They are getting more popular. They are a subspecies of beauty snake- orthriophis taeniurus ridleyi, and its fellow subspecies are taiwan beauties which are a lot more common, as well as chinese beauty snakes, vietnamese blue beauties and some other rarer ones. Care is very similar to the taiwan beauty. They're not difficult to keep- a viv somwhere between 4 and 5ft in length plus a couple feet wide is fine. Make sure it has some height to it- at least 3ft or thereabout. Get a couple of hides in there, a basic substrate of some kind, and ideally a couple of branches since they like to climb a bit. Heat to about 27C at the warm end, they dont need it massively hot in fact they wont like it. Humidity is quite high where they come from but they can do fine without much- ie room humidity. Ensure you keep it up prior to shedding though.
This group of snakes are long and slender. Can be snappy as youngsters, but I know Tais are often good-natured. Blue beauties are apparently the worst and also get the longest. My Tai is 8 1/2 feet long.
I use a ceramic heater which heats a viv of this size very efficiently, mats arent very good except for back-up heat. Use a dimmer stat to control a ceramic. They may seem more expensive than other heaters but they wont need replacing every 5 secs like heat bulbs, and give out good quality, steady heat.
As adult i would say the largest food it will need is a medium rat.
Reply With Quote