Grass Snake (natrix natrix)

[Gene0514]

Hi everyone
Haven't been on in a while. My garter is doing great.
Today I attended the hamburg reptile expo in Pennsylvania. And when I was there, I noticed someone selling European grass snakes. Being from Russia originally, I've heard that they are like the most common snake there. I did read up on them before, so I decided to get one. I asked the vendor where he got them from, and he said he had them shipped from germany. They were being sold for only $10.

So here it is. Looking at the tail, i think its a female, but i'm not sure how accurate that is in snakes that young.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t171/Gene0514/IMAG1767.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t171/Gene0514/IMAG1769.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t171/Gene0514/IMAG1770.jpg

Does anyone have any experience with this species?

[guidofatherof5]

Beautiful snake.

[Gene0514]

Thanks!

[katach]

I love the natrix! I thought they were protected though? Beautiful anyway though!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I scored 8 of these little beauties today. it was like the best show ever for me! Because of these natrix I thought I would never find them for sale in the US again!!! They are actually quite difficult to pop/sex as babies, I got a quantity to ensure mixed sexes and I cherry picked some reaaaalllly nice ones!!! I will not be keeping them all permanently, but I had to grab a bunch to ensure success. They are very easy snakes to work with, I have worked/ already work with natrix, they will eat anything! Keep them exactly like a garter. They have the same personality, curious, always hungry, semi aquatic and even a little mischievous! Btw, they are cb 2011 German imports.

[chris-uk]

Natrix natrix helvetica is protected in the UK. Not sure about other European subspecies in other countries. However, the protection it has isnt so tight that it cant be kept in captivity, you need to be licensed to trade them, but no license required to own one.
You don't see many of them in the wild nowdays.I would feel jealous, if I wasnt seriously condidering adding a San Fran to our menagerie. I love the colouring of the grass snake, understated and pretty.

[Thamnophis]

In the Netherlands keeping (or disturbing) the Grass snake is forbidden. In Germany you can keep them when you have some kind of prove that it was born in captivity.
I took care of some during a few years in a reptile zoo and I can only say that taking care of them in captivity is not different than the general care of Thamnophis. They ate fish (smelt and filet), but also chickenparts from the tweezers. They are shy in the beginning, but settle down after a while. And I am speaking about wild caught specimen. So captive born specimen will do even better, I presume.
I let them hibernate during three to four months. They stopped eating by them self when it became colder.
I really would like to keep some at home, but that is not possible in the Netherlands :mad:

[PINJOHN]

i kept grassnakes during the sixty's and later, at that time they could be caught legally in Britain and i got some from north wales but found them very difficult to acclimatize which fits with the reputation for the British sub species, however at that time and for many years after the pet shops were filled with the Italian sub species which was a doddle to get used to captivity, so most of my experience was with the Italian type, i did get my hands on eight Russian grassnakes about twenty years ago maybe a little less [the memory isn't what it was] and three of them were melenistic.
from what i could find out at the time, this was a not an uncommon trait from certain parts of Russia [this was pre internet so information was hard won at this time], keeping grassnakes and some tessellater lead me into garters as they became available.

[infernalis]

I have always wanted one....

[d_virginiana]

Beautiful snake! I want one now... :p

[thamneil]

Last year our school offered a German Exchange. Being me, my biggest objective was to capture a wild grass snake. Towards the end of the trip, we visited some sort of thermal springs (full of naked old people!!! yuck!) and I actually managed to find one hiding under a boardwalk. She was approximately 4 feet long and missing a few inches of tail. What a giant. They are so garter like in their ways. It was like I was just handling a big sirtalis for half an hour! Anyways... we let this monster go back to her smelly puddle and I left feeling very satisfied with my trip. These are such a cool species. If they were available in Canada I would definately have a few :)

[RedSidedSPR]

Those are so cool I want!!!

[Gene0514]

Hey aSnakeLovinBabe (http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/members/asnakelovinbabe.html)
Have you fed yours yet?
I haven't been able to get mine to try pinky parts or fish fillet. So today I got it some feeder fish. The store stopped selling feeder mosquitofish so I had to go for the more expensive blue danios. No minnows or goldfish for him! Is it possible to get them to eat fish fillet, worms or rodent?

[johnc79@hotmail.com]

These are awesome snakes, I'm surpised you have them over there so its cool to see. Its only fair as we have your garters :-) If your having trouble feeding them what worked for me was a live fish in a bowl with a couple of defrosted pinkys. They would be atracted to the live fish but end up taking the pinkys. Yours is the sub species Natrix natrix natrix. I keep natrix natrix persa and natrix natrix schweizeri. Our Brittish natrix natrix helvetica seem more programed to eat amphibians than the other sub species and are not good captives. I'll look forward to hearing how you get on with these. You won't be disapointed!:)

[Gene0514]

Thanks everyone!
Here are some feeding pics from today
The little one already shed and this was its second feeding.
This time its eating a mosquitofish. I'm gonna try my hand at breeding them so i have a cheap healthy food source available for it at least until I can switch it to worms or pinkie parts.
These are cell phone pics though so not the best quality. I'll use a standalone camera next time.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t171/Gene0514/IMAG1823.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t171/Gene0514/IMAG1825.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t171/Gene0514/IMAG1826.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t171/Gene0514/IMAG1828.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t171/Gene0514/IMAG1830.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t171/Gene0514/IMAG1832.jpg

[guidofatherof5]

If your mosquitofish is Gambusia I have heard they breed better then guppies.

[d_virginiana]

Aww, cute snake. Also, those are really high quality for cell phone pics!
Breeding your own fish is a really good idea, especially since live feeders can get sort of pricey. If you get that started, you should put up a thread about it! I'd be interested to see your setup and how it works. This summer I'm moving away from the store that has been our cheap minnow-supply (not rosy reds, the silver ones) for the past 11 years, and I'm not sure if Houdini would ever forgive me if I stopped giving him live fish.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I see you took my advice and she looks quite happy!!! All 7 of mine are doing excellent on the same diet! Little beggars are wonderful and gorgeous! And each one is different, one is very heavily checkered... another is really pale/hypo, and another has DARK orange on his neck and very contrasty face markings... I love my natrix!!! I did get 8 of these guys but one was "not all there" and it passed away two days after I got them home. I have not sexed mine yet, for the time being I am just feeding them and beefing them up and getting a feel for them. The flopping of a little fish drives natrix CRAZY... almost more-so than garter snakes it seems! They cannot resist it one bit! Soon she will be smushing her little face on the glass every time she sees you. My yearling male does that... :)

[katach]

They are so cool!!

[johnc79@hotmail.com]

If your mosquitofish is Gambusia I have heard they breed better then guppies.


I was going to breed guppys but now you have said that I will look into those. Thanks for the tip :)

[guidofatherof5]

If your mosquitofish is Gambusia I have heard they breed better then guppies.



I was going to breed guppys but now you have said that I will look into those. Thanks for the tip :)

Guppies are still very easy to raise.;) Both are a good call.

[PINJOHN]

your mention of mosquito fish reminds me of holidays past, while the kids were growing up we used to take our vacations in the same place in Spain each year, Estartit, this place had a large marsh into which i would disappear for hours at a time the place teemed with these fish and i would sit quietly watching the young viperine snakes [natrix maura] hunting them i even brought some home and kept them for a number of years before stopping them breeding and letting them die out.
it never occurred to me that i might be breaking any laws [not sure that i did even now] we used to travel overland [not fly] so transport wasn't a problem and i never hid them at the custom point, one thing that puzzles me is that i was told back then that these fish were spread around the then known world by the ancient Romans to combat mosquito's but if they are a new world fish then this can not be true any ideas?

[guidofatherof5]

Gumbusia are a real problem in many places. They were initially stocked in lakes to combat mosquotes.
It was originally thought they would die out due to colder weather but the fish were much hardy/adaptive then they though.
Now they are killing out native species of fish(the fry) and are considered very invasive.

[Sergey]

I keep and breed Natrix natrix. I love the Grass snakes :)

[Char361979]

Natrix are great snakes. I think if we ever achieve Chris' dream of a snake room, there may be a corner reserved for some of those little guys.