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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.

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