Snyderman
Libertarian
I always research animals before I purchase them. Milk snakes are pretty but I don't want to own a snake that musks regularly. So when my son was old enough to have a pet snake... a corn snake was the obvious choice. We own two now.
For something different we purchased a crested gecko. We liked this personable gecko so much that I went a little nuts and now care for ten of them.
I told my son we would pick up a new animal at the special Tinley Park show. Chameleons were discussed but Danny likes to handle his pets and I didn't think he was patient enough to "train" a chamelion. I was thinking another corn, rosie boa or sand boa.
Then we saw the bamboo rat snakes. Very cool looking snakes. I liked the Chinese. Danny liked the Thai, but I had not come prepared to pay $600 for a pair of snakes. $200 was about my limit. So he chose a male Broad banded bamboo rat snake from Malaysia; aka Oreocrypthophis porphyracea laticincta; aka Red mountain racer. I asked the seller what the snake required. He said moderate temps and higher humidity. I asked if the snake was aggressive. He said that he had never been bitten. So we came home with a new snake.
I immediately began trying to find info about our new snake online and discovered that there is not much info out there. I then came here to my favorite snake forum and became a bit concerned as I read about the attitude that many Asian Rats possess. Finding Dave123's thread about his Thai Bamboo alieved my fears some. http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64192&highlight=thai+bamboo
We chose the broad banded bamboo because of his pretty orange and red bands. Ironically, the orange bands will all turn red when he matures. So far he has not been aggressive. He did bite my son(1st snake bite ever), but that was because of handling errors. A bit more handling skills are required for this guy than for our corns. GilianC's post about the yellow rat snake(a few down from this post) reminds me of our guy. Calm...calm...super flighty...calm...calm...jumping out your hands...calm... I now regret not purchasing the Thai pair. Depending how my experience with the Chinese goes, they may be in my future. I will posts pictures soon.
Question for those of you experienced with similiar rats. How do you handle the humidity. I have read that some people do a sphagnum / coconut fiber mixture substrate with half the tank moist and half the tank dry. I currently just have paper towel with two dry and one moist(sphagnum) hides. Do I need to worry about scale rot? Thanks for any help that you can offer. I am always amazed by the knowledge of the regulars here.
Thanks again, Tim & Danny
For something different we purchased a crested gecko. We liked this personable gecko so much that I went a little nuts and now care for ten of them.
I told my son we would pick up a new animal at the special Tinley Park show. Chameleons were discussed but Danny likes to handle his pets and I didn't think he was patient enough to "train" a chamelion. I was thinking another corn, rosie boa or sand boa.
Then we saw the bamboo rat snakes. Very cool looking snakes. I liked the Chinese. Danny liked the Thai, but I had not come prepared to pay $600 for a pair of snakes. $200 was about my limit. So he chose a male Broad banded bamboo rat snake from Malaysia; aka Oreocrypthophis porphyracea laticincta; aka Red mountain racer. I asked the seller what the snake required. He said moderate temps and higher humidity. I asked if the snake was aggressive. He said that he had never been bitten. So we came home with a new snake.
I immediately began trying to find info about our new snake online and discovered that there is not much info out there. I then came here to my favorite snake forum and became a bit concerned as I read about the attitude that many Asian Rats possess. Finding Dave123's thread about his Thai Bamboo alieved my fears some. http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64192&highlight=thai+bamboo
We chose the broad banded bamboo because of his pretty orange and red bands. Ironically, the orange bands will all turn red when he matures. So far he has not been aggressive. He did bite my son(1st snake bite ever), but that was because of handling errors. A bit more handling skills are required for this guy than for our corns. GilianC's post about the yellow rat snake(a few down from this post) reminds me of our guy. Calm...calm...super flighty...calm...calm...jumping out your hands...calm... I now regret not purchasing the Thai pair. Depending how my experience with the Chinese goes, they may be in my future. I will posts pictures soon.
Question for those of you experienced with similiar rats. How do you handle the humidity. I have read that some people do a sphagnum / coconut fiber mixture substrate with half the tank moist and half the tank dry. I currently just have paper towel with two dry and one moist(sphagnum) hides. Do I need to worry about scale rot? Thanks for any help that you can offer. I am always amazed by the knowledge of the regulars here.
Thanks again, Tim & Danny
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