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