Young Yellow-Faced Whip Snake

[Tricache]

Have got myself a young yellow-faced whip snake and was wondering if I could get some advice since trying anywhere else is pretty much impossible. Being my first snake and being very novice to keeping Herps is kind of scary

He is roughly 20cm long or round abouts and still very small. Feeding him is all new to me (being my first snake) he has eaten a young gekko and that was fine but trying to get gekkoes is extremely hard and I was wondering what kind of food I should be feeding him.

His encloser at the moment is an old fish tank. Dimensions 40cm long x 21cm wide x 22cm hieght. I found out that they can grow to about 80cm in the wild. I want to replace his encloser but I am unsure to what I should replace it with. Also lgihting and heating as well...any suggestions would be great.

Below is a picture of AJ in his current encloser. He has a water dish and a basic heating lamp which keeps the tank at around 29 - 30 degrees.



any help would be greatly appreciated and I love what you all have done here great work.

[Moclobe]

Tricache,

I would talk to the person that you bought the snake from. AS surely they would be able to answer all your questions

Regards David

[Tricache]

I am unable to contact them anymore....it was a private sale and I was naive, had just gotten my licence and was looking for a snake right away. My mistake but I am trying to correct what I have done by trying to look after him properly...that is why I turned to you guys.

[Shadow]

hm.......thats a pretty good snake you got there. good on you.

i've been bitten by a black headed whip snake before. so um yea.

have you been bitten by your whip snake yet?

i don't know much about snake enclosures (did i spell that right?)
but i'd would keep it in that cage for a bit.

my snake is in a small enclosure.......fish tank and earthmum set it up for me.

and by the sounds of it and the look of the pic you doing it right.

you have to ask someone else about food...but i thought theyed eat pinkies (day old mice)

i hope i've helped

[Dicco]

Didn't think you could keep them on a regular licence? Feed him thawed pinkie/fuzzy mice.

[Fuscus]

Definatly move him onto young mice ASAP. Geckos could bring in mites.
You have a couple of months before you need to worry about starvation.
At that size the bite wont be noticable.
Size of enclosure is OK.
Proberly not a good species for a first snake but ,boy, they are pretty.
And Welcome to APS, Ask heaps, we don't mind

You Lucky bastard. Its not fair!! I have wanted psammophis for a while now.


You will be even luckier if you get it to take mice, if this is your first snake. It should feed pretty easily on small lizards, you may have a problem with internal parasites a little down the track though. psammophis
can get a lot bigger then 80cm, I know of a captive specimen up here which is well over a metre. The whole Demansia genus is very active, so a large enclosure is a must!
An bite from this species will be very painful and even as hatchlings they can make a grown man cry (I have seen it, pretty funny!)

[Moclobe]

Tricache,

If you contact the licencing body in your state and provide them with your contact details and the licence number of the person you bought the snake off they should be able to get the two of you in contact

Regards David

[sxereturn]

Triache - please give me a call on 0413 128 248...or email me at sxereturn@hotmail.com

-Jonno

[ackie]

i hav been keepin a few whipsnakes over the years...currently hav only one. Whipsnakes are not going to just convert from reptiles to mice. To tell ya the truth i hav never got a whipsnake to eat any sort of mammal. They feed exclusivley on reptiles or their eggs. U will probably have to feed him/her reptiles, particularly skinks for the time u hav him as they r extremely fussy feeders. I hav tried everything i hav heard to convert mine onto mice without any sucess. Whipsnakes are almost completly terrestrial apart from climbing low bushes, usually to help in thermoregulation. 80cm is just an average, i hav found and measured full grown yellow faced whipsnakes averaging between 90cm-100cm but my bro and i found one that was 120cm, huge for a whipsnake. Another thing is that u shouldnt under-estimate venom. IT HURTS!!
even the tiny ones like u hav can make u swell up, itchiness and make u clench ur teeth coz it can be extremely painful but generally, whips are not aggressive.
Try to keep the enclosure much longer than the snake coz whipsnakes are extremely active. A heat lamp is a good way to go as they are active snakes and will repeatedly sit under the light before cruizin around.
Also make sure the tank is escape proof and never under-estimate wat they can squeeze through.
By the way, great snake for a first timer :S (sarcasm involved)

[SnakeWrangler]

When I was a young fella, about 10, a guy I knew had caught a wild whip snake of some kind (not sure of specifics but definately a whip snake), he was being stupid with it, putting it in his mouth and stuff, well it bit him and his throat swelled up so much that he nearly died, was in hospital until the swelling went down. Serves himself right, but I can definately verify the swelling they can cause.

[Fuscus]

OK, I stand corrected on the mice
and the bite
and the enclosure

Hey, I got a hat-trick

[sxereturn]

You were kind of right Fuscus, they can be weaned onto mice...

[earthmother]

Lesser Black Whip Black-Necked Whipsnake Greater Black (Papuan)Whip Snake
Grey Whip Snake Collared Whip Snake. Shadow my love, none of these snakes are in our region. So, you were bitten by a Yellow faced or one with a dirty face.


They like small skinks out in the real world, because that's what Shadow was picking up when the Whip was aiming at the same target.
It wasn't a dry bite, but he was ill for 3 days and had an itch at the bite site for a few weeks.
Phew

[sxereturn]

Yeah, they aren't life threatening, but apparantly very painful.