Ruby, my emerald tree boa

I just wanted to post a few pictures of my little one Ruby. S/he is an emerald tree boa, Corallus caninus. This is actually one of the species of snake that I have always wanted, and was always hesitant to own. When I stumbled upon this one I couldn't help it, good deal and a good situation. She was born a few months ago from a female that was imported gravid. And she is quickly becoming my favorite snake. I now have her switched off of live prey, and she seems to be doing well. She is just starting to get some green coming in.

Beautiful red emerald tree snake you have there. Are you feeding her frozen food now?

Yes. Her last two meals have been F/T with little hesitation. So hopefully that's settled

Have you ever made video of your snakes eating? I'd like to see you feeding them.

That is a beautiful snake I must say. How much of a time duration between switching her from live to F/T food?

(05-09-2012, 05:03 AM)lhins Wrote: That is a beautiful snake I must say. How much of a time duration between switching her from live to F/T food?

Typically, I prefer to buy directly from breeders, so I know the whole history of the animal, and many of those will have never seen a live rodent. I picked this little one up from a show, and the details were sketchy at best. I was told she was only eating live and had refused F/T. I don't think they were feeding at night though. I feed her two live fuzzies, the switched her over, and she took them with no problems.

If you get a new snake and it is already eating frozen, I would never let that animal see a live rodent. If you getty an animal that you don't know any history on, or a difficult animal, offer live to get it too feed at first, and continue with live/stunned for a few feedings so you can get it in to a feeding routine, and then switch it over on the same routine.

---

I haven't made any videos. I should make some. I'll get a few up soon.

gorgeous snake! once i graduate college, id love to own a pair of green ones

S/he'll be green within 6 - 10 months. I can't wait to see how she turns out! I love watching the ontogenetic colour changes with these guys. It's amazing...

What a beauty! S/he is lovely, and once the green comes in will be even prettier Question, though - I've always wondered, why would a cryptic snake like this need to be a different color as a hatchling? Do they not live in the canopy as juveniles?
Also the other emerald tree boas I've seen were feisty dudes, did NOT appreciate the cage being opened and/or getting misted with water. What is the temperament usually like on these? Hopefully they're not always so difficult, haha.

That is a damn good question about the neonate colours, of these, and the green tree pythons, morelia viridis. Their neonates are either a shade of red or yellow. And they are pretty distantly related to the emeralds, so both of these neonate colours seemed to have come about through convergent evolution. The thoughts I have heard is that they stay lower to the ground, and with the GTP's in particular, there are people looking into weather the localities that have more red babies are from areas with more reddish leaf littler, and the localities with more yellow offspring are from areas with more yellowish leaf litter. It's a hard thing to prove apparently. But they must exist in a different specific niche in the environment. Though from what I've heard, many of the neonates in different islands and localities, (Aru, Biak, different areas of the main Papua Island, Suriname & Guyana, & along the Amazon basin, etc...) inhabit different niches, but all have the similar neonate colours. I have also read a theory that states the reason for the bright coloration may be to mimic brightly coloured vipers and other venomous small snakes.

You should ask your herpetology professor his thoughts. I would like to hear them.

As for their temperament, they have a somewhat unearned bad reputation. They are a tricky species to keep, and and even trickier species to breed successfully. SO a large majority of the animals people have are wild caught imports, mostly from the northern localities. And these tend to be a bit less friendly. They stress easily, and there are a limited number of ways that a snake can express displeasure. Add to this the phenomenon called "Emerald Regurgitation Syndrome", ERS, which is now believed to be from Psittacosis, or an infection of Chlamydophia psittaci, which is common in birds exported from the same region, and they are sometimes all held in export facilities together. This has almost always worked out to be fatal, and very easily spread between ETB's.

So if you add all that together, you have a difficult to keep species that stresses easily, with allot of fatally ill animals going around, many of which have been shipped part of the way around the world. And the successful breeders here in the states charge allot for the babies. (Some of the nicer amazon basins can go for over $15,000). The imported surinames are grumpy, and normally stressed, which makes them even more grumpy. When I got this little one, there was a guy at the same show with two beautiful imported high white northern adults, I was considering. When I asked to take them out to check them over, he handed me a hook, some gloves, and everyone behind the table gave me 10'+ Clarence, and this is a guy with venomous permits. (For the record, I was banking on the old show credo where most people keep aggressive animals cooler so they are a bit more docile.)

If you get a captive bred baby they are normally very handleable snakes. Get an imported adult, and you never know what you are going to have. If you are ever interested I can point you in the direction of some good breeders with northerns at reasonable prices. (The amazon basins are the ones that typically go for the insane money.)

And a thought on the water misting, with these, GTP's or any snakes that have the labial heat pits, (though the ones on emeralds seem to be more sensitive), if you mist cold water directly into these areas, it must be a bit of a shock. Many don't like it, even the tame ones. Try misting from above or behind the head, not straight on, or the side, so the water doesn't spray directly into the pits. Also try warm, almost hot water. The vaporizing of the water coming out of the sprayer causes it to cool quickly, and water that ends up being closer to the temperature of the snake at that time doesn't cause as much of a shock either. Also, I have heard a number of knowledgeable emerald keepers say they don't actually spray the snakes as much as the substrate most of the time. For various other health related reasons, but this being at least part of it.

Yeah, I'll have to ask about the nature of their colors. It's always been a question of mine, but it would make a lot of sense that the neonates live closer to the ground and the adults move into the higher canopy. The mimicry of other snakes is a really interesting idea too, though; pretty awesome if they can find evidence to support that.

When misting the snakes usually we weren't supposed to actually spray the snakes, just the paper and the walls/ceiling of the cage; I didn't have that job. But the few times I did spray the cages the snakes would lash at the sprayer/my hand, try to slip out the door if they weren't curled around their bar, etc. Or they would sleep...they didn't always try to pull funny business. Some rumors say they are the snakes you don't ever want as pets (there's that bad reputation) and merely look pretty, some say they're awesome pets, depends which fellow student reptile enthusiast I'm talking to.

In the foreseeable future I won't be able to take in any snakes, but someday one of these might be nice to have!

Most of the bad reputation is from the imports, and that is not entirely untrue. Green tree pythons had the same reputation 10 - 15 years ago. Especially the Biaks. But as more and more are captive bred, the perception of them has softened considerably. If you get one, I would highly recommend a C.B. baby. This little one is completely tame so far. She still has to grow up, so we'll see how she turns out.

Wow, she is a real BEAUTY! Breathtaking, really! So far she's the most impressive snake I've seen and my personal favorite now! That last photo of her really picks up her beautiful coloring. I'd like to have a dress, blouse or bathingsuit made to look like her! Boy, would that turn some heads, eh?!

I'd love to see more of her as she grows!

I need to get some new pictures of her, she shed last week, and has a little more green on her. It would be awesome to have a snake that would keep that red coloration.

Oh nooooo! You mean she will not STAY that awesome red forever?! What a bummer! It was such a stunning red! Oh well, I do like green too. Green is a good color. I painted my kitchen and dining room green. Green was my last favorite car's color.
;-)
I definitely would like to see some new photos of her as she's growing up. How much bigger is she now? Do you have a scale to weigh them on or do you just eyeball their growth?

Do you do anything with the shed scales? I know there's some people who make handiworks out of their animal's fur, like purses from cat fur. Why not do something with reptile scales?! No idea what though....

No, they go a full emerald green as adults. Here its a pic of an adult, (not mine)...




We had a thread a while back on shed snake skins. They don't retain much colour, so they are nowhere near as nice looking as the snake itself. Emeralds have slower metabolisms, so she hasn't grown a whole lot yet, I'll get a few pictures soon.

OH MY GOSH!!! Seriously?!?! Now THAT is GORGEOUS!!! Okay, I don't feel bad anymore that she'll lose the red color! WOW!!!
There's snakes that stay red, yes? Trying to think....coral snakes, right? What's the most beautiful red snake out there? Okay, now I'm going to have to do a google search or something! I'm curious...

Too bad the shed scales don't stay that brilliant hue of what they were when on the body. I'll look up that thread on shed snake skins in a few minutes - thanks for the link.

There are so many pretty snakes out there. For example, I love some of the morphs of common pet-trade snakes, like white and pink corn snakes, and there's an albino king at the school which is gorgeous *0* But few rival the brilliance of EMTs and GTPs.

I have to agree AOD. I love carpet pythons, and allot of the new color morphs. But there is something just majestic about the ETB's & GTP's.

---

(06-22-2012, 09:07 PM)laurasav Wrote: OH MY GOSH!!! Seriously?!?! Now THAT is GORGEOUS!!! Okay, I don't feel bad anymore that she'll lose the red color! WOW!!!
There's snakes that stay red, yes? Trying to think....coral snakes, right? What's the most beautiful red snake out there? Okay, now I'm going to have to do a google search or something! I'm curious...

Too bad the shed scales don't stay that brilliant hue of what they were when on the body. I'll look up that thread on shed snake skins in a few minutes - thanks for the link.

Sorry Laura, I never answered your question

As far as snakes that stay that red into adulthood, there are a few vipers. There are various non-venomous snakes that are red, but most are more of a reddish brown our reddish orangey brown by adulthood. The one thing on my list, though they don't stay quite that red either, is a hypomelanistic bredls python, Morelia bredli . It's still unclear exactly how this trait is inherited, and there's only one pierson I know of in the U.S. that has any. (This is not my animal btw...)