SnowFoxx; my response from Ratsnake Forum...

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Posted by chris_harper2 on March 09, 2003 at 17:10:39:

In Reply to: Rough/Smooth Green posted by SnowFoxx on March 09, 2003 at 13:42:21:

I've pasted my response from the Ratsnake forum below. I wrote it before coming here and did not realize you were already considering Green Bush Ratsnakes and Chinese Green Ratsnakes. I suggested both of those by scientific name on the Ratsnake forum. I'll paste it just for general interest to others on this forum.

Also, I totally forgot about Rhino Ratsnakes. I think you'd really like these except that they can be extremely inactive during the day. However, I've heard they get active around dusk.

Both the Green Bush Ratsnake and the Chinese Green Ratsnake (which I'm sure is one of the many common names for Elaphe frenata) would be more active than the Rhino Ratsnake, but the Rhino will almost certainly be the calmest of the three.

All three are expensive, but the Rhinos will be the least expensive.

Avoide Asian Vine Snakes. They prove tricky for even experienced keepers.

Well below is my Ratsnake Forum post:
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I've kept both Rough Greensnakes and Red-Tailed Green Ratsnakes.

I would not recommend either for a starter snake. Rough Greens can be a bit tricky at times. It seems like some individuals thrive and others just never acclimate well. Some seem to suffer from stress in captivity and as insect eaters they can fall victim to nutritional disorders.

There are the occasional captive born Rough Greensnakes and I'm sure these would be easier, but they are very uncommon. Most of them come from wild-caught females that are already gravid.

Captive born Red-Tailed Green Ratsnakes are easier to care for than wild-caught Rough Greensnakes from my experience. But I'm not sure I'd recommend them as a starter simply because they are pretty fast and can be aggressive. Both of these traits make them fairly hard to handle as adults. Also, my largest female is approaching seven feet long so I'm not sure that fits your criteria for a medium sized snake.

But it seems you've already decided that neither of these species is ideal for a first snake so I'm probably waisting bandwidth here.

Two species that come to mind are Elaphe frenata and Elaphe prasina. I don't recall what the common names are for those species. Both resemble Red-Tailed Green Ratsnakes and in fact will likely be placed in the same genus (Gonyosoma) in the near future. As such you can do Google.com searches for both Gonyosoma prasina and Elaphe prasina, for example.

I believe Elaphe frenata is slightly smaller than E. prasina, but both are quite a bit smaller than the Red-Tailed Green Ratsnake. Both are also supposed to be a lot calmer.

However, both are expensive as captive bred individuals. Over $600 in both cases, I think.

I'm trying to think of other snakes that fit your criteria but cannot at the moment. There are some rear-fanged species (mildly venomous) but I'm sure you don't want to start with those :-)

If the price range for E. frenata and E. prasina don't scare you away let me know and I'll look up some breeders for you. I've got them saved somewhere.

Good luck.

: - Victoria

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a quick edit... chris_harper2 03/09/03 (0)