LA
You gotta admit this guy is cute. Oddly enough, they grow wild in
Iowa.
Appeal.
Beautiful bright green adult green snakes look sharp.
We’ve loved these guys since we
saw one for the first time while seining for dace in Alabama. They’re easy to care for
and inexpensive. Snakes are
easy to keep. Rough-scaled
green snakes are possibly the easiest. We stopped carrying them a
couple years ago because they arrived with little blisters on them.
LA
Green snakes are very long and very skinny.
Origin.
We’ve never seen a green snake
locally, however several populations exist in Iowa. Think of green snakes as the anole of the snake family.
They’re nearly as common as our local garter snakes in the
Eastern U.S.
– especially in the southern states.
LA
Captive-bred baby green snakes.
Food.
Crickets, crickets, crickets.
However, you need to dust the little chirpers with powdered calcium
and vitamins at least once per week. Feed
your crickets a nutritious food also.
Green snakes will eat every day but every other day works fine
also. And it’s always a good
idea to give them other soft bugs for variety.
As tasty as crickets are, you still need a little variety in your
green snake’s lunch bucket -- flies, mealworms, wax worms or whatever crawls across your
floor. Green snakes really love house flies.
Free Food.
Get your chop sticks out and catch some house flies for your green
snake.
Of course, you’ll need to remove one wing, so they can catch
them. (Green anole keepers
know how to do this.) Flies make an excellent supplement to their regular menu.
(And you will be benefiting all mankind every time you feed your
snake.)
Baby Food.
Adult green snakes eat crickets, so naturally, the baby green
snakes eat smaller crickets – often called the pinhead size.
These can be hard to find – another reason to catch flies for
them.
LA
Green snake having a sip from the local water hole.
Water.
Green snakes need high humidity.
A large water bowl with a bubbling airstone works fine.
They don’t loaf in it like the larger snakes, but they will drink
it and do need the extra humidity. Or
mist them daily. Or build a
little water fall. A layer of
mossy substrate will help hold extra moisture.
LA
Green snakes need a water bowl and an occasional misting.
Dehydration.
Probably the biggest threat to green snakes is drying out.
They suffer from lack of moisture very fast.
Therefore, play it safe and mist these guys daily.
Too Much
Water. Careful on the humidity. Too much water in the
substrate seems to cause green snakes to develop little blisters.
Are these blisters fatal? The jury is still out.
LA
L-o-n-g and green bug-eating machines.
Good
Climbers. Green snakes
live in the grass, in the bushes, and in the trees.
These skinny little guys are amazingly strong and quite active.
When you hold them, they will sometimes extend 2/3 of their body.
They need sticks, twigs, and vines to climb on and among.
Tip #1:
If you use green vines, you will never see your green snake again. They
blend right in. Use those weird colored vines or white vines.
Tip #2:
Make sure you have a secure cage top that will hold in these
pencil-thin varmints. (Get out
your roll of duct tape, if necessary.)
Lighting.
Sure, green snakes would prefer a full-spectrum light.
However, it’s hard to justify a light that costs much more than the
critter. For this reason, they
work better in a communal terrarium, where you’re keeping several
critters and can thus justify the cost.
Good
Mixers. Since these guys
only prey on insects, you can mix them in a terrarium with other
insectivores such as:
· Green Anoles,
· Long-Tail
Grass Skinks,
·
Small American Toads,
· Red-Bellied Toads,
· Eastern Newts,
· Red-Bellied Newts,
· House Geckos, and
· Green Tree Frogs.
You could also mix them with salamanders (which
could eat some of these other critters). Your green snake will
occupy the top floor. Your salamander will reside in the basement.
LA
Newly arrived green snakes ready for release.
Other
Comments. On the average,
most kids should not have a green snake.
Green snakes prefer less handling than many of the larger snakes.
Handling won’t hurt them, but rough handling will.
LA.
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