Thread: House Snake Care

hey folks, this is the extended version of my housie care sheet.


Cape, Striped, Brown & Dotted House Snake Care.
(Lamprophis capensis, lineatus, fuliginosus & maculatus respectively.)

Lamprophis lineatus.


Lamprophis capensis

Identification.
Ok, so the species which this care guide is for are commonly mislabelled, and hopefully I can help to clarify which is which here.

Lamprophis fuliginosus - "True" Brown House Snakes are often brown in colour with "mother-of-pearl" underbelly & a strong iridescence on the upper side, the similar House Snakes all have a "V-Shaped" pair of stripes stretching from the tip of the nose to the back of the head, Brown House Snakes either don't have these or they are very faint and often fade around the nostrils, never meeting the mouth. So far, I am yet to see a Brown House Snake with any body pattern, so I can only conclude that this is a naturally patternless species.

Lamprophis capensis - Cape House Snakes are often labelled L. fuliginosus & are instead far more readily available than the browns. Cape House Snakes are usually brown on top with the "mother-of-pearl" underbelly. The stripes that stretch from the nose to the back of the head are very strong & bold. Often this species may have a lateral stripe running down the sides of the body, this often resembles the links of a chain, they sometimes too have lateral stripes running along the spine from the back of the head, linking lines & loops from the 2 sets of stripes vary & often they present with an unusual mass of "messy" loops all over, these markings tend to be a paler brown/cream colour on top of the often dark, chocolate-brown base colour, these fade after 2/3 of the body until only the base colour remains, there is also a patternless form which is often lighter in colour but does still have the bold stripes (I mention them as they are also commonly sold as normals.)

Lamprophis lineatus - "True" Striped House Snakes are less labelled as Browns than they are labelled their own Latin name, but nonetheless, it happens and it should be noted. These snakes are naturally striped laterally down the length of the body, unlike the capensis, they do not fade after 2/3 of the body, the stripe is bold & solid white/cream in colour. The stripes from the nose through the eye to the back of the head are very bold, more-so often than in the Capes, it isn't uncommon for these stripes not to break and instead to run straight on to the body-stripes. Young snakes often don't have thick, bold stripes but instead broken, "rugged" stripes.
Naturally highly variable, the base colour can be almost orange right through to deep black with again the "mother-of-pearl" underbelly. These present with "bug-eyes", very pronounced "bulgey" eyes, visually dis-similar to the afore-mentioned animals.

Lamprophis mentalis - Bug-Eyed House Snakes are similar in body colour to the fuliginosus, only lighter, again with "mother-of-pearl" underbelly - they are more likely to be called "hypos." The Hatchlings are often pink/brown in colour, they have no body pattern as with the browns. The head stripes are bold & almost yellow in colour, the eyes are similar to that of the L. lineatus but more extreme, hence their names.

Lamprophis maculatus - Dotted House Snakes are not too visually different to the Capes, Dotted House Snakes tend to be slighter in build to the Capes never getting nearly as bulky (unless overfed.) Similarly, Dotteds tend to have long, thin heads with almost a "rectangular" shape to them when viewed from above. The head stripes tend to be bolder behind the eye than in front of the eye where they fade and can become difficult to see where they join at the snout, whereas Capes tend to remain very bold in their pattern. It has been noted that whilst the stripe in Capes breaks at the back of the head, Dotteds stripe seems often to continue through onto the body unbroken - as yet no clear definitive way of telling the 2 apart has been declared.

Care.

Vivarium.
House Snakes, being of such a manageable size can be housed quite happily in a vivarium of 2 ft x 1ft in size as a bare minimum. There is a great variety in the types of vivarium (viv hereafter) that can be used, various companies make wooden vivs with front opening glass doors, I find these to be ideal for house snakes, 3 sides being darkened out helps the snake to feel at ease. There are glass vivs also, these are easier to heat than wooden vivariums I find, but having all 4 sides as glass may stress the snake, especially in high-traffic areas of the home. Either type of viv is perfectly fine for a House snake though. Housies also adapt to being housed in tubs very well, I personally keep all of mine in tubs in a racking system, 50-84L Really Useful Boxes make great, well-sized homes for adult House Snakes.

Substrate & D?cor.
The substrate can be a fibrous material or can be newspaper/reptile carpet etc. Should you choose to use fibrous substrates, there should be around 1 inch of the chosen substrate in the enclosure, I suggest aspen bedding, I have found that house snakes will often burrow in their enclosures if given the opportunity. Newspaper is also a very good substrate, particularly during the quarantine period - you can go to a local printing factory and purchase rolls of unprinted newspaper or you can also use regular newspaper, but due to the ink it is better to allow the newspaper to dry for around 2 weeks prior to being used as a substrate. A hide should be provided on the warm end of the enclosure, this should be large enough that the snake has ample room to fit in, but not too large that it cannot feel comfortable - a good way to judge the ideal size is that the snake should be able to lie in the hide and be able to touch at least 2 sides of the hide whilst coiled, I have found that the Exo-terra range of snake caves work very well for House Snakes of varying sizes. A moist hide is a necessity, this should be on the cool end of the enclosure, I use a 2 litre ice cream tub that has been emptied and cleaned, a 2 inch hole is cut into the lid of the tub & it is then half-filled with moist sphagnum moss, fertiliser & pesticide free top-soil or Vermiculite. There are hides manufactured that are visually more naturalistic for the likes of a display vivarium. Moist hides are extremely beneficial providing the high humidity that aids in the shedding of the skin, gravid female House Snakes will also lay their eggs there. A water dish should be provided, this should be cleaned on a daily basis - all water should be treated with a nitrate neutralising substance, these should be purchased from pet stores, Wild Caught/Captive Farmed & newly purchased specimens should be given an electrolyte supplement in their water, this helps to keep them hydrated & settle them into captivity. Non-feeding Snakes can also benefit from electrolytes as they help to increase appee - always use the guidelines stated by the manufacturer! Foliage in the form of a plastic plant can be provided, house snakes will clamber over them & hide under them & it is beneficial for giving them something to do & regularly moving things helps the snakes not to become lazy by having things to slither around and discover - some foliage is also visually pleasing to whoever is looking. A branch or some rocks should be provided for climbing & to aid shedding, these can be purchased from pet stores or collected from outdoors, drift wood makes an excellent attraction, all items for the vivarium that are collected outdoors should be boiled thoroughly or heated to at least 120C in an oven, this kills any mites/bacteria that are in/on the particular item. Any rocks or branches etc should be held in place firmly & safely - ensure there is no way that the snake can get crushed by falling/moving d?cor.

Heating & Lighting.
House snakes require a basking area of 30oC & a cool side of 20-25oC should be provided, we do this by having a "hot side" & a "cool side", this is done by having the heating equipment on only one side of the vivarium & allowing the gradient to fall to room-temperature on the other end of the vivarium. Heating can be provided by a heat mat, for wooden vivariums the heat mat should be on the inside attached to the wall of the floor beneath the substrate, for glass vivs/tubs they should ideally be on the outside of the tub underneath the "hot spot" - the tubs & vivs should be raised up from the heat mat slightly to allow air-flow beneath the viv, (this helps to stop over-heating & the subsequent cracking/warping of the enclosure.) The heat mat should be thermostatically controlled to ensure that they do not get over 30oC. Never use hot rocks for snakes, they often wrap themselves around them and can get badly burnt. You can also heat your house snakes vivarium with a heat lamp, ensure this too is controlled with a stat to heat only to 30oC - should you choose to use this ensure that the snake cannot get close enough to it to wrap itself around it and get a burn - this can be done by using a bulb-guard which are available from most good reptile stockists. House Snakes are a nocturnal species, however some daylight excursions are not uncommon. A photoperiod of 12 hours of daylight & 12 hours of night is easily achieved if the vivarium with which they are housed is situated in a room which is lit by natural sunlight - never put the viv where it is hit by direct sunlight, this can cause it to overheat, subsequently killing the snake. No UV radiation is required by this species & it is not suggested you provide them with any UV lighting.

Heres a video on setting up a basic House Snake Tub.


Feeding.
These Snakes are known for not being fussy at all, they eat most things given to them - although this is an upside it is also a downside since these snakes rarely refuse food, keepers tend to accidentally overfeed and obesity can occur, this in turn can cause infertility & serious health risks - not to mention a lot of trouble trying to get a snake to lose weight. Male House snakes may not feed very often, one feed to every 3 a female may take seems to be the norm, in my experience females only refuse food in the late stages of the gestation period or when they are ill. Due to having such a strong feeding response it is recommended you feed separately & with long feeding tongs - they don't get the mouse every time! They should be offered a food item once a week, the food item offered should be large enough to make a bump in the thickest part of the snakes? body. Don't test how large a food item the snake can fit down there, this can cause various complications & likely, the snakes eventual death.

Handling.
House snakes are fantastic snakes they rarely show aggression - as youngsters though they can be a little nippy - but this is very rare, out of the 70 or so I hatched in 2008 only 2 were aggressive, they tamed down very quickly. Don?t get too comfortable with a young house snake - they are very fast and in a sudden fright they can take off with great haste - and when something not much bigger than a worm is squirming around on the floor, it is a fair challenge to capture them again. When House Snakes smell food they go into a "feeding frenzy" and anything that moves can and will be bitten - a feeding bite is the worst bite you could take as the snake will bite, hold on and wrap itself around you & constrict - it can be very difficult to get the snake to let go. CF/WC animals are said to be much more interested in fleeing from you as opposed to biting, however having kept a wild caught Striped House Snake I can tell you that biting is not uncommon! House snakes are not venomous at all and don't have particularly large teeth so all you are likely to experience if you are bitten is slight bloodshed.

Breeding.
Breeding these snakes is not a particularly difficult job to do, all you really need is a male and a female!
Males should be at least 100 grams before breeding and females at least 300 grams. Introduce the male to the females? enclosure, shortly you?ll see the male ?twitch? alongside the females? side, if she?s responsive then he will align himself to insert his hemipenes and they shall mate.
A month later the female will start to swell in the bottom half of her body, this is the eggs forming, a moist egg laying box with substrate of sphagnum moss or chemical free compost should be provided. The female after around 53 days will go into shed, this is her pre-lay shed, 7-10 days after completing this pre-lay shed the female will lay her eggs. After the pre-lay shed you may also wish to remove the water dish and replace it with a smaller, shallow dish as house snakes often lay eggs in their water bowls. The eggs may be between 5 & 20 in number (usually between 10 & 15), these should be removed and incubated at 80-85oF - humidity should be around 70%, humidity problems seem to occur commonly, this presents as the eggs beginning to dent & cave in, the best way I have found to solve this problem is to cover the eggs with a moist sphagnum moss - you should never allow standing water to touch the surface of the eggs, this causes the embryo within to drown & die. If all goes well, it will be roughly 60-80 days before eggs should hatch. It is reported that House Snake eggs can hatch at temperatures of 90oF. Females from this species tend to store sperm & shall lay up to 6 clutches a year from just one mating! Remove hatchlings from the incubator & raise individually, hatchlings should be offered pinkie mouse a few days after their first shed - in my experience, sadly, juveniles don't quite have the feeding response of the adults, there are several methods that can be used to get them feeding:
? Dipping Pinkies in Tuna Brine.
? Scent the pinkies on rats or chicks.
? Remove their water for 1-2 days and offer a pinkie that is saturated with water.
? Freshly killed pinkies.
? Brained pinkies.
? Pinkies coated in rat-blood.
? Force feeding.
? Live feeding on small pinks.
? Multimammate Mice (African Soft Furred Rats) are also a good start.


any further questions please do email me on:
erikpaterson@uwclub.net or pm/ask on this thread.
thanks
Erik