There isnt really much info available on these critters and much of it is debatable, especially suitability of artifical diets(except slateys maybe as they normally eat mammals). I think feeding them fish is risky due to the potential hazard the fins may be when going backwards and feeding frozen fish can lead to vitamin B deficiancy, I have heard from a few people that feeding them rodents with fur can cause problems, feeding them natural food is illegal(except for asian house geckos in some parts of Qld).
The only Colubrids i currently keep are Common Tree Snakes. Unfortunately the most experienced keepers never seem to share very much info in a way thats easily available to everyone. I have pieced together various bits of info from experienced keepers and am working it out as i go along.
i try to feed mine a diet of furless rodents, meat pieces(poultry necks, strips of meat such as mammal, bird or fresh fish) supplemented with mulitivitamins and calcium+vit D or reptile supplement like wombaroo or otherwise fed in combintaion with whole prey. I used to feed them day old qauils which they seem to like and are safe to feed live(unless the down could cause digestive problems like rodent hair is suspected to cause?). They prefer live prey so feeding them live fish is the easiest legal option, but as mentioned this has some risks IMO. That said i have one legally wild caught specimen that has never accepted live fish, but luckily he eats virtually anything else i offer.
They are also very fast and can be tricky to deal with if they are trying to get away, they can sort of jump and have fairly fragile bodies.
They eat much more often that pythons and also crap more, although it is easier to clean up than python crap. They are also more active than pythons so arnt boring IMO.
Would love to here some more info about them or any constructive criticism.
IMO they are the most rewarding harmless snake to keep in Australia, but definately not the easiest.
They are , just not to people.
They are venomous to people, just harmless unless you are unlucky enough to be the first person ever recorded to have an allergic reaction(which you can get from heaps of stuff that isnt dangerous to 99.99999% of the population). IMO a green ant is probably more dangerous, but they are venomous too. There are heaps of venomous animals that are harmless and only present an insignificant risk to humans.
