Rufous Beaked Snake!! my observations!!

[mwd45]

I have been raising my "Prophet" for quite a while and without any expert advise. I have to admit that I am quite capable of taking care of most anything. I am completely fascinated by this snake. I wanted to open this up to compare my observations and solicit others in creating a care sheet. I live in the U.S. and these snakes are fairly new on the market and I feel that we can work together to create a great care sheet. So here it goes.

In general

1. Hides and observes surroundings. Unless he is sleeping, I find him taking security in his hide box and peering out. in addition to this, he places his tail not so far from his head and sits and watches everything.

2. Shakes his head back and forth when focused on more than one object.

3. Dips head into water bowl to drink.

4. Climbs, burrows, and explores when out.

Feeding

1. Tends to like small mice (Jumpers) every four to five days. I tried feeding him an Ex Breeder every week. However, he seems more content with the smaller mice.

2. I have fed him live mice twice out of the umpteen times I have fed him. I do not see any benefits to feeding live. I have to admit that I am amazed at his strength!

Handling

1. Most comfortable with little distractions. With little or no distractions, is very calm and comfortable and responds well to rubbing under the chin.

2. Comfortable being handled like a Corn Snake. He will readily be held around your neck, arm, etc...

3. I keep a hide box close by just in case he becomes startled... he likes to have his security.

Caging

1. While he is only 3.5 foot, he is currently in a 20 Long. My plans are to expand his habitat to an 8 foot wide by 4 foot tall and 4 foot deep.

In conclusion, I would like some feed back. While I am permitted to keep almost any snake. I constantly seek to learn more from others so that I can create the best life possible for my "Little Buddies".
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[Masticophis]

He will readily be held around your neck, arm, etc...

This is quite dangerous

I handle mine only with a hook or gloves.

regards

[mwd45]

Gilian,

You are 100% absolutely right. You'll get no argument from me there. I do this on my own recognizance and experience.

I will admit that I use protective clothing, equipment and a handling technique to keep from getting bitten. I would normally share this technique, however, I do not want to share this publicly. As with all things, there is someone out there who will try it and mess up and get a "Love Tap"... and we don't want that to happen.

I will reply with more in depth observations... I just wanted to throw the basics out there to see what other snakes behavior is??? Does mine generally behave the same???

[Masticophis]

Hi,

I added my experiences below yours:

1. Hides and observes surroundings. Unless he is sleeping, I find him taking security in his hide box and peering out. in addition to this, he places his tail not so far from his head and sits and watches everything.

They observe quite a lot . I didn't notice they place the tail close to the head.

2. Shakes his head back and forth when focused on more than one object.

No, mine only shake their heads from left to right and they indeed focus on more than one object. Ahaetulla prasina shake their head also from left to right but only focus on one object.

3. Dips head into water bowl to drink.

I don't know. You mean their whole head?

4. Climbs, burrows, and explores when out.

Yes

Feeding

1. Tends to like small mice (Jumpers) every four to five days. I tried feeding him an Ex Breeder every week. However, he seems more content with the smaller mice.

Mine eat large adult mice.

2. I have fed him live mice twice out of the umpteen times I have fed him. I do not see any benefits to feeding live. I have to admit that I am amazed at his strength!

I feed them most of the time thawed mice out of the tweezers. Sometimes I feed them life mice, but prefer dead ones because of injury damage risk. They tend to bite with a lot of force and press them down in a corner or on the floor, they even do so with dead mice

Handling

1. Most comfortable with little distractions. With little or no distractions, is very calm and comfortable and responds well to rubbing under the chin.

They are very calm. I never tried rubbing under the chin and wont do that.

2. Comfortable being handled like a Corn Snake. He will readily be held around your neck, arm, etc...

I would never put them around my neck. I'm 99% sure they wouldn't bite, but don't want to take the risk.

3. I keep a hide box close by just in case he becomes startled... he likes to have his security.

I always put hiding places in my snake's cages. Sometimes the ones you can close.

Caging

1. While he is only 3.5 foot, he is currently in a 20 Long. My plans are to expand his habitat to an 8 foot wide by 4 foot tall and 4 foot deep.

I keep them in cages as long as their bodies. Dry and a very hot sunspot.

kind regards

Gilian

[ColinF]

Has anyone even been bitten by one here, and what is the general bite like?

You may want to add more info on their venom...

[mwd45]

I have the technical rundown on their venom. However, this was done in a lab with a great quantity of venom available.

The only report I know of is an undocumented case of a man getting bit by one in the wild. He supposedly allowed it to chew on him and suffered minor swelling from the bite. He also stated that he had a headache a while afterwards. I have yet to find the source of this claim.

While I cannot rule out envenoming as an explanation, I could also suggest that the swelling could be part of the bite itself. Rufous Beaks have a strong bite and are quite capable of bruising. In addition to the headache, there is no status of whether the person was in fact partially dehydrated, overheated, or lacked enough food that day.

I do not want to down play the Rufous Beaked Snakes abilities. However, given the lack of sufficient evidence to support the risks involved, I can only go by mine and others experiences. Every site I have researched proclaims that the snakes are (at a risk assessment level) harmless to humans. Also, I have yet to find a toxicology report or study that suggests different.

[froot]

How long does it take the venom to kill a mouse? From my experience a snake with a potent venom lets the venom do the job by biting and letting go, sometimes repeatedly, and does not try to physically kill it's prey.

I have the technical rundown on their venom. However, this was done in a lab with a great quantity of venom available.

I would be very interested to have a look at this.

[Bushviper]

I have a report that I would have to re-type and believe me the bite was worse than an Atractaspis bite. If I am bored I will re-type it. Makes for interesting reading.

[MV]

would love to read that BV, if its worse than an atractaspis bite...OUCH!!! That one is pretty painfull...

[phish]

here was a thread on venomdoc, discussing Rhamphiophis oxyrhynchus venom. No real info shared ... but could be of interest to some:

http://www.venomdoc.com/forums/viewtopi ... 17dbcc6394

[mwd45]

Here's the link to the Venom Study, I found Online. It isn't much but it's the most I have found.

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=16422838