Slug Eating Snakes, a dream come true!

[Cewal]

Beautiful snakes. I love the eyes!

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Thank you!

I think their eyes are one of their best attributes.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

After observing them for about 4 days, this is what I've come up with so far, in regards to their care.

These snakes are semi-arboreal.

They are strictly nocturnal unless they are very, very hungry.

They like intermediate temperatures (60 F - 80 F).

They eat mainly snails, but slugs are accepted. The snails must be about 1/2" in diameter.

The snails must be gut loaded. Preferably with a leafy diet that is high in calcium.

Snails are highly nutritious.

Snail (escargot) nutritional value | protein

Keep them in moderate to high humidity.

*** They eat everyday, or at least every 2 days! ***

- Not once a week. Not twice a week. Everyday or every 2 days!

In the wild, they have access to their prey everyday in enough quantities that they never have to worry about going hungry for too long of a period of time.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

More photos!

[Vanda lover]

They are cute little guys! Unusual eyes.

[Baz in Oz]

Philip, what you REALLY need is a few of our Oz snakes running loose. Oz boasts (?) of having ownership of most of the top 20 venomous snakes in the world.
Nothing like having a western taipan or two in your vicinity to keep your reflexes at their best.

Baz

[Paul]

Cute lil devils! I really like the wood you have in there with them. Keep us posted on their well being -- I'll be interested to hear what measures you will need to go to to keep them fed and how varied a diet you will or won't find them to have in "real" life.

Baz, as odd as it sounds, I would like to see is Oz's venomous fauna in their natural habitat.

[snakecharma]

re sexing - tail length is not always indicative of sex. Probing is also not 100% accurate. The only sure way is to actually see a hemipene, either by popping or by good fortune.

They are very nice animals King. I would like a scaleless corn snake, but alas they cannot come to australia (legally, anyway).

Please do keep records of your observations, and maybe consider posting them online to help further the known information about them.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by snakecharma

re sexing - tail length is not always indicative of sex. Probing is also not 100% accurate. The only sure way is to actually see a hemipene, either by popping or by good fortune.

They are very nice animals King. I would like a scaleless corn snake, but alas they cannot come to australia (legally, anyway).

Please do keep records of your observations, and maybe consider posting them online to help further the known information about them.

Thank you.

Yeah, I was having a hard time telling the difference in the sexes with the tail width or length.

These snakes are wonderful snakes.

They are very docile and don't have the inclination to bite first. Someone would really have to piss it off bad in order for it to consider striking.

To my knowledge, they really are obligate feeders of snails and slugs. I have so far not had terrible difficulty keeping them well fed (knock on wood).

The reason these snakes can afford to be obligate feeders is because Malaysia actually has a very high diversity of snails and slugs (who knew)! Plus, these snakes like to hang out near water where the mother load of snails and slugs are! I don't think they're picky about what kind of snails or slugs they eat, as long as they're not poisonous to it, the snakes can find a way to catch it, and it's of the right size.

They always catch the snail or slug from behind, never from the front.

Edit: For snails, the opening must be oriented in a certain direction in order for them to be able to extract them.

There is a scientific article regarding this.

[MP.]

I've read about 'handedness' in the Sibon genus, have you actually seen this happen? Or is this relaying something you've read?

You could try popping them. ALso there's a method involving wetting a finger and sliding it from the vent toward the tail tip and feeling for the pop of the hemipenes as they slide away from pressure. There's a .gif somewhere on the internets showing the idea behind this. ALthough I have a feeling it won't work with an older animal.