rough green snake complications

Question
QUESTION: I just got my rough green snake and he's in a 10 gallon for now until I get paid this week but I'm always hearing or reading something about him getting out and I want to prevent this as much as possible..so I put 4 cans on the screen mesh lid to hold more weight on it plus I have the lamps on top. So can he still escape?And do rough green snakes really need uvb light?because my Burmese python never needed one and I fed him once a week so how often to feed my green snake?

ANSWER: As far as getting out, it really depends on the snakes determination. Back when I had just a few snakes and kept them in tanks, I had a 4 foot argentine boa in a 90 gallon tank. I had a wire screen lid and screen clips on it. She pushed so hard on the lid she bent the screen clips and she got out.

I even have snakes in my rack now that if they work at it enough through the night they can wiggle a gap and once they get their nose out of the bin the whole snake can easily get out. But a rough green will have a very hard time bending clips, so I would suggest buying some tank clips for him. You can get them online or at most petshops.

The cans can easily be tipped off of it. I never use lighting for my snakes, not even my tree boa's have UVB light. As long as you keep their temps and humidity correct they will be fine. The rays wont hurt them, and yes can do them some good, but really they are not needed.

Typically a snakes feeding depends on their age and their size for their age. For example, a snake under 1 year of age should be eating a rat/mouse that's just slightly fatter than the snakes body, once a week. A snake that is older than 1 year should be fed once every 2 weeks - once a month since their metabolism slows.

With rough greens, they eat insects, and there is not a lot of stuff in a bug to keep them full and healthy. When I had rough greens, I would feed them a proper sized cricket every 2-3 days. babies generally would eat a few meal worms or a super worm and the adults would eat 1-2 large crickets ever couple of days. I will say if you don't breed your own crickets, its a pain having roughies. you will be going to the store every 3-7 days to get more. And because they eat such small amounts, if you get bulk crickets, 90% of the crickets will die off before they can be fed.

You will have to try out a few insects to see what he likes, some wont eat crickets and others will only eat them. Let me know if you have any other questions about him.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: So if uvb isn't necessary why does it say it is on caresheets and petstore owners tell me it is?I'm sorry I'm a little confused I only knew my lizards needed uvb.And he won't get sick or metabolic bone disease without it like lizards do?

Answer
Reptiles get MBD mostly from poor calcium amounts in their diet. A handful of people feel that roughies benefit from UV rays but it has not been proven. As long as you keep his humidity and temps correct he should be fine.

Just make sure you have him in a tank that has a lot of branching in it, you want to have just enough ground space for a water bowl and maybe a hide box. They need a lot of tree space since they are arboreal.

Its a shops job to get you to buy as much as possible, I will walk into a new shop and buy crickets and I have them swearing to me that if I don't buy the 20$ orange cricket food that they sell my crickets will die. Well sorry but for years now mine have lived perfectly fine on veggies that I have at home.

They will often make you buy a bunch of stuff that you really don't even need, such as substrate. I cant tell you how many times I have butted into the middle of a shop worker trying to sell a customer something that they really do not need for their reptiles at all.

If you got the UV light then use it, its not going to hurt him at all, if you don't have it then its not really a big deal. Also did you make sure your roughie was captive bred? A lot of places will get wild caught for cheap and sell them and if you got a wild one then you are going to have a fun time with him.

They are nearly impossible to catch and handle and often will starve due to not eating, so make sure you figure out if he really is captive bred. Other than that they are just like any other arboreal snake except they eat insects and some will eat pinky mice, if you can get them to take it.