tree snakes

[indicus]

Tree snakes would have to be my favourite species to keep....
Always on the ball; fast and alert.
Luke; when you look to purchasing one; get one that's already feeding on rodents.
By doing so; you can save yourself a lot of hassles and more often then not; heart-ache later.
Some juveniles will readily accept new born pinkies; others not...
Due to hatchling's being rather small; I normally start mine on just the back leg of a new born pinkie.
Hatchling's respond well to the movement of prey....using long forceps; one tries to move the prey;
while keeping your hand still.....
Sometimes just tossing the prey item into the enclosure tends to excite them into feeding...
When constructing your enclosure top; better a smaller door then a large one....
They are extremely fast; and before you know it there out...take care.
Yes True-blue; they can be messy; but lets face it; if you clean your cage more then once a week;
it's relatively easy to maintain these beautiful snakes; that come in almost all the shades of blues; greens; yellow; oranges and black.....simply stunning IMO.
Lets face it; what a small price to pay....

 

[Luke1]

indicus: thanks heaps, i am going to have 2-3 small hatches which will be near the water bowl and near some branches so i can feed them thro that. the big door is more for taking out plants and watering them and cleaning the substrates etc. thanks for the pics btw

trueblue: whats a bad idea?

cheers,

Luke

 

[TrueBlue]

yeah but when fed well you quite othen need to clean their enclosures 2-3 times a day.!!! Messy mongrel things they are.

 

[Luke1]

Messy mongrel things they are.

oh...ok, LOL that bit quoted made me laugh...LOL :lol:

Luke

 

[the_tsar]

Green Tree Snake

Personally, I use some shredded paper in my enclosure, and the poo seems to stick to this, so I jsut replace the paper every two weeks or so.

I have a juvie, about 10 months old.

I dont mind feeding them Geckos, like the pic, one can freeze them if you desire, they like them alot, tounge flickers when you show the gecko to them.

I think they are easy to handle too, I play with mine twice a week at a minimum, and I never really had any close shaves (only placing my hand ion the container, and only for the first month.) so the snake is really friendly, never looks cross, even if I come running over to it to stop it escaping (when I let it roam about for excersice time...lol).

I can even touch it while feeding......although I dont go out of my way to do this, I had to to get a good pic, and not this one, another feeding pic I had.

I like their livelyness and the fact they have no poison.

So get one, you wont regret it.

 

[TrueBlue]

feeding them geckos will just full them full of parasites, imo a very silly thing to do.

 

[$NaKe PiMp]

love this tree snake of yours indicus

 

[krusty]

do you start feeding hatchys on pinky mice straight away.

 

[TrueBlue]

yes

 

[Luke1]

Personally, I use some shredded paper in my enclosure, and the poo seems to stick to this, so I jsut replace the paper every two weeks or so.

I have a juvie, about 10 months old.

I dont mind feeding them Geckos, like the pic, one can freeze them if you desire, they like them alot, tounge flickers when you show the gecko to them.

I think they are easy to handle too, I play with mine twice a week at a minimum, and I never really had any close shaves (only placing my hand ion the container, and only for the first month.) so the snake is really friendly, never looks cross, even if I come running over to it to stop it escaping (when I let it roam about for excersice time...lol).

I can even touch it while feeding......although I dont go out of my way to do this, I had to to get a good pic, and not this one, another feeding pic I had.

I like their livelyness and the fact they have no poison.

So get one, you wont regret it.

awsome, thanks heaps. don't you feel bad feding them cute lil geckos...why not boring little house mice? is that a spiny tail in the pic?

Luke

 

[cris]

I like their livelyness and the fact they have no poison.

They actually are technically venomous(poisonous), not that you can tell unless you are a little frog. They also dont have any fangs so they cant inject it.

 

[Luke1]

but aren't they a colubrid??? they are....oh...oops!!! LOL...some aren't venomous tho ay?

Luke

 

[cris]

Dr Bryan Fry discovered that most(possibly all?) colubrids have venom, even those without fangs. The thing to keep in mid is that just because something is venomous doesnt necessarily mean it is dangerous at all.

His site has the relevant info and also forums
www.venomdoc.com

 

[the_tsar]

awsome, thanks heaps. don't you feel bad feding them cute lil geckos...why not boring little house mice? is that a spiny tail in the pic?

Luke

That gecko in the above pic is the Indonesian types that are in brissy, they come from the docks about 10 years-ish ago? They seem to be everywhere.
(To be honest I used to kill them before I got my snake because they always crapped on my car, and they crap alot, so the novelty wore off having them around) I have killed about 120 in the last few years. About 30 or so to my snake. (150 ish all up?)
It hasnt slowed those geckos down, and you should see the other units near mine, they are littered with them.

Although that dude who mentioned the risk of transfering parisites to the snake from feeding wild geckos is onto something. I will probably keep doing it, I accept the risks and only feed what look to be healthy specimins.
Apparently freezing the gecko before hand (then thawing) is supposed to eliminate this threat though.

I especially like to get the geckos with a few eggs inside, little something extra for my snake to digest.

 

[the_tsar]

They actually are technically venomous(poisonous), not that you can tell unless you are a little frog. They also dont have any fangs so they cant inject it.

I can only assume from your post that the saliva is still poisonous (even a little)?

I personally doubt that it is, because frogs have been brought up by distressed snakes and they were still alive after being swallowed. Surley any poison would knock them out, or else what is the point of having poison.
Also I have had a nip hear and there from other wild GTS, and I would assume if there were some poisons, my bite would have reacted more than it did, was just like a small paper cut.
Nothing that indicated poison in my reaction.

So I am interested why you think they do have poison.

 

[jimbo]

http://www.venomdoc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=662&highlight=dendrelaphis+punctulata

 

[Luke1]

thanks: the_tsar

cris: in that pick with the tree snake eating the mouse (by indicus) i don't know if they are but isn't that yellow thing a fang? i'll have to get onto the that website.

Luke

 

[itbites]

As far as i know common tree snakes (green tree snakes) dendrelaphis punctulata and northern tree snakes dendrelaphis calligastra are non-venomous the only main defence they have is the ability to produce an unpleasant odour from the anal glands. Alot of people mistake them as being weakly venomous but the only species even remotely realated is the common brown tree snake "night tiger" boiga irregularis a rear fanged snake agresive when threatened and larger specimens have been known to give a bite where the victim experiences uncomfortable symptoms ....Also the tsar Although that dude who mentioned the risk of transfering parisites to the snake from feeding wild geckos is onto something. I will probably keep doing it, I accept the risks if you are honestly a herp lover i truely doubt you would be thinking that way ...so why do you even have a snake?!

 

[cris]

It bites and Tsar perhaps try clicking on the link i put above or more specifically you would be better off reading the link jimbo has posted or simply do a search for denrelaphis on the venomdoc forum. They have venom glands and venom, end of story. I will say again though they are still completely harmless and in my experience feel the same as a python bite.

Luke, that isnt a fang it some part of the mouse.

Tsar, its seems that you are going to keep feeding live geckos against good advice, this is your decision and its your snake. I would strongly reccomend you get fecal float test done fairly often to keep an eye on the parasites, it is actually quite possible for a snake to live with heaps of parasites provided it has ideal conditions, minimal stress and doesnt come in contact with its own crap often(causing constant reinfection). It is also possible that a parasite could get in its brain or something and kill it. There is actually a positive to give your snakes parasites as it will stimulate the immune system making your snake more resilient.

Another thing to keep in mind is as an adult it will probably need a massive amount of geckos to feed it. There is also a possiblibilty of the geckos being toxic from eating poisoned bugs and stuff.

 

[itbites]

Hmm i guess it's a bit like aspidites having venom (so i have recently been informed) i just went by what i've read in books and from what i've read there have been no indications that gts/nts are venomous either way they aren't classified as harmful or dangerous and i think they are truly stunning my fav colubrid