Dragon Snake Information?

Colubrids Other Colubrids
,
1

Hello! I’ve recently encountered a gorgeous snake that I’d love to keep one day/learn more about for the moment. However, I’m not sure where to begin looking.

  • are there any breeders on here for “dragon snakes”?
  • is there any issue with keeping them?
  • do they require a very specific environment?
  • are they handleable?
  • are there any known morphs?

And any other information would be great! Of course these are all just what I’m curious about and I will be doing my own research as well. Thank you en avance!

2

There has been no successful breeding of dragon snakes as most stress and die in captivity. They are a burrowing species that spends most of their time in the ground, and they need cool temps to be kept (72°F-77°F). They need a similar environment to sunbeam snakes in that they need lots of moist substrate to burrow in with a ton of cover. They are not handleable since they die extremely easily from stress, and their defensive behavior involves stiffening straight out and looking like a stick. There are no known morphs. They are for experienced keepers that have kept many difficult species before, and know they will likely never really see their snake outside of feeding and know not to handle them as it could only lead to the animal dying. Also, from all reports they are frog/fish eaters but generally take frogs best. In other words even if you could get one to eat mice, it would probably develop fatty liver disease and die from that if not the stress of being kept. They are harder to keep than wild caught sunbeam snakes, and those die from stress as well.

1 Like
3

There are keepers in the UK that I know of, they do not seem thrive in captivity hence why you do not see them.

1 Like
4

I have seen 2 for sale on MM recently. One was really cheap ($250) and the other is like $600. I doubt the people that buy them will have much success given they have to survive even more shipping. From what I understand many are taken out of the wild, but most die.

1 Like
5

Thank you all, I appreciate it a lot!

6

As has been noted, these are not an easy species and are certainly not for beginners.

Here is a fair guide to them, but I would call this a “start” and not an absolute:
https://www.outbackreptiles.com/2018/05/dragon-snake-care-sheet/

1 Like