wc drapiezii

[purpureomaculatus]

SEE PHOTOS BELOW This is my favorite species .

I was lucky enough to catch one in Sabah Borneo , thanks to herpetologist friends. That was a superb snake which bit us fiercely ! We photoed and released. It was found at a new record elevation. ( on Mt KK )

Then , the following year I had a WC drap from a FL dealer. It died after doing well on a diet of small anolis and kept at a nice low temp ( the same as what I thought they experienced in their habitat. I have lived in and travelled around SE ASIA so I know some of the temps ( granted, my specimen may have been a lowlander) .

I have also ( years ago ) kept a large group of adult cynodons browns and blacks on a diet of dead baby chicks and dead mice.

But I now have acquired drapiezii 1.1 adults and 4 babies and they were all underweight but lovely and so far in a week I have lost two babies. All of the draps are listless as of today. I have tube fed all 4 babies . and all 6 snakes drank water like crazy. Wondered if there is disease of course. Any way----two babies died yesterday and a much larger baby died today (cry cry) I froze two of them to do an autopsy. If I cut them, where do i seek out worms and if there is a mass of worms can I blame them for the deaths? I am not big on panacure or etc. ( I kept over 100 Trimeresurus and waglers vipers. no deworming, fed on live frogs, barely a death over a few years.

has anyone kept draps ? Please give advice. PM me if you want to. I really want to figure out how to keep them alive. I have taken on projects like this in the past and succeeded but d**n I dont think I want to watch many of these die along the way --not to mention that it will be hard for me to get them if and when I lose all. It is great to see a Boiga site and I hereby reach out fo r help , but if no one has experience with draps, it's okay , I will still love the Boiga Zone
in the pics below those are not the cages those are the cups they arrived in !

[jelmer]

Hello,

First of all, I want to make clear that this is my way of doing it and my opinion. Other people have other ways.
Personally I would feed this snakes small lizards unless they accept mice. I would house them separately, so I know wich feaces belong to wich snake.
I would check all feaces for internal parasites.
If necasarry I would really use medicines. Keeping a hundred Asian pitvipers withouth deworming actually might work out pretty wel, especially when you talk about strong and large species like Trimeresurus purpereomaculatus.
With Boiga's you will not always get away with it that easy. Especially not when dealling with lungworms.
I am not a fan of using medines. I always try to let nature do it's thing, but some types of parasites just simply eat your snakes alive and need to be killed.
In comparence to other Boiga species, Boiga draipiezi is really fragile.
With Boiga draipiezi I would with some types of medicines probably use a bit less the normal and then check the feaces again after a few weeks.

Conclusion: In my opinion it's best to always check the feaces, but only use medicines (with care) when you really have to.

Kind regards,

Jelmer

[Admin - Angi]

Hi there
Ive only had one experience with draps, I bought 4, one was dead on arrival and the other 3 were dehydrated, almost starved with no muscles and near death!
My experience (and one Ive heard others repeat frequently) is that they are extremely delicate snakes and very prone to stress. Ive not heard of many people keeping them sucessfully in captivity, although someone over on the Nature Malaysia forums has some lovely photos of healthy loking specimens, so they may be keeping them successfully.
Mine were treat with panacur, and given fluids plus food supplements via a tube as they were in such bad condition that we(the vet and I) decided they required immediate fluid and nutrition. But they all died within 2 weeks, I was heart broken and very angry with person who sent them, they never really stood a chance. I only bought them because a friend of mine who keeps numerous Boiga species had seen them in the care of this person about a month earlier and they had looked in good condition. Obviously the person keeping them just didnt listen to his advice on how to keep them for them to deteriorate so rapidly.
I would agree with seperating them, that way you can keep a close eye on each specimen. A couple of mine drank copiously when sprayed, I cant remember if one or two drank from the water bowl, at least one did. If I ever kept them again I would not tube feed, I just feel that it was too stressful for them in their state. I would simply add treatments to the water and hope for the best.
I believe them to be very prone to dehydration, this info comes from my very experienced friend. I kept them with high humidity and used cocoa fibre to help maintain humidity levels. I also provided lots of foliage in an effort to help them to feel secure. I know some people prefer to keep new snakes in a very basic enclosure so they can observe the faeces etc.
Personally I wouldnt handle them unless absoloutely necessary. Mine never fed, although the person selling them insisted they were feeding previously, my vet found no signs that they had been eating and commented that the had no muscle! Simple autopsy showed very little.
I hope that helps in some way, if I think of anything else I will post later.

[purpureomaculatus]

Thanks very much to the repliers. All of the comments are helpful. They are all caged in separate cages, they have branches and hiding places and water and humidity, but I think next I have to consider 1 deworming ( w/small amounts of meds )
2 diff. methods of feeding ( I had good luck feeding defrosted bullfrog meat pieces ( b/c bullfrog is very smelly . yum ) to loads of baby Trim popes, albos, venusts, and Trop wags....maybe draps would take it.
3 shyness
4 even higher humidty
Thanks for all info !

[Admin - Angi]

its certainly worth a try. I do wonder if they would be interested in live insects, being such a slender, small snake I wouldnt be surprised if they ate insects in the wild

[chris]

I've never had the chance to keep B.drapiezii. But I can tell you what I know/heard.

As said the snakes are very fragile and quickly dehydrated. I gave some of my dehydrated Boigas special sporthingyer. That's drinkingwater with added minerals. No taste or bubbles! Give it to them several times (a week) and the snake should be hydrated okay.

I've also read the B.drapiezii eats insects in the wild. Of course, you could try this. But I suggest that you don't try to often. Give them a good rest. Maybe you can cover the cages with a rag or something. So the snakes won't get upset every time you stroll around their cages.

For what it's worth...

Chris

[purpureomaculatus]

Sounds good . I will give them some electrolyte water ( via sprayer as well ) and consider insects too. and this anyone ever TRY THIS ? PARAZAP ?? here is an addy-- scroll down too.
www.dragons4you.net/supplies.htm

[purpureomaculatus]

Update : Tonight

Green adult ate a nice sized piece of Bullfrog leg meat I defrosted earlier today,

Brown male is ignoring his. Brown juvie is ignoring his but he gave it a lot of tongue flicking at first. Now left to their devices in the dark maybe they'll eat too.

I gave all of them Pedialyte via sprayer , they drank it up.

Trying to get back to being hopeful now !

[Admin - Angi]

its good you have one feeding at least, fingers crossed the others will follow soon too.

[wil]

Thats fantastic news. Hope the rest start eating soon.

Wil.

[purpureomaculatus]

Update The adult female which ate frog is alive and as of today all the others are dead. sad sad sad but hey I think I know a lot more about this now and hope next time they survive and thrive.

[wil]

Good to hear the female is eating, sorry to hear about the others.

Wil.

[sighthunter]

I work with arborial snakes from Central and South America. Real sunlight usualy does the trick. I have bred difficult species using indoor-outdoor cages. The trick is the doggie-door (snake-door). I use a foam plug with an x cut into the center. It took my arborials a week or so to learn the door but it works flawless and my snakes are very healthy. Here are a few pics. Before making one I suggest you talk to me about details.

Outside



Inside

[Admin - Angi]

Welcom to the site sighthunter.
Great idea, I dont think many peope realise how important sunlight is to our reptiles. I've seen the difference it makes with Boelens pythons whilst out in Java. I think the importance of sunlight in breeding and the overall health of snakes is definately underestimated. I would like to try your idea myself, but with an option of a partition to close off outside in the winter - living in the UK I dont think many Boigas would do that well in our winters.
What area of the world do you live in sighthunter?

[Admin - Angi]

purpureomaculatus, I'm very sorry to hear you lost your draps apart from the one.
May I ask if you treat them for parasites/wormed them?
I have a group being imported very soon, at present the person looking after them is out catching tadpoles to feed them. I will treat them with panacur on the day of arrival, then let them settle in. I have a friend who has lots of experience with them, he had to keep them in very high humidity. They took lizards and only took mice if assist/force fed. I cant get any tiny lizards in the next couple of weeks so I will also be out hunting for tadpoles too. I will try these and possibly even frogs, if they do not take them then I will force feed within a week so they have a chance of survival. I think speed is of the essence as we cannot know exactly how long it is since they have been taken from the wild. I will take no chances. I will keep each one individually in a contico, with a large water bowl, bark and moss. I will be adding electrolytes and avipro to their water ( spray and in bowl).
Any ideas welcomed.