Slug Eating Snakes, a dream come true!

[Connie Star]

To sex snakes:
Look at the tail from the anal plate distally. The males have a thinner longer tail. The females are thicker at the anal plate and the tale is shorter. Of course, this is only useful if you have one of each.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Connie Star

To sex snakes:
Look at the tail from the anal plate distally. The males have a thinner longer tail. The females are thicker at the anal plate and the tale is shorter. Of course, this is only useful if you have one of each.

Thank you!

That helps a lot! It saves me from having to probe the snakes and such.

They are very small and thin, probing them is potentially harmful.

I will look into that when they become much more established.


On another note...

They seem to eat a lot for little snakes. The frequency by which they feed is closer to that of a lizard's than the other more commonly kept snakes. It looks like they eat every other day, versus once every week.

With the frequency by which they feed, and how common they are in the wild, I highly doubt these snakes really just eat snails and slugs.

I put in a dozen nightcrawlers yesterday afternoon, and by this morning, there seems to be fewer of them.

A snail I placed in there a couple days ago (after they were well fed already) was for sure devoured last night.

I just observed some strange behavior in the tank last night as well, and I don't know what it is. I was only able to spot the tail, but I couldn't see what the other parts of the snake was really doing, and I couldn't shine a light in there without disturbing it at night. I wanted to know if any snake keepers or herpetologists who work with snakes can tell me about this...

One of them had its tail raised about an inch off the ground and held it rigidly straight out like a fishing rod for at least a couple minutes or so.

What kind of behavior is this?

Could the tail be acting as a lure?

[Paul]

Doubtful the tail was acting as a lure though I can't be more insightful than that. The frequency of feeding doesn't surprise me as the nutritional content of snails and earthworms is quite low.

[Mikeg]

Wow, I love the big eyes! Nice find. Where did you find them if you don't mind me asking?

[Vanda lover]

The only wild snakes we have here are 4 kinds of Garter snakes, but they do eat slugs, which is really a good thing because some of the slugs are up to 7 in. long here!

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Whoa! Those are huge slugs!

Our slugs usually get no larger than 1 inch.

I had a Garter Snake once, not sure which kind of garter. It was very snippy. I had to be careful that it didn't bite me.

[Connie Star]

I think temperature has a lot to do with how often snakes will feed- somewhat warmer and they will feed more. But don't get them too warm. I've killed a few pet snakes that way.
As for the tail behavior, did it defecate? I've seen them do that as they begin to poop.
I've had quite a few pet snakes over the years, but I only have one corn snake now, and it is really my hubbies pet.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I don't think the frequency by which these Keeled Slug Eaters feed is heat related. That may be the case with some of the other snakes that are commonly sold and kept, but I don't think these fall in the same category.

I don't heat the tank at all. The only heat the tank gets are the 2 24" T5 tubes placed approximately 3" to 4" above the top of the tank.

The room is not heated either.

The temperature is roughly in the low 60's F to 70 F right now.

Even though these guys are from the supposed lowland jungles of Malaysia, they don't appear to gravitate towards the heat. They always sleep in a corner of the tank that's closest to the window on the wall that is slightly cracked open underneath low laying vegetation on the moist ground.

I don't know if they've defecated or not. I can't tell what the poop looks like. I don't think they've defecated yet. You might be right about the behavior that I described being them defecating.

Geez! Now I feel I've gotta get a night vision camcorder or something to record the behaviors of these poorly understood snakes.

[Vanda lover]

Since slugs are mainly active during cooler weather, I imagine that yours may be able to stand cooler temperatures. Be careful they don't get too cool, though. It will slow digestion and cause them to go into hibernation.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Wow...

Talk about having to dig through the haystack to find the needle!

Found this little piece of info specifically on these guys. Here's the quote from the online pdf file:

"Pareas carinatus Wagler, 1830: Keeled slug snake / Ran
ho may go
Distribution. Nguyen & Ho (1996) and Nguyen et al.
(2005) mention records of P. carinatus (listed in Nguyen
& Ho, l. c. in the genus Dipsas) from northern, central
and southern Vietnam. Our fi ndings represent the fi rst
record for the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park as
well as for the Quang Binh province.
Natural history notes. We found two adult male
specimens: ZFMK 82890 (SVL 365, TaL 123 mm),
collected on 5 July 2004; VNUH 15.6.’05-1 (SVL
457, TaL 144 mm), collected on 15 June 2005. Both
specimens were discovered during the dry season at
night in primary karst forest near rock outcrops: the
snake ZFMK 82890 (Fig. 11) was seen when crawling
on the leaf litter and the specimen VNUH 15.6.’05-1
was found in the branches about 1.5 m above a small
stream.
Characteristic features. Prefrontals not in contact with
the eye, two preoculars, in contact with the single loreal,
1-2 suboculars between supralabials and eye, and 1-2
postoculars; 6-7 supralabials, and 15 (dorsally keeled)
scales across the midbody; 176-177 ventral scales,
78-80 divided subcaudal scales, and anal plate entire
(determination after Bourret, 1936a; b)." - (http://www.seh-herpetology.org/files...47_Ziegler.pdf, page 8)

The above quoted material supports my hypothesis that these snakes are not 100% arboreal, but rather are semi-arboreal. They spend some time on the ground as well. Their preference is to sleep within the leaf litter, underneath rock crevices, and occasionally in sizeable nooks within the branches of the small trees or shrubs they like to be around.

It also supports what I had thought about their coloration (which I haven't yet posted). I always thought that the rich brown background, mustard yellow highlights, and black bands were for camouflage amongst leaf litter and the branches of woody shrubs or small trees. Which is now apparently evidenced to be true.

Then there's this about the general region of where they come from:

Effects of Karst Forest Degradation on Pulmonate and Prosobranch Land Snail Communities in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo - SCHILTHUIZEN - 2005 - Conservation Biology - Wiley Online Library

They're always near their source of food, and it's plentiful! No wonder they eat so damn much! They can afford to!

The link I posted about the feeding behaviors of snakes in the Pareatinae group, also point to the fact that they have excellent eyesight and hunt mostly through the use of sight, compared to most other snakes. Hence the huge eyes. And it also explains why they notice me watching them, even in the dark.

note: Once they perceive me as not being a threat to their safety, they slowly ignore me watching them, and they continue about their business.