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Posted by Fred Albury (Aztec Reptiles) on April 02, 2002 at 01:27:55:
In Reply to: are indigos a beginner- slight intermediate snake?n/p posted by KC on April 01, 2002 at 18:05:31:
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And here is why:
Cost-Not cheap by any broad stretch of the imagination compared to most colubrids.
Rarity-Not many in captive collections and even fewer being CONSISTANTLY bred every year.
Maintenance-High, higher than almost any snake and as high as monitor lizards. Fast metabolisms, liquid waste, musky smell.
Breeding- Can be done but gettiong good eggs from them and getting them to go fullterm without defects and a high fertility rate, thats a definite set of hurdles to overcome. A high proportion of people DONT overcome these obstacles. I call getting good eggs from them Gods Grace in that area at that time. Doug Taylor calls it blind, dumb luck. You get the idea. Its a crapshoot, Vegas style.
They do tolerate room temps well, handle nightimedrops that arent to low ok, but they do badly in excessive heat or cold.. And cages must be kept...clean....clean.....clean!
Haveing said all this, I almost forgot what the original question wwas, and that is"Are Indigos beginning level or intermediate level snakes?"
My answer to this really boils down to one word:
DEDICATION
A long time ago, when I was a boy, we couldnt have cats in our house.My mom wouldnt allow it and neither would the gestapo like manager of the apt complex we lived in. I, of course had one, kept outside, and dureing rainy season made a makeshift home for him out of heavy cardboard boxes put underneath our apt. Not easy to clean or maintain, but it worked. I must have visited that cat 3 times a day dureing the rainy season.
The cat thrived, despite the outside conditons because of the consistant commitment to feed, water, pet and make sure he had dry quarters and veterinary attention when he got sick.
I think that if you are truly motivated, take the time to do the research and learn on your own, versus comeing here and asking questions trying to get others to do the homework for you, I think that if you make that extra effort to understand the snake, its needs, and the people that keep them and their diffrent methods & you are willing to devote a large part of your month cleaning cages, than almost anybody, regardless of their level can keep an Indigo. Problem is that people try to find shortcuts to learning, or dont learn enough to properly care for the snake, or dont set it up right initially. But it can be done by someone with the right degree of motivation.
Fred Albury
(Aztec Reptiles)
