The lesser siren is an interesting amphibian. They have very short limbs, gills, and can endure periods of drought by borrowing into the mud. In fact, the pictures below were taken from a drainage ditch in the Midwest which is quite likely to experience droughts at times. The ditch appeared to contain a significant number of them and I was able to capture some by dipnetting at night with a flashlight for illumination. Please note that the animals were released exactly was found and were only kept, in a plastic container that had never been exposed to soaps or chemicals of any kind, for a few moments.
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...
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