My friend's new snake! :D

[Zephyr]

We picked this little it up at the plots. It was in some crotchety old people's plots who swore that "there are no snakes under our boards!" I noticed a lot of snake habitat is being converted to garden. The snakes seem to be relocating in the vicinity: I'm finding them near the raspberry bushes and around structures as opposed to hiding under ground cover.
Anyways, here it is, I'm thinking female and possibly gravid:
http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/6631/img0544da4.jpg

http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/8567/img0546kc2.jpg

I'm watching her for the night while he preps the tank. :P

[Zephyr]

BTW, this is the "iron salmon" color morph. There are... I think... 4:
Light cinnamon, Iron salmon, Red, and Brown.

[person365]

yes here i am
this is my first snake after i had a mom that wont get me one or let me have one fortunately i have a dad that does not mind it and he said yes and she was just about to eat but i disturbed her while going to my computer
so she noticed me

[anji1971]

What a cutie!!
............I miss Stitch..........:(

[Sid]

Nice little snake, Kyle.

[Snake lover 3-25]

awwww it's very cute..... and i agree with you on the posibility of her being gravid...... but aren't their babies small enough to curl up on a finger nail when born??????? what would you feed them????? how would you make sure that they wouldn't excape?????

[adamanteus]

Do you think a gravid snake, especially one which will have such tiny babies with such a difficult diet, is a good choice as a first snake?

[drache]

what a pretty little snake
I'm assuming Kyle will help with the babies
and Kyle has experience with tiny critters that climb

[Zephyr]

Indeed. Johnny has agreed to "hand over" the babies to me if there are any. I plan on mincing up worm parts for them (With vitamin supplements :P) and then giving them back to Johnny when they can take larger, more manageable prey.

[drache]

that sounds like a great arrangement

[jeanette]

its beautiful.....what species is this and what family does it come from? :)

[adamanteus]

It is a Brown Snake or Dekays Snake, Storeria dekayii.

[jeanette]

Thanks james, hey are amazing little things. They give birth to live young i take it?
what is their diet in the wild?

[adamanteus]

Yes, they're live bearers. They eat earthworms and slugs.

[jeanette]

Thanks again :)Take it they are unavailable over here?

[adamanteus]

No, you can get them occasionally. I've had them (and bred them) in the past.

[jeanette]

That is pretty cool :) may think about looking for a pair sometime in the future :)

[Lori P]

Nice little snake, Kyle. I really like the color!

[person365]

she does not appear to eat
odd

[Zephyr]

she does not appear to eat
oddJohnny, Abby (My dekay's) just went off food and is about to shed. Our females may be getting ready to "Dump their loads." :P

[infernalis]

Oh I could go on for hours with this one:)

The first snake to ever bring a tear to my eyes was a little DK we named "speedy" (this little guy was a squirmy quick little dude, I miss him)

We put Speedy in with Xena, my beautiful (my opinion anyways, I'm partial) red "phase" female, they bred, and suddenly Speedy quit eating. One night I came home and found him dead:( (That same night just before I got home, I saw my friends wife, and she had told me he passed away of a heart attack, so I was already maudlin over that)

Well, last year Xena had a big litter of baby "Speedy's" Wow my first ever breeding experience! and suddenly his time with us took on a whole new meaning.

All of the babies were raised to sub adult status, and then all but one released, forever ensuring Speedy's genes will carry on out back.

Then the kids brought home another, we named "it" Hercules only to have HER deliver a bunch of healthy babies also. So I re-named her "Athena" (I'm a big BSG fan)

Last winter I stocked a huge chest with moist compost and dumped a ton of garden slugs into it, added lots of green veggies (My friend has a restaurant, so salad bar leftovers are free) and spent all winter "farming" slugs.

I commonly find TINY baby earthworms under rocks, so they ate real well.

They may be small snakes, but they have a cool "personality" and I will always keep at least a few around.

Xena has been here almost 3 years, and I know I'll be a mess when she passes.

http://www.reformedsniper.net/snake/xena1.jpg

http://www.reformedsniper.net/shed.jpg

http://www.reformedsniper.net/snakes/images/babies.jpg

Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey

[adamanteus]

Nice story, Wayne. I love Dekays too.:)

[anji1971]

Me too! I've only had one, and I really miss the little guy. I keep looking under rocks and tree branches when I'm out, but I've yet to see one........

[Jenlang_79]

I have seen a few of them in the wild but I have yet to own one!! A big rubbermaid container is a great place to keep baby snakes..they can't escape as easily. Very pretty snake...but I guess I say that about every snake I see..LOL!! That is a very sad story dekaybrown with a pretty cool ending!!!