C.B. Sunbeam snakes

[Mike Schultz]

Hatched out here at Outback Reptiles. Really cool little snakes!



They are starting on pinkies now and gobble them up fast like their parents.

[CoolioTiffany]

Man you never see too many of those! I bet that was really exciting to see them hatch. Good luck with the little guys

[singingtothewheat]

What a pretty little baby. What do they look like as they grow?

[Jay_Bunny]

Very cool snakes! Do you have a link to a care sheet or care to share any info on their care? I've seen these a few times and they really interest me. I want to get one at some point. Maybe next year.

[BrucenBruce]

Congratulations!

Now we need an authoritative care sheet on these shimmering beauties!

~Bruce

[josh@outbackreps]

There has been very little published as far as captive care of these guys. All the animals that are on the market have always been w.c adults and every now and then a imported baby. After doing some research/talking to a few friends that have kept them for years and who have talked to other keepers, there have been less than 10 reports of hatching babies in captivity. Only 1-2people have actually bred them in captivity as well.

Below is a basic care sheet I just put together while reading this thread. It is far from perfect but just a example of how to care and keep them.

They are a very different animal that gets to be about 3.5-4' as a large adult. The mother to these babies was about 4.5' and is the largest we have seen. They are burrowers from S.E Asia that feed on small rodents, from, and lizards in the wild. In captivity they feed on rodents very well and feed faster than any other snake we have seen. It takes a adult about 60 seconds from start to finish to swallow a adult mouse. Constriction is lightning fast and they eat lightning fast as well. (A very impressive display to see).

Care on them is fairly simple, keep them in a very tight fitting rack or tank with a good deep substrate of peat-moss with vermiculite mixed in. It helps hold moister in the set up and gives some stability to the mix for them to tunnel threw. You can also use cypress or sphagnum moss but the peat and vermic. mix works best.
Under tank heat is the best, and temps in the upper 70*-mid 80's work well for therm. High humidity is a must as is a large light weight water bowl. (With a deep substrate the water bowl cant be on the bottom of the cage so you do not want a heavy bowl in case the burrow out underneath it.)
The iridescence on these guys puts even the best rainbow boa to shame.

Imported adults should be treated for internal parasites, but make sure to go easy on the meds as they can have a negative affect on the snake if you hit them to heavily when stressed.

Breeding is very much unknown the big problem seems to be finding breedable females as all the larger females are used as skins and rarely make it to the pet trade. The female we has laid 12 eggs, 10 hatched and were incubated in the same mix as we keep them on as listed below.
Eggs were set up in a 6 quart shoe box and put in a tub in a large holding rack and with back heat that was set at 86*-87*
Hatching took about 70-80 days from the time the eggs were laid, and the babies hatched out over a 3-4 day window.

Petra Spiess bred them in 97' and that is the only known documented breeding we know of.

Hope this helps.

[Jay_Bunny]

Thanks for all the info! See, now your making me want one. Someone posted pictures of an adult a while back and those snakes were just amazing. The iridescence on these snakes is awesome. So you can keep them in a rack? Any chance of seeing a picture of their tub?

[Mike Schultz]

Thanks for all the info! See, now your making me want one. Someone posted pictures of an adult a while back and those snakes were just amazing. The iridescence on these snakes is awesome. So you can keep them in a rack? Any chance of seeing a picture of their tub?

We had a few of them in a CF-750 rack (discontinued model as the bins arent made any more)

They are taller and slightly longer than your average 32qt. We just filled it up about halfway with the dirt mixture Josh described above, placed a large shallow plastic water bowl in the front, and kept their hot spot in the mid 80's with the temp gradient going down to the high 80's at the front of the tub. Since the rack had only a small gap around the top of the tub humidity stayed high with little effort (occasional spraying was all that is necessary).

I know that we technically didn't "breed" them (just hatched out the eggs), so my sig is wrong, but I just thought it would be silly since almost nobody works with these animals. Its very cool having something this rare, even if they arent exactly the most high-demand animals

[MPenn]

Big congrats to you guys!!

[loxocemus]

congratulations on hatching the sunbeams, they have been captive bred quite a few times now, several times in the UK the netherlands and quite a few times in germany alone, i have a cb adult pair myself that have recently been mating.



rgds
edward