Reptile & Amphibian News Blog
Keep up with news and features of interest to the reptile and amphibian community on the kingsnake.com blog. We cover breaking stories from the mainstream and scientific media, user-submitted photos and videos, and feature articles and photos by Jeff Barringer, Richard Bartlett, and other herpetologists and herpetoculturists.
Thursday, March 17 2016
 All brown, brown and green, or green are all common color variation of the Caatinga horned frog.
When the death of a pet occurs it is disturbing. When the death of a healthy pet occurs it is infinitely more disturbing. And this latter occurred a while ago when my male Caatinga horned frog, Ceratophrys joazierensis, was killed by my female during a breeding attempt.
There is always a chance of such things happening when cannibalistic frog meets cannibalistic frog, but this surprised for vocalizations had led to amplexus and I was reasonably sure that all was well in the rain chamber. But this time I was wrong. For some reason amplexus was discontinued, and the female turned, grasped the male by one hind leg and faster than I could intercede swallowed the male to midbody. By then I had them in hand, pried her jaws open, released the male (who at that time seemed none the worse for that harrowing experience) and separated the pair.
But despite there being no outward sign of the aggression something detrimental had happened to the male because from that day, until his death 2 weeks later, he simply sat in one spot (not unusual for a horned frog) and he never again ate (very unusual for a horned frog).
Since that time I have been looking for a replacement male. I know this taxon has been bred in captivity so there are some out there somewhere. But until now I have neither seen nor heard of any being available. But I’ll keep looking…
Continue reading "A Horned Frog Predicament"
Wednesday, March 16 2016

I will never forget my first Kenya Sand Boa experience. I was around 14 years old when I saw my first babies at the local pet store and I had to buy a pair. It took me over a month to pay for them and I took feeding them and making them breeder sized very seriously. By the time I hit 17 I was working at the shop where I bought them and when my female gave birth I called my boss at around midnight to tell him. I was excited, and he was exhausted!(LOL) But when I got to work the next day he had a big banner up across the isles of the store congratulating me. It was the first time I ever bred a Boa. As I inched towards 40 I had bred many species of snakes and learned that they all took up space, so that got me thinking about Sand Boas again. There are no fortunes to be made here, but the fact is that I find the process to be fun. Not sure if this is manopause or not, but here I am breeding these little worms again. Pictured is my holdback female from 2015. Call it what you will, I am guilty as charged!
What an amazing field find! This baby 3 toed box turtle is emerging from it's nest in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user relic37! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Tuesday, March 15 2016
In our opinion, Water Snakes, like the one in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Lachesis1 are among the most under-rated and misunderstood of our non-venomous snakes. We, however, love them! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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 A beautiful adult Basin emerald.
It seems it always happens this way. For about 20 years, on innumerable trips to Amazonian Peru, I and those who have travelled with me, have searched long and hard for what is considered by many the gem of the Amazonian rainforests, the Basin emerald tree boa, Corallus batesii.
Stated as succinctly as possible, despite the thousands of search-hours spent, we failed. We found 150 other species of herps, but when it came to the emerald, pure and simple, we failed. Years passed and this year (2015) I elected to retire. A few weeks after having done so, friend, Kenny (a biologist and geneticist) decided that he’d like to research the wildlife of what had become our major preserve, Santa Cruz Forest Preserve on the Rio Mazan in Amazonian Peru. He and his family moved to the preserve for a year long stint.
Four months into it Kenny texted me “You retired too soon” and attached a pic of the coveted emerald tree boa. It seems that Kenny, accompanied by his wife, Maria, and a village youngster, Cain, by name, were taking an evening stroll along the main trail when, only a few meters from the compound, Cain noticed the snake. It was hanging head downward, nose only a few inches from the leaf litter of the forest floor, in a small tree only a foot or so from trail edge. Kenny’s correct. I retired a few months too soon.
Continue reading "Emerald Tree Boa—Finally!"
Monday, March 14 2016
Our favorite type of blue Monday! Check out these stunning dart frogs in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user frogological! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Last week a friend bought a sexed pair of Spotted Pythons from me. It took him 4 weeks to save up the funds, and during that time he asked me all the right questions and got everything ready. Within two hours after arriving home and getting the snake put away he discovered that one had escaped…the female of course!
I hate the fact that people have to go through things like this, but most of the time it takes a loss and a bad mistake in order to learn. When it comes to keeping snakes it is a fact that there are forces working against us all at every turn. Even when it is legal and you go out of your way to do everything right, all it takes in one tiny detail to ruin everything and foul up all the fun. In my experience I have found that my work is never done and that it is best to always be on the lookout for how I can make things better. In this case the snakes were put in a baby rack made for snakes, but they still got out even though the snake was over 7 months old and no longer a baby. When I put baby snakes in a rack I fold up newspaper and put it under the box so that it is raised up and made even tighter with the top of the rack. Of course, that restricts air flow so I have to drill more holes to make sure my snake can breathe! It seems that every adjustment requires an additional adjustment! The work never ends, and if you think your work is done I bet something will go wrong while you are sitting back relaxing thinking that all is well! Be careful out there fellow snake keeper! It is all in the details!!
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