Skip to main content

Keeping and Breeding Oreocryptophis porphyraceus coxi (Thai red mountain ratsnake)





I have been keeping and breeding Oreocryptophis porphyraceus coxi for several years now. It is often listed as the Thai red mountain ratsnake or the Thai Bamboo ratsnake. This is one of the easiest species of snake to keep and breed provided you have an air conditioned house. They have great colors and are very hardy snakes but they really are heat sensitive and probably shouldn't be kept by people looking for a shoulder pet.

I keep mine in 28 quart tubs in a rack without any supplemental heat. The colubrid room they stay in is between 75-78F year round. At these temperatures they will digest food without any additional heat. If you have an especially cold house, you may want to use some backheat to create a small spot in the upper 70s. Although I've never kept them warm enough to find out, it is reported that they may die if the temperature bumps into the 80s. I can confidently say they will do fine in the 70s. I use cypress as a substrate and keep the back half of the tub more moist than the front so they can pick where they feel most comfortable and place a hide on each end. A 16 ounce deli cup placed into a 4" PVC coupler is provided for water.

In the middle of Winter, I stop feeding them for two weeks. I then move them into my basement where temperatures are in the 50s. At these temperatures, the snakes do not move much. After 3-4 weeks, I return them to their enclosures and breeding will begin soon after the warmup. I feed them heavily and they always multiclutch. No egg box is needed, the eggs do fine on cypress until I find them. I transfer the eggs to a 1:1 water/vermiculite substrate in an egg box and incubate them in the upper 70s. The young will sometimes take f/t small pinkie mice but it is not uncommon for me to need live pinks in the beginning.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dubia versus red runner roaches

With the rise of roaches as feeders, it can be confusing to know which roach species is best for your situation. Should you use dubia roaches or turkistan roaches? The species I am discussing here are Blatta lateralis and Blaptica dubia.   Will roaches infest your house? The first and most common question I get on these roaches is of course whether or not they will invest one's home. Unless your house is hot and covered in rotting food, I do not think the dubia roach poses any risk of infestation. Their life cycles are too long, they breed too slowly, and they are too poor at escaping to ever establish any kind of a infestation in a normal household. The Turkistan roach poses more of a question. They breed much faster, grow faster, and if there are places that they can get food and moisture, there is a chance they could infest your home. My gut instinct is that they also will not infest the average home but if your house is not kept clean, the odds probably go up that egg case...

Keeping and Breeding Central American Banded Geckos (Coleonyx mitratus)

The Central American Banded geckos is a very fun species to keep. They are not a species for someone looking for a pet to handle, but they are ideal for someone looking for low maintenance pet where you can leave the weekend without worry or need for a pet sitter. They are very colorful lizards, although they do hide a fair amount. However, I enjoy seeing them come out and catch insects from time to time and of course there is some interaction during cleaning.  They also do not need a lot of space, a 10 or 20 gallon tank will work just fine for a single individual or a pair. I keep the breeding adults in 17x13 inch storage boxes with lots of ventilation holes drilled into them. I would not recommend anything smaller than this because you need room for a water bowl, a moist hide box, and a dry hide box, a cool side, and a warm side. I keep these geckos in a dedicated reptile room so ambient temperatures are in the mid to upper 70s and I provide them with a 3" section of h...





Welcome to my blog, I have been keeping, breeding, and field herping for many years. I also like to donate to worthy conservation and reptile keeping organizations. Throughout this blog, I have linked to high quality products. Using these links costs you nothing extra and helps support my efforts to create content, review products, and donate. Your support is sincerely appreciated!

Please note: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.