Amel Russian(Amur) Rat snake

**JMM** · #1 10-19-2007, 11:30 AM

Hello, good people !

I´ve chosen my 2nd snake.
I wanted a diurnal, semi-arboreal snake, with a good size and a nice temperament. Of course, it had to be a colubrid to meet Portuguese law (isn´t changing in a long time - if ever -, inspite of the efforts, I guess...).

It´s final enclosure (in an year or so) will be paced in a quiet corner of my living-room, as a display naturalistic terrarium. Probably, something with a (triangular) base of 80x120x144 cms (32"x48"x57,6") and a high of 60 to 80 cms (24" to 32"), creating 2 levels (a kind of "mezannine") to increase ground floor.

After long consideration, I´ve opted for a beautiful amelanistic Russian rat (Elaphe schrenkii schrenkii). I´m buying it from a known Spanish (Barcelona) breeder. The amel russian rat is a new project of that breeder (co-project with a Dutch breeder, actually) and I´m going to be the 1st one in Portugal to keep one (problably, not only Portugal...)

I´m quite excited with this baby.
Allthough I don´t have a picture of my snake, yet... here´s a pic of one of the brothers:

For those of you less familiar with this snake, I enclose a care sheet, by Steve Found, traken from another forum ( as it is quoted, I hope it´s ok to publish it here. If not...please remove)

Quote:

Care of the Russian RatSnake
( Elaphe schrenki)

INTRODUCTION: The Russian rat snake has to be one of the most inquisitive, gentle and personable rat snakes there is and even beat corn snakes for temperament. The snake is also large and heavy bodied with a surprising amount of strength.

FAMILY: Colubridae

NATURAL ORIGINATION: Siberia, Manchuria and NE Korea

SIZE: 6 feet or more

LIFE EXPECTANCY: 20 years or more

A young russian rat owned by Steve Found

HOUSING: This is a large, heavy bodied snake with a surprising amount of strength. Some specimens have been known to reach 8 feet in length, but more usually and adult will be between 6 and 7 feet in length. A suitable sized vivarium for an adult would measure 48x24x24 inches, however higher vivariums with suitable climbing materials would be appreciated by your snake as they love to climb. A water bowl large enough for the snake to bathe in is essential as these snakes love to bathe especially near shedding time, a water bowl for a large dog should be sufficient for an adult snake and this should be changed daily. Usual substrates for snakes can be used such as newspaper, aspen or wood chippings, having substrate in your vivarium will help to absorb urine and faeces which should be removed as soon as they are seen. In a large vivarium like a 48x24x24 inch, I place three hides, one at the warm end of the vivarium, one at the cool end and one in the middle. During the day, these are rarely used as the snake is very diurnal, fearless and inquisitive of its surroundings. Later at night, the hides are used extensively and the snake will choose the hide it feels most comfortable in with regard to temperature. Hatchling Russian rat snakes can be kept in a suitably sized faunarium with a heat mat underneath, a hide, water bowl and kitchen roll substrate for the first year or so of life.

HEATING AND LIGHTING EQUIPMENT: Given their natural origins, it should come as no surprise that these snakes require fairly cool living conditions. The ambient vivarium temperature should be around 75F, I like to have the cool end of the vivarium at 70-72F and the warm end at 80-82F to provide a heat gradient averaging 75F in the middle of the vivarium. I have found that these snakes rarely bask except when shedding when they will bask almost exclusively and rarely move from under the heat source. Because of this behaviour, I use a 60W red glass spot light to provide very localised heat at one point at one end of the vivarium. This is protected with a bulb guard as the snake will quite happily climb over the light attachment. The bulb is monitored with a dimmer thermostat to ensure that temperatures in the vivarium remain constant and do not get too warm. At night, temperatures are dropped to 70-75F throughout the vivarium. Hatchling snakes can be kept in a faunarium with a heat mat underneath. I tend to cover only one third of the faunarium with the heat mat to give a nice temperature gradient. Again, temperatures should be monitored with a thermostat and thermometer.

FEEDING AND DIET: A poorly feeding Russian is a rare animal indeed. They will take pinky mice directly after their first shed and should be on fuzzy mice by the time they reach a year. An adult Russian will readily take small rats and chicken chicks which I give every two months or so as a treat. For their size, these snakes surprisingly rarely take large food items and some will not touch large rats preferring small rats or even a few rat pups as a meal. This is probably due to the fact that they rarely constrict their food even in the wild, instead they throw one coil over the prey to pin it down and eat it live. Smaller food items would obviously be easier to manage. Obviously, in captivity the prey item is already dead but the same behaviour does occur. The snake will strike at the food but will rarely, if ever, constrict it. With the onset of winter, the snake may stop feeding completely and if this happens, it is wise to brumate your snake to stop it losing any weight, see brumation below.

HANDLING: Handling russian rat snakes is rarely a problem. The only times I would not recommend it are when the snake is approaching shedding, when you have been handling food items or for two days after the snake has eaten. In general, once the vivarium door has been opened or the faunarium lid has been removed the snake will be on its way of its own accord and climbing on to your hand. These snakes are fearless, rarely nervous ( unless shedding ) and very personable.

SEXING : The best way to sex Russian rat snakes is by probing. This species tends to have very strong muscles around the opening to the hemipenes and the popping method of sexing hatchlings rarely works with these snakes. One breeder I have come across was convinced he had a clutch of entirely female snakes until he probed them as popping simply did not work. Alternatively, the tail shapes of Russian rat snakes are often distinctive in their tail shapes and males from a clutch are, in general, larger than females from the same clutch and stay larger as they get older. I have also noted some pink colouring on the belly of female russians but am not sure as yet as to whether this is simply a trait of the females I have or the species as a whole.

BRUMATION : This species will not breed successfully without brumation and brumation is also recommended if your snake has stopped eating for the winter. As would be expected for a snake from this region, the temperature should be very cool. I hibernate mine at a temperature of 47F-52F for 3 months although some breeders recommend a period of 5 months. They are generally still active even at these temperatures during brumation although very slowed in movement and I offer water for two days every week. Before brumation starts, the snake should not be fed for two to three weeks to ensure that the gut is empty and temperatures should be lowered gradually over a further week until they have reached brumation level

I should get him within the next 10 days..

I´ll keep you posted.

**venus** · #2 10-19-2007, 11:48 AM

Wow, its beautiful. I love the coloration. Cant wait to see pics of your baby.

**Moshpitrockchick** · #3 10-19-2007, 12:10 PM

Congrats on the new addition!

**Merlin** · #4 10-19-2007, 04:33 PM

A very nice looking specimen!

**DarkMagician207** · #5 10-19-2007, 06:16 PM

wow thats amazing looking! you're very lucky. good luck with the new baby when it gets to you!

**kenman1963** · #6 10-20-2007, 05:16 PM

That is one awesome snake. I've only seen one at a show years ago, alas it was not for sale and I've wanted one ever since. You are quite lucky to have come across one. Best of luck and please post pics as it ages,

**JMM** · #7 10-20-2007, 06:57 PM

Just to clarify that I don´t have any pics of my snake..yet
The one pictured above is one of the brothers

But next week...I´ll have pictures (I hope) and I´ll naturally post them

**Rich** · #8 10-21-2007, 06:42 AM

That is a very pretty snake indeed. Congrats on the new addition!

**BlackJack** · #9 10-21-2007, 06:54 AM

It's too bad about the boid laws in Portugal, but it looks like you've found something VERY stunning to make up for it!

Good luck with your new "baby." I look forward to seeing the pictures.
Congratulations!

**JMM** · #10 10-26-2007, 05:41 AM

I am really disappointed and angry !

I posted the picture of this baby snake in another forum fully dedicated to Ratsnakes (The ratsnake foundation) and people started to question if this was a Russian (Elaphe schrenckii, former Elaphe schrenkii schrenckii) or a Korean rat snake (Elaphe anomala, former Elpahe schrenkii anomala).

So, I questioned the seller. Turns out, he wasn´t the breeder. It had told me that this was a co-project with a Dutch breeder. Well... he basically bought the eggs from a Dutch breeder, trough an intermediary (co-project, hey ??).

- Ok, than ask the breeder and show me pictures of the parents, I said.

Then he just said that he only had contact with the intermediary (and that he kept confirming it was a "schrenkii"), and he only knew the name of the company of the breeder, but the web site was down.

So, I googled the name of the breeder, and found a way of contacting him (not that difficult...)

The Dutch breeder confirmed that "Of course it is an Elaphe anomala; I do not have Elaphe schrenkii and to the best of my knowledge no one in the world is producing amelanistic schrenkii"

So I, the buyer, informed the seller that he was selling E. anomalas for E. schrenkii !

Isn´t that amazing ?

He apologized (a lot); said he was "mislead" to say the least, bla, bla, bla.

End of a (sad) story. Lesson learned.

Now, I´m sure that the Russian rat is the right snake for me (among the ones I may keep) so I´m in the market for a Hypomelanistic Elaphe Schrenkii for somewhere around Europe. Hope thay are already produced; I´m only sure of melanistic...

It would be nice to find a hypo becasue my wife is afraid/doesn´t like black snakes...
And the snake will be put in a (future, but already semi-planned) naturalistic terrarium that is going to be a centerpiece of our living-room.


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