Last weekend I picked up Stabitha, a Kukri Snake. She was deep in blue when I collected her and she did bite me, but I only felt the wet inside of her mouth, no Ghurka-machete teeth were engaged thankfully!
She was weighed (155g) went into a quarantine rub in a rack, with coconut coir substrate, a wide but shallow water dish (the seller said her favourite place is usually burrowing under her water bowl, so a broad one will give her the opportunity). I've also given her a 30cm x 30cm slate place mat on legs for her to burrow under if she wants, and a bit of fake greenery.
I tried to leave her alone to settle in as much as possible, but when I did check on her, she was sitting on top of the slate, half hidden by the plastic leaves. This looked to be a cooler part of the habitat.
She shed on the following Saturday, 7 days after I'd collected her. All in one piece. Immediately after shedding, she swapped to hiding under the slate, burrowed in the coconut coir.
She was sold as currently feeding on scrambled up hen's eggs offered in a small bowl, and would also take pinkies scented with egg, plus had previously eaten a dead/deformed hatchling lizard, but I wanted to see if she'd accept frozen thawed frogs legs as part of her diet. They'll have more calcium in them than pinkies due to their better developed bone structure, and lower fat content. They can be found in Oriental Supermarkets at £6.50 for 500g. Their wild diet includes reptiles and amphibians, but they are most famous for eating reptile eggs. They are named for their blade-like rear teeth, which apparently resemble those kinked Ghurka 'Kukri' knives, developed for slicing through leathery reptile egg shells. She'll be getting all of my slug eggs in future too.
Last night I offered her a bowl containing 1 freshly laid, scrambled up pigeon egg, and some segments of one defrosted frog's leg. I wasnt sure if she'd eat a whole leg or which bit she would prefer, so I used some kitchen scissors to chop the leg into a mostly bony shin joint, a thigh and a hip/saddle joint.
Next morning, all three chunks of frog leg are gone. She's got a slight prey bulge and had moved to a new burrow underneath the slate but over the heat cable.
Just thought I'd start a thread about my Kukri Snake adventure as there's not much written about them. She's a mainland O. purpurascens from peninsular Malaysia sort of area, but I've seen some of the Timor Island red phase O. purpurascens for sale in Germany (and captive bred too!) so I'm very tempted to get a male for her, even if it is a different locality.
Picture as tax, from when I popped her food bowl into her rub.
She was weighed (155g) went into a quarantine rub in a rack, with coconut coir substrate, a wide but shallow water dish (the seller said her favourite place is usually burrowing under her water bowl, so a broad one will give her the opportunity). I've also given her a 30cm x 30cm slate place mat on legs for her to burrow under if she wants, and a bit of fake greenery.
I tried to leave her alone to settle in as much as possible, but when I did check on her, she was sitting on top of the slate, half hidden by the plastic leaves. This looked to be a cooler part of the habitat.
She shed on the following Saturday, 7 days after I'd collected her. All in one piece. Immediately after shedding, she swapped to hiding under the slate, burrowed in the coconut coir.
She was sold as currently feeding on scrambled up hen's eggs offered in a small bowl, and would also take pinkies scented with egg, plus had previously eaten a dead/deformed hatchling lizard, but I wanted to see if she'd accept frozen thawed frogs legs as part of her diet. They'll have more calcium in them than pinkies due to their better developed bone structure, and lower fat content. They can be found in Oriental Supermarkets at £6.50 for 500g. Their wild diet includes reptiles and amphibians, but they are most famous for eating reptile eggs. They are named for their blade-like rear teeth, which apparently resemble those kinked Ghurka 'Kukri' knives, developed for slicing through leathery reptile egg shells. She'll be getting all of my slug eggs in future too.
Last night I offered her a bowl containing 1 freshly laid, scrambled up pigeon egg, and some segments of one defrosted frog's leg. I wasnt sure if she'd eat a whole leg or which bit she would prefer, so I used some kitchen scissors to chop the leg into a mostly bony shin joint, a thigh and a hip/saddle joint.
Next morning, all three chunks of frog leg are gone. She's got a slight prey bulge and had moved to a new burrow underneath the slate but over the heat cable.
Just thought I'd start a thread about my Kukri Snake adventure as there's not much written about them. She's a mainland O. purpurascens from peninsular Malaysia sort of area, but I've seen some of the Timor Island red phase O. purpurascens for sale in Germany (and captive bred too!) so I'm very tempted to get a male for her, even if it is a different locality.
Picture as tax, from when I popped her food bowl into her rub.
