Rough Green Snake?

What's the deal with these guys? It seems they are almost impossible to keep alive for any period of time. I just really like the look of them, and I wondered if there was a secret to keeping them alive. Aren't they aboreal? Or at least semi-aboreal? And can they really only eat crickets?

Ok now SOMEONE has got to know about these buggers.

My friend(well a friend of my mothers) has one, keeps it on eco earth i think, feeds it a varied diet and thats about it, its rather long and very thick and healthy looking and seems to be doing VERY well.

I dont know why people say they are so hard to take care of............

Varied diet? As in..?

Is the enclosure heated?

What is eco earth? I haven't seen it before..

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Originally Posted by Brandon.O

I dont know why people say they are so hard to take care of............

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Judging from the number of these poor guys I've seen in the freezer at work, I can see they're not foolproof. Or maybe everyone that bought them was just a fool.

Im not exactly sure what he feeds it, i know it eats alot of crickets though.

Yes the enclouse is heated, he uses a over head light and im almost positive he has a heating pad.

Eco earth is bascly compressed coconut fibers, you put it in water and it expands to form a soil like substrate, they use it alot at pet stores, im sure youve seen it.

Oh.. is it like bed-a-beast? (maybe that's the same stuff.. lol!)

It eats a lot of crickets.. as in several dozen a week? Or less?

I'd really like to get one, but I don't want it to die on me. (enough of that) :(

IYou've probably seen this already... I don't know anything about these guys, but oh well, I was bored and Googled it and found this care sheet :)

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/rept...greensnake.htm

I had seen that before, but forgot about it. Thanks.

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Oh.. is it like bed-a-beast? (maybe that's the same stuff.. lol!)

It eats a lot of crickets.. as in several dozen a week? Or less?

I'd really like to get one, but I don't want it to die on me. (enough of that)

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Yes its sortve like bed a beast.

Im not exactly sure how much it eats, im guessing alot becuase its the thickest green snake ive seen (all the other ones are so skinny ! but maybe thats becuase they are babies)

He has alot of branches and leaves in the tank, they love to climb but it makes it hard to see the snake becuase they blend in perfectly !

A tall tank would be nice becuase like a said, they love to be in the trees.

Seeing them eat is alot of fun too,seeing them sneak up on those crickets and gobble them up, doesnt get any better :)

It would be so cool to have a nice aboreal tank for one with lots of leaves and branches. A lot cheaper than buying a chondro! ;)

Yeah ! it does have that "chondro feel" !

They are so beautiful :)

And im pretty sure you can handle them instead of just looking at them all the time, but of course, like any other snake, they can get stressed out, esp these guys. you have to be careful.

Yeah they'll really flip out on you when you handle them sometimes. But I think with time and patience, they'd settle down.

I thought of another question. Would you dust the crickets you feed a green snake?

Ok guys, this is an easy question. Someone's got to know the answer!

LOL, i dont know if my moms friend dusts his, probobly not.

It doesnt say anything about dusting crickets on any caresheets ive read before.

Yeah.. well they do say that green snakes are harder to maintain since we don't understand their diets very well. Perhaps dusting would benefit the snake.

I am a beginner at keeping snakes, I have two rough greens in a tall exo terra tank.

They tend to be out in the day and are great to watch..they climb the vines and branches and bask close to the uv bulbs...

From what I have found on various care sheets and a book on keeping rough green snakes-

They like to be misted and tend to drink water from the leaves (i have seen them do this and drink from the dish)

They are rowdy when first handled but settle down.

I dust every other batch of crickets, and gut load them.

I offered them guppies and they just seemed annoyed.

So far I like them, its cool to see them climb and explore the tank.

A google search turned up a few care sheets and as usual the experts disagree on some details!!

I have two of these cute little guys in a 20g tall tank with an overhead light and mist the cage once a day. They're insectivores and eat gut loaded/dusted crickets. And yes they prefer to frink water on the leaves (love it when snakes drink, so cute to see thier cheeks puff up). Its rare to ever find a captive bred Rough, so I went out into the spot where alot of these guys hang out around the time when they are hatching so I can catch a baby so it will be used to being feed in captivity rather than going about and hunting for food themselves. Now they do stay pencil thin, so dont think that its under weight or anything like that. And they are quite aboreal (I always have to be on my tippytoes reaching my hands into the tree to catch an adult one in the wild for fun). So give them lots of spacious room to climb, ecpecially if you caught it as an adult when its used to living in a huge forest rather than a tiny glass cage. Good luck!

Also you can handle them, but not as much as you would for a ball or corn, they can get stressed out easily and will not feed easier than a ball python per say. So handle them like every two or three days and your fine!

Have you gotten them to eat anything besides crickets?

I've actually havent tried anything else other than crickets. I just let two or three of them , dusted and gut loaded, run around the enclouser until they're eaten, and its fun to watch them gobble them up. Also let them eat as much as they can in one sitting, every two-three days. And if you want to handle them after when they eat, let them rest a day before you do so. Also if yours is an WC adult, and you caught it yourself, then gather some branches and leaves around that area so it would feel more like the area it would be living in, rather than plastic plants, in my mind I think they like that better.

Anyways I would feed them nothing but crickets (get the kind that dont chirp so you wont be annoyed 24/7 :D). They're more nutritious and they eat them in the wild anyways.

Gosh, they look just like tiny green mambas:D

what is gutloading??

Again I am no expert but gutloading is when you feed the food (crickets) something with vitamins that you want to end up in the snake...

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And as a footnote I got the greensnakes because my bp is always in his hide!

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Originally Posted by vanzuuk1

Have you gotten them to eat anything besides crickets?

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One of my favorite prey items when I kept them were caterpillars - they go nuts for em. These snakes really seem to thrive in naturalistic vivariums. Mine were WC and they would feed within a day or two if set up properly and offered enticing prey items(try any bug you can pluck off a tree or bush - moth, butterfly, caterpillar, spider, grasshopper, etc). I used soil substrate that was heavily planted(philodendron is a good one that'll creep all over the enclosure and give them plenty of climbing/hiding opportunities). I'd water the plants daily with a spray bottle so they had drinking opportunities and so my plants wouldn't die. Mine were always setup with a uvb/uva tube light since they are active diurnal snakes, figured it couldn't hurt. Definitely one of the cooler display species, such fun to watch - especially during feeding time!

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Originally Posted by John1982

One of my favorite prey items when I kept them were caterpillars - they go nuts for em. These snakes really seem to thrive in naturalistic vivariums. Mine were WC and they would feed within a day or two if set up properly and offered enticing prey items(try any bug you can pluck off a tree or bush - moth, butterfly, caterpillar, spider, grasshopper, etc). I used soil substrate that was heavily planted(philodendron is a good one that'll creep all over the enclosure and give them plenty of climbing/hiding opportunities). I'd water the plants daily with a spray bottle so they had drinking opportunities and so my plants wouldn't die. Mine were always setup with a uvb/uva tube light since they are active diurnal snakes, figured it couldn't hurt. Definitely one of the cooler display species, such fun to watch - especially during feeding time!

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You said it better than I did! I almost forgot about the other critters that they eat. Though I never gave them spiders... I'm too scared to catch one xD. But when I run out of crickets i will go bug hunting for all of those others, and yes, they love those caterpillars.

I jinxed myself by posting, its been a few days since they ate.Three or four crickets in the tank but both snakes seem uninterested.

Found a couple of pages on these guys

Diet:
http://www.reptilechannel.com/snakes...nake-diet.aspx

General info
http://www.reptilechannel.com/reptil...n-snake-2.aspx

I dumped about twenty crickets in the tank thinking they would eat them as needed, maybe this stressed them or diluted the feeding response...

Gàd;5 s f

Anyone?

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Originally Posted by vanzuuk1

I am a beginner at keeping snakes, I have two rough greens in a tall exo terra tank.

They tend to be out in the day and are great to watch..they climb the vines and branches and bask close to the uv bulbs...

From what I have found on various care sheets and a book on keeping rough green snakes-

They like to be misted and tend to drink water from the leaves (i have seen them do this and drink from the dish)

They are rowdy when first handled but settle down.

I dust every other batch of crickets, and gut load them.

I offered them guppies and they just seemed annoyed.

So far I like them, its cool to see them climb and explore the tank.

A google search turned up a few care sheets and as usual the experts disagree on some details!!

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Quote:

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I dumped about twenty crickets in the tank thinking they would eat them as needed, maybe this stressed them or diluted the feeding response...

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Pictures and statistics on your setup might help. I don't know the dimensions of a tall exo terra.

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When I kept rough greens they were in a 55 gallon planted vivarium and offered a varied diet of basically any bug I caught outside. I never offered fish, I was always under the impression they were entirely insectivorous. Don't handle them, they are almost certainly wild caught and even if they do seem to calm down after a bit, you're not helping the acclimation process. These are look but don't touch snakes that if setup properly and left alone can thrive and provide loads of entertainment to their keeper.

Thanks, the tank has an 18 x 18 footprint and is 24 inches tall. I have an exoterra top with a uv flourescent and a halogen uv bulb. I live both lights on for twelve hours a day.

The tank is at room temp, never lower than 70 degrees. I found conflicting info on additional heat so I have an ut heater I have not used yet.

As I said I mist them so the leaves are damp.

There are hanging leaves and vines,two horizontal branches like you would se in a tree python tank.

Large water dish that i clean once a week.

Reptibark much bedding.

Again they were feeding great until I put the twenty crickets in at once...I took out all but three or four crickets a few days ago. No feeding yet.

Yaah I believe the 20 crickets jumping around all over them stressed them out because they might be disturbing the snake during the night when its trying to sleep. So just put 2-3 in the cage. If they still dont eat them take all of the crickets out for a day or two to let them rest then put two smaller sized crickets in there. Dont really know how to handle this situation because I never had it happen to me before, but if I did I would aproach it in that way.

They still dont appear interested in food..I really feel bad and dont know what the next step is...

Hmmmm.... Its either wat a few days and offor little food and if that doesnt work them force feed, or let it go back into the wild where you found it and go back out there to find the youngest one there is. If option 1 doesnt work then your only hope of the critters survival would be to let it go and find another one. OR if there is a reptile show comming up then go there and see if there are any for sale ^.^

Well one is eating and one passed away in the night...its a shame no one breeds these because they are great snakes.

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Could be the stress of having a roommate but everything says these guys can live a few in a tank without a problem.

I started another thread , they seem to be doing great now!