crayfish snake.

[petstoredude]

hey everyone. i had a customer bring me a snake yesterday and said he found it under a tarp in is back yard. he took out this little grey and orange snake that looked REALLY cute. he had a bit of a musk smell to him but i didnt mind because of how awesome he looked. the scales were keeled so i immediately thought baby watersnake of some kind. he said he didnt want it and was just wondering if i would want it. as much as i wanted to tell him yes, i told him that he needed to put it back. he said he had several cats around and was afraid they would eat it so i didnt argue and accepted it. after doing some research ive found that it is a crayfish snake. all the scales and markings matched up right and im sure thats what it is. however, while i found alot of sites on how this snake lives in the wild, but couldnt really find a site that tells you how to keep them in captivity. so i was wondering if someone could tell me how to set up a habitat for him or give me a link to a site that has that info?

[petstoredude]

i found out the scientific name of the one i have. its Storeria dekayi wrightorum. another customer came in today and said that its called a brown snake.

[canadiancritter]

You need to return the snake to as close as possible to where it was found. In many places it is illegal to posses wild animals unless you have training and a permit.

[Ravnos]

Crayfish snakes and brown snakes are very different species... but either way, neither are very good species to be kept in captivity. There should be many websites out there that will explain diet and natural habitat if you plug the species name into Google. If set up properly, you likely would never see a brown snake you kept as a pet.

I'm not aware of any laws in LA which would restrict possession of the species, as long as you're not collecting a whole bunch of them and/or selling them.

[petstoredude]

i set it up in a ten gallon with forest moss as the substrate and a large water dish with a rock in it he can rest on and soak. i mist the cage daily and i tried feeding it a cricket but he couldnt catch it so i tried a part of a small earthworm and he loved it. ive gone out and caught plenty of slugs and earthworms to keep on hand for him. since ive had him he has eaten 1 slug and 2 halves of an earthworm. he is very active and not very skiddish at all. i really like him and he doesnt seem to be stressed at all so i think im going to keep him. from what i understand from what customers are telling me they are pretty common around here so it shouldnt cause a problem as long as i dont get other people interested in them.