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Posted by Terry Cox on December 14, 2002 at 07:57:55:
In Reply to: Re: Anybody you know that is offering Mandarin's 4 cheapish? posted by lolaophidia on December 14, 2002 at 06:59:20:
Many years ago my partner and I were experimenting with imports. We tried many moellendorffi and taeniura, and others we knew were trying mandarina and situla. Nobody had much luck with the imports, as we didn't know much about what captive conditions they needed, and with all the ailments and parasites, plus sometimes lacking certain body parts, they were unable to survive the stress of captivity. In the mid-eighties we bought a group of eleven adult moellendorffi. My greatest success was getting one of those to survive, a female, that I had for a year. But by that time I was sick of all the time, effort, and money spent trying to acclimate these wild caughts. So, I sold that female for $100 to a guy who kept it for about four yrs. that I remember.
In 1988 I decided to go into the business of raising Asian ratsnakes for real. I made up my mind that starting with captive born was the only way to go and started my collection of Asian rats with CB babies of eaach species when I could find them. By the mid-nineties I was back to the M & M'ers again, moellendorffi and mandarina. I bought a pair of red-heads and three years later another pair. I also bought a pair of Mandarins in 1999. All of these survived and have taught me about their captive conditions.
In summary, I've learned that CB is best if you want to avoid wasting time, money, and heartaches, not to mention the fact that you're chancing infecting the rest of your collection when you bring in wild caught animals. Also I've learned some good natural history stuff. For instance, the M & M'ers need a certain amout of humidity, and putting a bowl of damp sphagnum in the cage isn't the only thing you can do. You can make sure the ambient humidity is sufficient. I also learned that these snakes are very secretive and making a very secure cage and comfortable hiding places is essential to their well-being and feeling of security. That will make happy snakes.
Here's a couple pics of some "happy snakes" in the only home they've ever known.....>
Our Mandarins look to have the same color/pattern that yours does. I hope you can get yours to this stage and put some more great genes into the mandarin gene pool. Good luck with them.
TC
