I personally love that my boss rather calls me then kills it because every single time he thinks they Dangerous and I just scoop them and and he looks at me like I’m mad:joy:
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I think it’d be so delightful to meet these guys where they belong, or caught in a house, because they always have this expression of being caught out. “Oh- This your house? Sorry, sorry, Scuse me”
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It’s always nice to be a hero with the boss. It’s especially nice to be a hero wheen you get to rescue a creature to boot!
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So true even told him. He can give me a call anytime he finds a snake on his property and I will come catch and relocate it.
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Hey y’all! I’ve lately been really interested in african house snakes after seeing a couple very sweet little noodles at a local expo, and I’m thinking of bringing home a couple sometime soon.
What would you guys say a new house snake owner should know going in? I am a relatively inexperienced keeper, with one BP, so I’m definitely still learning. What size enclosures do you guys usually keep them in? What heat gradients? (I’ve seen some conflicting info on both of those.) I’m particularly thinking of boaedon capensis, although I’m also curious about other localities.
Actually, that too – what’s everyone’s favourite locality? It seems like there’s a ton of variety out there between localities.
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I will go ahead and throw in my 2 cents. I have found that just a plain simple inexpensive basic little brown house snake is the best way to go if you are just getting into keeping house snakes. They don’t cost too much, they eat well (as long as they are already started on ft), and they are hardy.
They like it hot. As babies they want to feel secure in an enclosure that fits their small size. If they have access to a small humidity tub they will probably use it, but not so much as they get older. They like to wrap around your fingers and kind of just hang out.
Even the little plain browns have a beautiful iridescence in the sunlight and pretty facial features/markings.
There will be others who will have different opinions but the above is the result of my own experiences with various house snake types……
Here’s my little one who is impersonating a fire hose and cutting off my circulation in the process!
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There is a very good book out there about House Snakes, The captive care of house snakes, by Erik Paterson.
and a Cape house snake should eat for you no problem, so they might be great for you.
I’d also say do not get a juvenile, find an adult who has been eating steadily on FT for some time. These are teeny snakes and no one new to tiny reptiles wants to end up assist-feeding them, IMO. Luckily mine finally took live, and now I am training him off them to FT but it’s taken up to his second birthday, he’s been with me a year and a half, and we’re still trying… -.-
(Fuliginosus (Black ones) like mine are gorgeous but a bit of a nightmare to get feeding regularly on FT at this time. I have a hypothesis that in more CB generations they’ll get over that but for now their instinct to live prey is super fixated.)
@ballornothing Don is one of the people I know has bred and raised these lil noodles and I hope he doesn’t mind being pinged for some noob tips.
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That little guy is a cutie for sure! I feel like that snake knows more about tying knots than I do, lol.
I’ve been looking at a little a little T- albino, because that’s what the breeder near me has a whole clutch of yearlings of, but that little brown noodle is a real charmer I’d consider if there was one near me. (Or shippable for a reasonable cost. Not a lot of house snake breeders up in Canada yet.)
That’s good to know about the heat. Thankfully it’s easy to keep my house nice and toasty. I’m hoping a yearling means I might be able to get a full-sized enclosure right out the bat (I’m not much of a tub person) rather than worrying about a very teeny possible escape artist.
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Thank you so much for the link to the book. Ordering it in ASAP. I see it’s from 2011 – has our knowledge in general about keeping house snakes changed much in the past decade, or is it all still pretty up to date?
I’ve been looking at yearlings, since the one person who breeds house snakes close to me (that I can find) has a whole clutch of very pretty T- albino yearlings. From what it sounds like they’re already eating f/t well, which yeah, would be a relief. Is assist-feeding something we frequently have to worry about with young house snakes?
Too bad about the Fuliginosus. Their iridescence is absolutely stunning and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted. Maybe that’s one for a couple years down the road.
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Thank you for the compliment! Apricot appreciates it! If you have a breeder close to you I say go for it! And if it’s a yearling and eating well on frozen thawed and a T Albino too!
I just gave you an idea of what my little guy is like but it sounds like you have a plan so I am so excited for you!
However, when you bring your new noodle home we all want to see pictures!! 
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As long as they have water, these snakes are pretty much bomb proof. The only caveat to that, as @athleticshoelace mentioned, not all of them feed readily on rodents as babies. Once they’re on rodents, you’re good to go, but if not you’ll need a frog or house gecko for scenting just in case (Careful with frogs, parasites abound).
I treat them a lot my scaleless corns and texas rats and make sure they have a water bowl they can fit their whole body in. If they have a bad shed, it’s usually really bad.
Temperament wise, I don’t know why they aren’t the most popular pet snake in the hobby. I’ve never even had one be defensive towards me. Might nip you over food but that’s the extent of their attitude.
They do get overweight somewhat easily so keep an eye on body condition.
Breeding wise they’re really easy. A few degree temp drop for a month, stop feeding during that time. Then bump the temps back up and feed them every 5 days or so to simulate springtime. You can also up humidity when you start feeding again as an additional trigger.
You do have to take some care to keep them from overproducing. If you put them right back on food after they lay, they’ll double clutch. If you put them right back on food after that they’ll clutch again, and so on. They look terrible after they lay, so you’ll want to feed them right back up, but resist that urge. Feed the first few meals after they lay about 10 days apart and not very big meals. After about a month you can resume normal feeding.
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GUYS GUYS GUYS
Sangfroid is taking Brained Pinkies and Fuzzies, offered at night, set into his little hide access tube! Fingers crossed he keeps doing it. He seems to need to feel very safe in order to be okay with feeding, and that makes sense.
(I have a bunch of 1 inch tubes in his enclosure so he can move around it without being seen and he can feel secretive and hidden.)
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Yippee @athleticshoelace! And good for Sangfroid! If he starts on fuzzies consistently he will put some weight on too!
That’s such great news! 
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I am so happy to hear this!! I am hoping that he continues to do so for you!
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Thanks everybody!!
This week is Sangfroid’s birthday- he is 2 now. I kind of had to assign him a birthday by estimating his age back from when I got him, so I gave him Sept 21. Easy to remember. Equinox and a real bop of a song. (Earth Wind and Fire, anyone?)
And guess what? He just took ANOTHER FT MEAL! Don’t know why my efforts are finally taking, but I ain’t complaining. Somehow it’s clicked for him that ah yes, this is food!
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He had birthday snacks!! Good job little buddy! Aw, I’m happy for you and him. (And you’re right, Sept 21st is a banger of a birthday for all the reasons. I’ve had that song stuck in my head for three days now.)
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Whoa, I went on holiday and somehow marked this as read and liked it without having any memory of doing so.
This is all really great information, thank you!! That’s really interesting about the scenting with a frog or gecko – that’s some of their natural prey? I don’t plan on breeding anytime soon but I’m filing that away as something to keep in mind if I do. As well as the ease with which one breeds them – that’s good to know. So the breeding is easy, but the hatchlings can sometimes be problematic feeders?
I’m really charmed by these little guys and so excited to bring one home. Everything I’ve heard about them makes me think they’re such neat little snakes.
I don’t suppose you know of anyone breeding house snakes who ships to Canada? I have one lovely yearling earmarked from our local breeder, but they work with a very limited range of morphs and localities and I already suspect I would like to keep more than one house snake eventually. I have been having zero luck on MorphMarket so far finding a breeder who will ship up my way. (Oh to bring home that little hypo or extreme gene albino that are up for sale right now… extreme gene is one of the morphs I looked at and went “I have to have one of those someday”. They are so cool, like little lava snakes.)
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Earth Wind and Fire! Now you’re talkin man! What memories you have stirred up! lol!
When you get to The 5th Dimension and Aquarius you are there! Lol!
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Sept 30, he practically slammed the FT brained fuzzy I offered him!
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