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Care
Experience: Average snake keeper
Food: Live or dead prey. Primary prey animals are small mice ..
Adult feeding: every 5 to 7 days
Feeding young: Every 3 to 5 days
Water basin: Yes
Change water: 2-3 times a week
Nutrition
There is a choice to offer prey alive or dead. It is advisable to offer dead food. This is because it is more practical and prevents the food animal from injuring your snake. Thereby it is advised to offer the food animal with a pair of tongs and to feed your snake outside the residence. This ensures that your hand is not associated with food and prevents you from taking a snake at your hand during feeding. If you go for live food, you must supervise it during feeding. The prey can also injure the snake. Feed the orange rat snake separately, because if two snakes have the same prey suits they can injure each other and sometimes even eat each other. The ideal prey is about as wide as the widest part of the snake.
Water
The snakes love to lie in the water and a large water tank should therefore not be missed in the accommodation. The water basin must be large enough for the hose to be able to lie in with its entire body and something larger is appreciated. Because the hose lies in it, the water can get dirty faster, so make sure that the water is refreshed when it is dirty. They also drink that water.
Cleaning
A hygienic environment is important to keep your rat snake healthy. To achieve this, the accommodation will have to be cleaned regularly. Cleaning once a week is enough. In addition, to prevent the build-up of bacteria, the entire stay must be cleaned and disinfected a few times a year.
Handling
From time to time it will happen that you will have to handle your hose (s). If you use a hose it is wise to use a snake hook, if not make sure that you handle your hose quietly in your hand. These hose (s) are easy to handle, despite that there are some things to watch out for when handling. First, never squeeze your hose while handling, because their vertebrae are fragile and can break easily. It is best to keep your hose in your hand. Also make sure that your hands are washed and do not smell like food. Lastly, your hose does not handle when it is peeling and do not handle it in the dark..
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Housing
Minimum size of stay for 1 couple: 100 x 60 x 60 or 100 x 50 x 50
Lying area: 0.5 m2
Day temperature: 22-28C
Night temperature: 17-22C
Hours of light: 10-12 hours
Humidity degree: 40% -60%
Ground cover: Humus or sand (no desert sand)
The snake lives in and along forest edges, grasslands and in cultivated areas. Very diverse.
For the stay there are some extra things to pay attention to. The snake is able to wriggle itself through small cracks. Keep this in mind and make sure that there are no small cracks in the accommodation that fits through. In addition, ventilation is needed to keep the air fresh and it is advisable to set up the stay out of the bright sun and as vibration-free as possible.
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Costs and Purchase
Legislation: This species does not fall under the cites, so a transfer paper is desirable as with the transfer of every animal. With this you can always show where they were purchased in case of questions.
One-off costs: This includes the costs for accommodation, lighting, heating, water bowl and decoration. This can together cost a few hundred euros to a few thousand euros. The final amount depends on the quality and size of the products.
Fixed costs: Fixed costs include the costs for the feed, which is a few tens of euros per year.
Unexpected costs: Costs have been incurred if your hose happens to fall ill or your equipment breaks down.
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