That Reptile Blog – Reptile, Amphibian and Exotic Pet Care and Information

Snakes have a well-deserved reputation as escape artists and, once at liberty, they are nearly impossible to find.  Almost always, the escapee shows up by accident, no matter how hard one searches – even quite large snakes can virtually disappear in relatively small areas (please see photo – the 16 foot long anaconda pictured there “vanished” in about 6 inches of water on the Venezuelan llanos; I took over an hour to find her despite “knowing” where she was!).  However, there are a few tricks that can improve your chances of recapturing a lost pet…but first, if I may, a few related stories:

Cobras “Helped” out of Their Exhibit

My most dramatic snake escape/recapture began not due to carelessness but rather via a deliberate act of vandalism.  Amazingly, a visitor to the Bronx Zoo’s Reptile House (where I worked as an animal keeper) lifted his son up so that the boy could kick in the glass of the Spitting Cobra Exhibit!  This insanity took place on a crowded summer afternoon…when all such incidents seem to occur.  Read More »

As a boy, my favorite exotic animal collecting site was, of all places, the loading dock of the local A&P Supermarket.  Raymond Ditmars and other famous city-born naturalists had taken this route, and so I followed.  The store was not far from the Bronx’s Hunts Point Market, where trucks from all over delivered fresh produce. Hidden within the produce crates were the creatures I sought – tree frogs, spiders, lizards, insects and such (I once narrowly missed a Mouse Opossum).  All large spiders were called “Banana Spiders”…one, the Giant Crab or Huntsman Spider (Heteropoda venatoria), appeared on occasion but was always too fast for me.  I became obsessed with this beast, whose leg span approached 6 inches, but, try as I might, I remained crab spider-less.

Meeting Both a Long-Lost Spider and Entomologist

It was to be over 15 years before I next crossed paths with the Huntsman Spider – this time in a Bronx Zoo building (JungleWorld) in which I worked as an animal keeper.  A huge population, having arrived with tropical plants, was established, and I was ecstatic (my mammal-keeping co-workers were far less impressed!).

The spiders were faster than I remembered (and I was slower!)…those I captured had mainly fallen into places from which they could not escape.  They proved surprisingly easy to breed and, once set up in our exhibit area, were very popular with our visitors.

I took a specimen to the American Museum of Natural History, where it was identified as Heteropoda venatoria.  Amazingly, the woman who identified the spider for me was famed invertebrate specialist Alice Gray…while speaking, we discovered that it was she who had answered my mantis rearing questions when I called the museum as a boy, 25 years earlier!

Captive Care

These impressive spiders occasionally appear on the price lists of Florida-based reptile dealers, and they are quite inexpensive.  If a few guidelines are followed, they make fascinating, active terrarium inhabitants, and breed readily.  Once their amazing speed in hunting is seen in action, even die-hard tarantula fans cannot resist them!

I’ll cover the natural history and captive care of Huntsman Spiders in Part II of this article.

Further Reading

An interesting article on this spider’s life cycle is posted at on the website of the Cambridge Entomological Society.

Male Huntsman Spider image referenced from wikipedia and originally posted by B. Navez

Please see Part I of this article for background information on these snake-keepers’ favorites.  Garter Snakes and the closely related ribbon and water snakes usually make hardy captives, yet there are very few records of individuals surviving over 10 years.  I believe this may have to do with some of their unique environmental and dietary needs (I’ll cover temperature, light and diet in Part III of this article).

Natural vs. Captive Habitats

Nearly all garter and ribbon snakes favor swamps, wet meadows, pond edges and other moist habitats.  Oddly, however, they are very susceptible to skin infections (“blister disease”) when kept on damp substrates – even more so than snakes native to dry environments.  This holds true even for those that spend a great deal of time in the water, such as the Aquatic Garter Snake (Thamnophis couchi), the Ribbon Snake (T. sauritus) and the True Water Snakes (Nerodia sp.).

While all should be given water in which to soak, the substrate must remain dry.  The aforementioned species may be kept in semi-aquatic terrariums that allow for swimming, but they must have access to warm, dry basking sites (branches over water work well).  Shy specimens that will not bask should be moved into terrestrial situations with just a bowl of water available.

Curing Blister Disease

A Northern Water Snake (Nerodia  sipedon) that I kept decades ago developed skin blisters after only 2 weeks of a largely aquatic existence.  I wrote to famed reptile man Wayne King, then curator of reptiles at the Bronx Zoo.  His advice to move the animal to a dry terrarium and provide a warm but sheltered basking site worked like a charm, and the snake’s skin condition cleared within 10 days.

Further Reading

An excellent article on the unique Aquatic Garter Snake, including habitat photos, is posted here.

Please see Part I of this article for general information concerning pet turtle shelters.  Today we’ll look at meeting the needs of a few specialists.

Aquatic Bottom Dwellers

Mata Mata Turtles (Chelus fimbriatus), Snapping Turtles (Chelydra serpentina), Alligator Snapping Turtles (Macroclemmys temmincki) and some other aquatic species prefer to burrow under plants or mud, and rarely use caves.  These turtles can easily be accommodated with Hagen Suction Cup-Equipped Plants.  By positioning the suction cups so that the plant just touches the bottom of the aquarium, you can create a naturalistic shelter …several plants used in together can accommodate quite large specimens.

Shallow Water/Swamp Dwellers

Bog Turtles (Clemmys muhlenbergi) and other retiring, shallow water species are usually most comfortable in heavily planted terrariums, with plenty of dead wood and moss available for hiding (please see photo).  These will readily utilize artificial plants as well.

Large Tortoises

That 150 pound Spurred Tortoise you’ve raised will need a custom built “house”, but for most large terrestrial turtles, you can also use the Hagen plants described above.  This actually suits tortoises quite well – in the wild most shelter within brush and under leaves, and not in “caves” per se.

Softshell Turtles

Softshell Turtles of all species are specialists, and do best when provided with fine sand in which to burrow.  Although excellent swimmers, they prefer to shelter below sand in shallow water, so that they can breathe by merely extending their necks to the surface.  Although sand complicates cleaning, most softshells fare poorly without it.

A Hundred Year Old Home

You can also create your own shelters…broken clay flower pots are an old standby.  The Common Musk Turtle (Sternotherus odoratus) pictured here has been with me for 40 years.  It is posing before its very unique cave – a 100 year old tile from the roof of the Bronx Zoo’s Reptile House!

Further Reading

The Eastern Spiny Softshell Turtle (Apalone spinifera spinifera) has specific habitat requirements in both captivity (please see above) and the wild, and is threatened throughout much of its range.  A comprehensive recovery plan containing interesting natural history notes is posted here.

Tarantulas and scorpions have long been invertebrate pet staples, with over 150 species being captive bred in large numbers.  However, insect keeping, always popular in Japan but much less so elsewhere, is now coming into its own in the USA.  I recently found that over 50 stick and leaf insect, 30 mantid, 25 cockroach and 25 beetle species, along with numerous grasshoppers, katydids, butterflies and moths, are now regularly bred in captivity.

Velvet Ants, Tarantula Wasps, Giant Water Bugs and innumerable others are also kept in smaller numbers, and are growing in popularity.  An aquatic insect exhibit I recently designed for the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, featuring the usually ignored Water Scorpions and Whirligig, diving and water scavenger beetles, is a big hit with visitors.

Grand Possibilities

The potential diversity of insects that may be kept in captivity is limitless, and many exhibit their entire life cycles and full range of behaviors in a relatively limited space and time span.  Those who keep insects are offered the real possibility of discovering new information.

Conservation Value

Much of what has been learned by those keeping insects in private and public collections has conservation value.  Captive breeding and reintroduction programs for endangered species ranging from Sphinx Moths in Arizona to Burying Beetles in Rhode Island have yielded promising results.

Other Invertebrates

An astonishing array of other terrestrial invertebrates are also being kept and bred in captivity, including Banana Slugs, trapdoor, orb-weaver, wolf and crab spiders, centipedes, millipedes, Vinegaroons and Sun Scorpions, to name just a few.  

Further Reading

Japan’s Tama Zoo boasts 2 giant insect houses…be forewarned, insect aficionados who visit will emerge in shock, as did I!

Phasmids (walking sticks and walking leaves) have long been popular as captives in Europe. Photos of many of the nearly 3,000 described species, along with natural history notes, are posted here.

Founded in 1892, and with roots dating to 1872, the NY Entomological Society is an invaluable resource for insect enthusiasts. To learn more about this well-respected group and its publications, please visit their website.