What is this snake

[Aelodrea]

I went to an animal expo and took a few photos of some snakes, after a while I fell in love with a specific one but never got the name, could anyone help.

 

[Vixen]

Looks like a Keelback but could be wrong.

 

[baker]

Its a young keelback Tropidonophis mairii. Very cool little snakes to keep. Worse thing with them is how hard they can be to find for sale.
Here is a picture of mine so you can see what they look like when they are older

Cheers Cameron

 

[Zeusy]

Was this expo in Australia? It's hard to tell by the photos but in the widest shot, I can't make out any keels. Also, the head looks too slender to be a keelback.
Really hard to tell by the photos though. Just looks to glossy to me.
But, in saying that, I got no other suggestions.


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[Aelodrea]

Do you need a specialist to keep them? cant seem to find any info on that

 

[Zeusy]

[MENTION=28684]baker[/MENTION] how do you go feeding them? I think they're a gorgeous snake but wasn't sure about whether they would take rodents or not.


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[Aelodrea]

Was this expo in Australia?

South Aus Animal Expo

 

[critterguy]

Unsure about rodents but will eat fish and like a semi aquatic setup.

 

[baker]

I am unsure what license you require to keep these in SA but in QLD they are just in the normal license.
Quite an easy species to feed. When they are young you feed them with feeder fish. You can then wean them onto rodents fairly easily by scenting pinkie mice with sardines. Can take a while but they switch over fine. Mine above currently feeds on 2-3 velvet rats a week plus whatever feeder fish I can get. I like to keep the diet varied for it.
Cheers Cameron

 

[bdav70]

This is really cool, I had no idea there were snakes kept in captivity which required semi aquatic setup. Super cute though, i like it's cartoony eyes

 

[baker]

They don't require a semi aquatic setup but I find that they do benefit from it. They are much more stimulated and entertaining to watch when given a semi aquatic set up as they are able to display more natural behaviors. There are also a few species of snake available in Australia that do require either a semi aquatic or fully aquatic set up.
Cheers Cameron

 

[giggles]

[MENTION=28684]baker[/MENTION] you can keep keelbacks on a normal recreational licence? or restricted? can you tell me where colubrids fit into? feel free to pm me. kind of off topic lol

 

[baker]

All colubrids fall into the normal recreational license in Queensland.
Cheers Cameron

 

[Zeusy]

I am unsure what license you require to keep these in SA but in QLD they are just in the normal license.
Quite an easy species to feed. When they are young you feed them with feeder fish. You can then wean them onto rodents fairly easily by scenting pinkie mice with sardines. Can take a while but they switch over fine. Mine above currently feeds on 2-3 velvet rats a week plus whatever feeder fish I can get. I like to keep the diet varied for it.
Cheers Cameron

That's awesome Baker. I've found plenty in the wild and relocated one recently that was just gorgeous. I thought they'd be harder to keep. 2-3 velvet rats a week? Wow! That's quite a bit of food but being colubrids, their metabolic rate would be higher than a python. I'm going to have to research these a bit more.


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[baker]

I have honestly found them as easy to keep as pythons. It was my second species to keep and I never had a problem with it. You just have to be more aware and careful when handling as they are much faster than pythons when they want to be. Yep it can take a bit of food to keep them happy. That would be is max summer intake and he will be slowing down how much his feeding right now. Take biggest problem with high metabolism snakes is that they poop a whole lot more. Although if you ever want to keep elapids these guys will help you get used to the poo messes.
Cheers Cameron