I just wanted to start a bit of discussion on Southern Ringnecks (Diadophis punctatus punctatus). I love these little guys and wonder where their shy and frail reputation comes from. They're tiny and precious, JET black with a red,orange, or yellow ring around their neck and an orange belly with a series of black "half-moons" going down it.

I've kept two wild caught ringnecks for a number of months now. Both will come up and lick my hand if I put it in their tanks and both are hardy eaters. Everything I read and everything others told me said they did horrible in captivity, but I haven't seen the first sign of it. I really wanted to raise one of these little buggers and was almost put off of it by two people who swore to me that they wouldn't last out the month.

I use sphagnum peat moss as a substrate and mist it regularly. Other than that, each one gets a water bowl, a large rock for hiding under/shedding against, and a piece of board (they both dug out home caverns under their boards). For feed, they munch on earthworms and seem to be thriving on them. I very rarely handle them directly, but the first one I caught loves "chasing my finger" on the other side of the glass. He does it every time.. will even come from the far side of his enclosure to put his nose against the glass and move it wherever I move my fingertip to.

Does anyone else have experience with ringnecks? Good or bad? From my experience, they are personable and curious little creatures. I know everyone likes exotics, but I'm surprised you dont see any of them in the pet trade.

It's picture time

CLICK HERE - Ringneck playing chase the finger

CLICK HERE - Isn't he adorable?

Anyways, I look forward to all feedback on these beautiful animals.

Thanks for the pictures, ringnecks have been advertised on craigslist in my area a few times and I didn't know that they were. Ok I though they were some kind of chicken. There was never any information with the post. LOL

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Colleen

They are cute . I dont know anything about them either, lol.

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

I love them! We find them in our yard. Actually, I think they nest in our garage, because I often find tiny, tiny babies (on a daily basis) caught in cobwebs near the floor of the garage in late spring and summer. The babies are SUPER-cute!

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Amy

Those are really cool looking, that is the first I have heard of them being kept, I have seen them in the wild quite a bit, but they do look very fragile.

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“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ (I found it!) but ‘That’s funny…'"
- Isaac Asimov



TKE:TT:118

Wow, so tiny. How big will they get, and how easy are they to keep?

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Smile and the world will think that you are up to something!

Steve

Here's a website with general information about them.

CLICK HERE for ringneck info

Care seems to be pretty easy. A 10 gallon tank with sphagnum moss as a substrateis what I use. Each one gets a water dish, a large chunk of rock (for rubbing against when they want to shed), and a piece of wood for them to hide/make a burrow under. I do mist it daily to prevent the moss from drying out completely, and they also like to drink off the sides of the tank (although they both will drink out of their water bowls as well).

For feed, they get earthworms. A nice side benefit of the moss is that when kept damp, the earthworms can live for a good while and let the snakes do some hunting in their tanks instead of just having all their food waiting in a bowl. They do spend most of their time in hiding, but they're curious creatures that continuously come out and look around to see what's going on. Anyways, if you try to keep one, let me know what you come up with.