Asian ratsnake caresheet
Introduction
The Asian rat snake or the elaphe tanuiera is a large sized snake which is part of the colubrid family and most species come from south east Asia where they get to a size of 5-7ft with bigger individuals getting to 8-9ft.
Asian rat snakes are very popular snakes so will be available at many pet shops in a variety of sizes and they include:
Taiwanese beauty/stripe tailed rat snake(fresei)
Vietnamese/Chinese blue beauty
Ridleys cave racer/rat snake(ridleyi)
The things to look for when purchasing your snake is to check if its alert and looks in general good health like bright eyed and free from shed skin or scars and also the vent looks clean and not sore looking which is sign of bad health to the snake.
Asian rat snakes have the reputation of being very aggressive snakes which is true in some individuals or in hatchlings but do tame down to become a tame pet snake
Housing your snake
Asian rat snakes aren’t excessively large snakes so can be housed quite easily, for a small hatchling milk snake a small faunarium with a substrate of kitchen towel and a small waterbowl for drinking and a small hide will be sufficient for your milk snake until its big enough for a vivarium as putting a hatchling in a fall sized cage will stress them out which will make them not feed or regurgitate when they do which is very bad for the snakes health particularly at a vulnerable stage in their life and when they get to adult sized a single rat snake can live comfortably in a 48’’x24’’x24’’ cage but more space the better particularly with more than one rat snake sharing a vivarium with a substrate of either newspaper or aspen shavings and with a waterbowl big enough for the snake to occasionally soak in and the decoration of the vivarium can be as elaborate or simple as you please but make sure everything is secure and free from sharp edges to prevent injury to your snake.
Heating for these snakes can be either by heat mat or ceramic heater which both must be thermostatically controlled to be able to achieve the desired temperature and the ceramic heaters must be guarded to prevent injuries to your snake, desired temps are 20-22(68-72f) with a slight night time drop.
Any rocks/branches you get from outdoors need to be sterilised to kill any germs/bugs that will infect your cage and in some cases put your animals health at risk, the best way ive found is putting your small cage items in a bucket and pour in some Milton which is found at chemists and supermarkets which main use is for babies bottles and leaving it for a few hours and when rinsed well and dried is safe for use in your vivarium but with bigger items use the bath but use more amounts of miltons because of its larger size
Food and feeding
Asian rat snakes are easily got into feeding on defrosted mice and rats at hatchling stage and are greedy feeders so are generally not a problem and feeding from frozen is cheaper to buy as are available in many sizes and theres no danger of injury or suffering to the rodent if it was alive.
Defrosting before feeding can be done in many ways like defrosting them in a warm place naturally or submerging them in warm water until defrosted then dried which also has an advantage of raising the body heat of the prey
most snakes will take the food item if you wiggle it with a pair of forceps(you can risk being bitten if using your fingers) until the snake grabs it which is called ‘’strike feeding’’ whereas others prefer to feed off the ground of in the privacy of their hide box.
In some cases you get the odd reluctant feeder which will not take the mice/rats easily so hers a few pointers:
*braining the rodent which involves splitting the rodents skull and exposing the brain and the snake upon smelling this should take it with no problems
*splitting the stomach which involves splitting it and it does the same purpose as skull splitting
*washing the rodent and handling it as little as possible could be another way to get it feeding as it might smell you on there
*scenting it with chick or mouse in the case of rats could trigger a feeding response or rubbing lizard skin on there as snakes are opportunist feeders in the wild so worth a try to the captives
Once these methods have been exhausted pre killed is another option with the above methods used then and after this has been exhausted assist feeding and should only be attempted as a last resort as can cause added stress to the snake may be an option but all the above methods have proved successful so you should have no problems.
Hatchlings
ink/fuzzie mice every 5 days
Juveniles: large mice/rat weaners every 7 days
Adults: xl mice/small or large rats every 10-14 days
Handling your snake
When first acquiring a young snake try and resist the temptation of handling the snake until it is feeding regular and it has fully settled into its new environment, some snakes can be a little nervous when you handle them for the first time and shake their tail and strike but take things slowly and they calm down to accept handling very well but like everything you do the odd exception which is down to the individual really(like people)which can be aggressive and not take to handling as well as you’d hoped
Its best not to handle snakes 48 hours after a feed too as to not risk regurgitation or not being confident in handling the snake as you can risk injuring the snake even a fall from a small height can still hurt a snake
The best way to handle a snake of their size is to support the snakes body at two places and gently let it glide between your hands freely, don’t hold them too tightly as you can cause it injuries like bruising and hold it as you would feel comfortable.
Sexing your rat snake
Some breeders and experienced keepers can tell the snakes sex by tail length or popping the tails when they are a few days old or more but this should only be carried out by experienced keepers or reptile vets because in the wrong hands or done after that period you risk harming your snake and damaging the hermiphene in male snakes but the almost 100% way to definitely sex your snake is probing, this also should only be carried out by experienced keepers or reptile vets as again can cause serious injury or damage which ultimately could kill your snake in which involves a blunt steel rod being inserted into the cloaca/vent of your snake and depending how many sub caudal scales it goes up will determine the sex of your snake
Linear Mode
