Neat find...

this little sweetie was picked up by a dog and was later given to be by the dog's owner. It hasnt gone through it's first shed yet but should be in a few days.

My all time favorite North American Colubrid,

Eastern Ringneck.
http://www.hexibase.com/filehost/minisnake.jpg

It seems to be very active. It will come out of his rock pile and go to the other, hang on the twigs I gave it and will hang from them and drink a little.

The color of his belly in the photos is no where near as intence orange as it really is.

So what you all think?

Cute looking little fella.:)


How big do they get?



dr del

still looking in on Ring necks ... I'm making his little home (for now) like my weather here ... humidity in the 35-40% range (it really perked up with this humidity spike) the temps on the cool side at 85 with a nice hot basking spot at 90. the air temps in my rooms (snake room and my office) stay in the high 70s to low 80s. so that is the air temp in the cage. he is not trying to escape, and has made himself a nice little bed in a rock pile I made for him.

Cute little bugger!!

If he/she is in good shape, I would release it as they are hard to keep in captivity as well as feed.

Well maybe he/ she is older than I thought. When I opened the cage to clean out the water (it pooed in it) and a small knat got in and landed on one of the rocks... it ate it lol!

pwned.. haha at least its eating, thats a good sign. Those things are beautiful, i see them occasionally around here as well.

I ran in to one when i was a little little girl... the thing gave me the creeps. I touched it and it rolled over and started convulsing and let out this horid smell then just stoped moving. I cried because I thought I killed it. 5 min later it poked it's head up, flipped over and speeded off to places unknown. ever sence then I have always wanted one and wanted to learn about them. and Del, they get to a max size here in the south (for an adult female) 26 inches.

I might try and give him a small worm in a few days and see if he might like that ... he is "hunting" as we speak.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MPenn

Cute little bugger!!

If he/she is in good shape, I would release it as they are hard to keep in captivity as well as feed.

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and they let off this stench like WHOA!

That they do. I'm not going to be keeping him. I like to keep things that I find for a few days. like to study them or draw them, take photos, and what not.

Then I let them go.
I wish i could keep this sweet little cutie but It is prob. not the best for him.

The largest one I have ever caught was about 1 1/2 ft. Iam sure they get bigger than that though.

Great find and its eating. :D

One on my favorites. Haven't seen those around here in a few years sadly.

There's an article on ringnecks in this (or last months) Reptiles magazine...

When I was young, I used to keep ringnecks. They even started breeding. I feed them mostly small redworms and crickets. The temps were about the same as corns. I used sterile topsoil and kept the humidity up around 50 or 60 %. Those little things love to burrow in the loose topsoil. I used flat pieces of driftwood for them to hide under. I can't seem to find them like I did 20 years ago. :(

Well he is eating like a pig but he seems to be suffering from seasures? his whole body will stiffen up, his head curls and he will be stuck like that for about 5 min. once he comes to he is very disorentated and after about 20 min he is back to normal and will hide in the moss patch.

I have him in our bedroom for right now and I upped the humidity from a few care guides i found on line. should I take him to the vet or should I continue with my plan to put him back in the wild?

I fear that he might die in the wild due to seasures attracting animals... This one i really need your advice on.

be careful, it might be illegal for you to keep it, if it's local wildlife usually it's illegal to keep em, biiiig fines, a guy here got charged $5000 for keeping a locally caught hognose.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MPenn

Cute little bugger!!

If he/she is in good shape, I would release it as they are hard to keep in captivity as well as feed.

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That's not %100 true. My Northern Brown Snake was wild-caught and she's "shmintz" to care of. No problems with her yet (and I doubt there will be). The only problem with new (small) captives is that they won't eat for a little while. After that period they will accept anything. OT: Nice Ringneck! You won't have to worry about size issues, they don't grow very large.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jessie_k_pythons

Well maybe he/ she is older than I thought. When I opened the cage to clean out the water (it pooed in it) and a small knat got in and landed on one of the rocks... it ate it lol!

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I would say that thing is at least a couple months old with quite a few meals in it. The reason I say that, is we caught one about 2 years ago that was about half that size, and shed while we kept it for a couple days. I am pretty sure that the shed was it post hatch shed. I also found a small nest with a couple egg shells right near where we caught it.

I know what you mean about the belly, they have the brightest colors on their stomachs. Beautiful find, and I'll second MPenn, they are very difficult to keep in captivity. So, if that is your plan, prepare for a rough road ahead.

I LOVE RONG NECKs! Very cool