoo" in Buettelborn, but the owner had to close his shop. He is currently opening a new shop which specializes on building enclosures.
> 
> You may find some information at his new Website 
> 
> www.terrarien-bau.de
> 
> Roman


Thanks for the response and the link, I will check it out.  Not too far away from me, too bad he had to close his shop.

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## Roman

Here is an update

Some pictures taken when we assembled the enclosure

As you can see, only the base and the top cover were already assembled, all other parts were just put together








and finally the finished enclosure with plants and my first male Spilotes right after he moved in...



here it is as it looks like after about 14 month of use





and some newer pictures







Roman

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_Aes_Sidhe_ (04-01-2014),_eatgoodfood_ (01-08-2014),_Raven01_ (01-08-2014)

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## jclaiborne

beautiful snakes, and the cage is amazing.  We use the extrusion components that are used on your frame here at work, I had looked into building some enclosures out of them at one point, but just the raw material was out of my price range, now seeing it all built up like yours is making me consider saving up.

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## blackfish707

An enclosure like that would be amazing for my boas. The only thing that would stop me aside from money is trying to figure out how to clean it so the house doesn't smell.

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## Roman

> An enclosure like that would be amazing for my boas. The only thing that would stop me aside from money is trying to figure out how to clean it so the house doesn't smell.


No problem there. I remove only the feces but dont bother with most of the urates, they are dissolved by the plants within a few days. Granted, sometimes you have to search a little to find it, but your nose will guide you :Smile: 

Roman

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