Coral snake

[kevin91172]

Hey any one here had experience with keeping Micrurus tener?

A foreman at work brought me one he caught on his property close to where I live.I have did research on them in past and present on keeping them and found they are hard to get them to eat.He has not ate for me yet,I had for 2 weeks now.I tried anoles,and yesterday i took it out and provided him/her a very small w/c gecko.My research tells me they love brown stinks,we have a lot of them but cooler weather I guess got them to burrow deeper in the ground...

Suggestion would be greatly appreciated and the snake does not feed with a couple of weeks i will absolutely set it free,but is a very sweet snake and would like to keep for educational purposes.But my main concern is the welfare of animal.....

 

[Crysta]

I thought coral snakes ate other snakes?

 

[KoffinKat138]

You could try a w/c toad, or even as a last resort get a live pinkie and scent it with what ever lizard you have available. Most likely if it's not going eat now, its probably not going to eat at all with winter coming up. I would just let him go and let him Brumate before it gets too cool and let him reproduce more for next season.

 

[kevin91172]

I thought coral snakes ate other snakes?

Yes I heard they do but can not find any of the brown earth snakes either,before last winter I had 10+ of them in a big terrarium along with geckos,anoles,toads, tree frogs,ect but turned them loose because needed the enclosure for other things and thought it would be great for all these guys be colonized to view in the garden and porch,which some of the anoles still come up and expect me to tong feed them a nymph B.dubia lol! They are just to much!I thought I was crazy saying no,no find your own bugs till I caught my wife doing it and pointing out bugs for them to get,just hilarious

 

[the toe cutter]

I dont know about that particular species, but Easterns M fulvius, do eat smaller snakes, frogs and lizards. As far as husbandry, its much like the captive husbandry of any North American snake. Now these elapids do brumate for the winter months, and it may just be starting to enter that cycle! Micrurus are rather difficult species to maintain in captivity mainly due to stress levels. They are naturally very secretive and rather shy creatures, so captivity of WC specimens often leads to death. I have been herping in the south for over 18yrs and have NEVER seen one in the wild! So it is quite fortunate that you have actually seen one much less been able to keep it! If I were you I would consider releasing it before it gets too chilly down there for him to find a suitable place to cool over the winter. But if you wish to be a bit more daring, try buying or finding some small skinks, coal, 5 lined, brown, small broadhead skinks and small frogs and see which it prefers and attempt that! I believe you could find a few people in Fl that could supply you with some ground skinks and frogs. Try Mark M Lucas or Glades herps! Good luck!

 

[the toe cutter]

Arboreal lizards and tree frogs are not very suitable for a terrestrial snake, simply because they do not come into contact with them often so may not recognize them as prey items.

 

[kevin91172]

You could try a w/c toad, or even as a last resort get a live pinkie and scent it with what ever lizard you have available. Most likely if it's not going eat now, its probably not going to eat at all with winter coming up. I would just let him go and let him Brumate before it gets too cool and let him reproduce more for next season.

I will def take that in consideration,Texas is crazy about weather and from experiences of late confuse animals a lot and flowers I must post pictures of it before I turn loose.I never seen one in the wild after 30 years of herping,so it will be hard to let go,going to hang on to it for another week or 2 and that's it.Had forced feed other things, but this thing has very small mouth and seems very delicate,so will not even attempt

 

[kevin91172]

I dont know about that particular species, but Easterns M fulvius, do eat smaller snakes, frogs and lizards. As far as husbandry, its much like the captive husbandry of any North American snake. Now these elapids do brumate for the winter months, and it may just be starting to enter that cycle! Micrurus are rather difficult species to maintain in captivity mainly due to stress levels. They are naturally very secretive and rather shy creatures, so captivity of WC specimens often leads to death. I have been herping in the south for over 18yrs and have NEVER seen one in the wild! So it is quite fortunate that you have actually seen one much less been able to keep it! If I were you I would consider releasing it before it gets too chilly down there for him to find a suitable place to cool over the winter. But if you wish to be a bit more daring, try buying or finding some small skinks, coal, 5 lined, brown, small broadhead skinks and small frogs and see which it prefers and attempt that! I believe you could find a few people in Fl that could supply you with some ground skinks and frogs. Try Mark M Lucas or Glades herps! Good luck!

I knew I could key you up LOL!! Great advice.If :?it does not eat for me in the next week i will talk to the guy in my area where he got it from and turn it loose in exact location,but yes It feels like I got a trophy for some reason.

Very nice.not a aggressive at all,but real flighty and constantly rubbing nose trying to find an escape,another reason they are not good in captivity,so I shall set it free

 

[kevin91172]

You could try a w/c toad, or even as a last resort get a live pinkie and scent it with what ever lizard you have available. Most likely if it's not going eat now, its probably not going to eat at all with winter coming up. I would just let him go and let him Brumate before it gets too cool and let him reproduce more for next season.

Ya I know the turning it loose will be the hard part but will get some nice pics before I do and put it over mother in laws picture

 

[Alejandro45]

I have managed to keep M fulvius for a while. she was so large that I could hook and tail her!!

I managed to keep her in a 20 long with five inches of peat/sand mix. I would pour water down a pvc pipe into the bottom layers. She was fed ringneck snakes and five lined skinks. I almost never saw her yet i really enjoyed haveing her.

best of luck.

 

[KoffinKat138]

Ya I know the turning it loose will be the hard part but will get some nice pics before I do and put it over mother in laws picture

Yeah I hear you, I recently caught a copperhead and kept him for about a week and decided to let him go. They look great in cages, but even better in the wild.

 

[dtknow]

Yeah-at this time I wouldn't even be worried if it didn't eat. First thing I'd look for would be a cornsnake breeder-maybe they have runts or bum babies they could give to you.

I would keep it if you are up for the challenge of feeding it and doing lots of research. More could be learned than by letting it go.

 

[kevin91172]

Well I would defiantly need a bigger enclosure than what she is in now,and use the depth of substrate of the 5".Now I only have about 1",and the pvc pipe trick seems very clever.

Here are I few pictures my son took of her yesterday from his iphone.

 

[the toe cutter]

You lucky b@$%@*&! Good luck with that little fella

 

[kevin91172]

You lucky b@$%@*&! Good luck with that little fella

HaHa!! Thanks!

 

[Earthworm Soul]

Buy an entire clutch of cornsnakes for like $8 a piece, or breed some corns yourself.

 

[kevin91172]

OK scented pinkies with snake...did not work

Next step TRYING VERY HARD to find some rough earth snakes but weather is being cooperative

 

[Ookamii]

haha, i saw 5 of them yesterday in my back yard, a 2foot female one was sadly killed by my dad.

 

[kevin91172]

haha, i saw 5 of them yesterday in my back yard, a 2foot female one was sadly killed by my dad.

Wow! you are very lucking,been herping since I was knee high to a grass hopper and have not seen one yet in the wild.Glad my buddy who hates snakes, is my buddy and thought I would love this guy/gal

I have been conforming a lot of folks not to kill snakes,and just come get me.
They love watching me wrangle them at a distance.

 

[Terry D]

Heads up.

Kevin, Woah! I took a look at the photos once again and it sunk in the second time- it's been a long time. I'd be very careful keeping it in the sterilite-type enclosure. Micrurus spp can be extreme escape artists. If you have rough earth snake, DeKay's snake, and five-lined skinks (as previously mentioned), they'll often take them. The more fossorial-natured any live reptilian prey offered is, the better it should work. Coral snakes are very rarely seen above ground except during digging operations, after rains etc. The only indiv I've ever found on the surface was near Copenhagen, La. about 15 years ago. It was well over 90 degrees with drought-like conditions and late in the afternoon. It was moving rather quickly through short grass in somewhat open pine woods. It didn't make one bit of sense to me at the time and still doesn't. It was in the middle of nowhere and all I can figure is that it got disturbed/dislodged from it's subterranean lair by a predator, etc. not long before.

Nice texas coral and hope you're successful getting it to feed. Cheers,

Terry

edit-I worked briefly at a nursery near Delray Beach, Fla. We found several M fulvius at different times/dates when walking around the edges of the greenhouses pulling back excess black plastic draped on the ground at the base of the walls. This is the only place I've seen them other than the La. individual- except for the very rare d.o.r. or two