Vol. 28 (2008), No. 11

M I N N E S O T A HERPETOLOGICAL S O C I E T Y N

E W S L E T T E R

IN THIS ISSUE: LAST MONTH’S SPEAKER’S KATHY LOVE NOVEMBER SPEAKER IS WITH ALLEN BLAKE SHELDON THE ALL NEW FIELD HERPER’S CORNER November 2008

Volume 28

Number 11

President Jennifer Hensley Vice- President David Dewitt

MINNESOTA HERPETOLOGICAL SOCIETY NOVEMBER 2008

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NUMBER 11

MHS VOICE MAIL: 612.624.7065 MHS WEBPAGE: HTTP://WWW.MNHERPSOC .ORG GROUP E MAIL : HTTP ://WWW. GROUPS.YAHOO.COM/ GROUP/ MNHERPSOC

Treasurer Nancy Haig

The Purpose of the Minnesota Herpetological Society is to:

Membership Secretary Chris Smith

• Further the education of the membership and the general public in care and captive propagation

Recording Secretary Ellen Heck News Letter Editor James Soos MEMBERS AT LARGE Jeff LeClere Pete Kazeck Christina Dunathar Kathy Claugherty

• Educate the members and the general public in the ecological role of reptiles and amphibians; • Promote the study and conservation of reptiles and amphibians.

The Minnesota Herpetological Society is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. Membership is open Newsletter is published monthly to provide its members with information concerning the society’sto all individuals with an interest in amphibians and reptiles. The Minnesota Herpetological Society activities and a media for exchanging information, opinions and resources.

General Meetings are held at Borlaug Hall, Room 335 on the St. Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota on the first Friday of each month (unless there is a holiday conflict). The meeting starts at 7:00pm and lasts about three hours. Please check the MHS Voice mail for changes in schedules or cancellations.

COMMITTEES Adoption Sara Richard Education Jan Larson

Library Carmelita Pfar Webmaster Anke Reinders

Cover Animal Common Snapping Turtle Monster by Brad Baysinger.

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Ads or Notices must be submitted no later than the night of the General Meeting to be included in the next issue. Longer Articles will be printed as time and space allows and should be in electronic File format if possible.

See Inside back cover for ad rates.

Submissions may be sent to: The Minnesota Herpetological Society Attn: Newsletter Editor Bell Museum of Natural History 10 Church St. SE. Minneapolis, MN 55455.0104 Please send email to mhsnewseditor@yahoo.com

THE NEWS LETTER OF THE MINNESOTA HERPETOLOGICAL SOCIETY

NOVEMBER 2008

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NUMBER 11

OUT OF THE OFFICE WITH THE VICE PRESIDENT. I would like to thank everyone who attended the October meeting and had a chance to listen to both of our speakers .Bill and Kathy Love were impressed by the attendance of our members Both speakers commented on our enthusiasm and knowledge of herps. Again I thank you for coming and supporting our speakers.

I still welcome your suggestions and ideas for upcoming speakers and subjects. Please feel free to email or call with your ideas or feedback. In November we will have Blake Sheldon speaking on photographing herps and marketing your pictures.

December’s speaker will be Joe Wasilewski, speaking on conservation techniques through out the Caribbean. Then for the banquet Joe will talk about American crocodiles, back from the brink. January will bring Marc Bailey. Along with Marc were trying to have the president of the UNITED STATES ASSOCIATION OF REPTILE KEEPERS (USARK) ... Then in February or March we will have Matt Edgar come to town Matt is a Venomous snake keeper at the St Louis Zoo .

THANK YOU SINCERELY DAVE DEWITT

A TALE OF TWO SPEAKERS

By Ellen Heck

For October, we had two speakers. The first was Dr Amy Kizer. Dr Kizer works at Underwater Adventure in the Mall of America, where among other things she has performed surgery on a 4’ shark, as well as regular treatment of the various animals housed there. She is also on staff at the Lexington Pet Clinic.

As many people who keep reptiles know, there is a wide variety of reptiles and amphibians, who have a wide range of husbandry needs. They also have a tendency to not show symptoms readily. So the general approach to veterinary care for them is to understand the specific requirements of the species, including diet, lighting, and husbandry, as well as their hibernatory and reproductive tendencies.

Basically all reptiles show a health problem in the same way – anorexia and lethargy. These are somewhat vague symptoms, so further diagnosis is obviously needed, based on species.

In snakes, common things to look for would be retained eye caps, an egg-bound female, dysecdysis (the scientific word for a bad shed), wounds or abscesses on the body, mouth rot or other problems in the mouth, mites, burns or salmonella.

Small lizards, like geckos, can also add things like impaction (depending on the substrate they are kept on) in addition to most of the preceding list. In bearded dragons, diet can be an issue. A lot of people tend to feed a strictly insectivorous diet and overlook the importance of the herbivore side. Iguanas have even more complicated diets and can have issues with their tails. Even if their tails do grow back, the new growth is not normal and the animals may be better off having its tail amputated rather than allow re-growth.

Turtles and tortoises cover a wide range of dietary and housing needs. Aural abscesses, shell rot, reproductive issues and bladder stones are some of the possible issues with them. And of course surgical correction of their conditions is a problem in and of itself; cutting into the shell to get at the organs requires that the piece taken out be cemented back in place so that healing can – slowly – take place.

Treatment of course depends on the species and ailment involved. Medical and surgical treatment may be in order, but supportive care is just as important.

Creating an ideal environment for the animal during the healing process is critical.

www.lexingtonpetclinic.com The second speaker was Kathy Love. She has spent over 25 years breeding elaphe guttata, a species she says, with justification, is the single most popular species of pet snake in the world, and one of the first kept as pets. Their “tame” dispositions, simple housing and feeding requirements and the variety of colors and patterns they come in all contribute to their popularity.

Also known as the red rat snake, they range from New Jersey down to Florida and west into Texas. In colder areas they hibernate. The animals were originally bred from several natural populations, including the Okeetees (from South Carolina), the Miami phase (from Florida) and the rosy rat snake (from the Florida Keys).

They are crepuscular in nature, generally seeking cover during the day. Their diet as adults consists of rodents with an occasional bird, although the hatchlings and juveniles are less particular and will include amphibians. In captivity, frozen/thawed

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THE NEWS LETTER OF THE MINNESOTA HERPETOLOGICAL SOCIETY rodents are the staple diet, although there are “snake sausages” available for those who aren’t comfortable with that.

People and vehicles are one f the greatest threats to wild snakes, although birds and other predators, such as alligators also prey upon them.

As anyone who stayed awake during biology class knows, traits such as color and pattern are either dominant or recessive, with “normal” being the dominant and things like albinism being recessive. Most species carry the recessive traits, so by selective breeding over generations a breeder can produce the desired (at least in the pet trade) recessive traits with a degree of certainty. But as Kathy pointed out, the traits aren’t always controlled by the same gene. So even if animals look similar, the exact genes involved may be different, resulting in mainly “normal” hatchlings if the snakes are bred.

Originally, the corn snakes sold were wild-caught animals that were sold by the foot. Nowadays, of course, most animals sold are captive-bred animals.

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corn” by someone at the meeting. As mentioned before, however, more than one gene is involved, which can unexpectedly result in “normal” babies. Most traits are also much harder to breed in than out. This is especially true for the compound morphs, where several recessive traits are involved.

In fact, a registry has been set up to help track the breed as it develops. Animals can be registered and their family trees traced, much as the AKC keeps track of dogs and the Jockey Club tracks thoroughbreds. This is probably a first in the herp world, outside of possibly the records kept by zoos.

However, since a picture is worth 1000 words, check out her site http://www.corn-utopia.com for some great photos, many supplied by Kathy’s husband Bill, whom some may have heard of (I jest; Bill Love is of course very well known for his photography). Or check out her book Cornsnakes – the Comprehensive Guide.

http://www.herpregistry.com The babies almost never show the colors they will display as adults. As is typical with most rat snakes, the full color doesn’t show up until the snakes are 2’-2 ½’ in length. Lighting also plays a huge role in what the snake looks like. This can be one downside to the availability of animals through the internet; the picture may have been taken in specific lighting, or even be of a general type of snake rather than a specific individual.

On August 31, 1961, the first baby albino corn snakes were hatched out by Dr Bern Bechtel, a dermatologist and geneticist. From this humble start has come an industry that sells between 400,000-500,000 animals a year in the US alone.

Kathy keeps her animals in separate cages, only bringing animals together for mating. Most are housed in plastic shoe boxes. It is imperative of course to know the gender of the snakes you are keeping if you intend to breed them.

Kathy, on her website, has several videos on the probing and “popping” methods of determining gender. Once the female goes through her pre-lay shed, 3-5 weeks after breeding, just provide her with a nest box. Most clutches consist of 15-20 eggs, although some may lay 30 or more.

The eggs should be kept in the low to mid 80s in fairly moist substrate. 2-3 months later the babies will hatch out. Gender is not determined by temperature; must clutches are 50/50 male/female.

Kathy claims the “sunglow” was the first named variant (other than “albino” which is not specific to snakes) and first used about 1987. From this first variant has sprung at least 20 recognized color types and 8 patterns, including a speckled wild-caught specimen christened “pepper-

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Treasurer’s Report for Sept 2008 Prepared by Nancy Haig Beginning Checkbook Balance: Income: Membership Raffle Adoption Rodent Sales Total income:

23,087.17 $240.00 $75.00 $295 $480.00 $1,090.00

Expense: Newsletter Program Adoption cost Voicemail Other prt Renfest supplies Vol awards

$269.55 $50.00 $60.00 $92.32 $51.58 $277.90 $354.87

Total Expense Cash increase/(decrease)

$1,156.22 ($66.22)

Ending Checkbook Balance:

$23,020.95

Placement of cash holdings Checking account Paypal acct Cash on hand Total

$23,020.95 $507.33 $155.00 23,683.28

THE NEWS LETTER OF THE MINNESOTA HERPETOLOGICAL SOCIETY

NOVEMBER 2008

VOLUME 28

THE FIELD HERPER’S CORNER

NUMBER 11

TWO TOUGH SNAKES

By Terry Odegaard

While returning from a reptile talk late at night in the 1970’s, my 10 year old daughter, Laura, and I saw an adult fox snake crossing the road. As it was a busy two lane highway, I jumped out as quickly as possible to attempt a rescue. As soon as I saw the snake again about 100 feet behind my parked Car, two small cars sped over the snake, “blip, blip, blip.”

The 4 foot snake was slowly crawling over itself in circles as I reached out and gently picked it up. I tried to keep from stretching it out as I seemed to want to keep it somewhat coiled.

Into the freezer it went.

But lucky for the snake, my associate, Paula Swanson was not so hasty to give up on the little snake and took its “L” shaped form out of the freezer and set it up in a small cage. The following day the injured area was quite swollen, but the snake was still alive and the sharp backbone angle was not so acute.

Over the next few days the snake’s back gradually straightened out completely and the swelling disappeared leaving a snake with no ill effects from what I thought was a fatal injury.

Paula’s belief in that little snake taught me that, “When it comes to snakes, where there’s life, there’s hope!”

The snake’s head still showed good life signs; aligned jaws, flickering tongue, and no blood, but holding the snake I thought, “this feels like a bean bag”, due to numerous broken ribs. It still had muscle tone so its spinal cord was functional, and in accommodation to my daughter’s feelings, more than any hope that the injured snake could survive, I gently placed it in a dark box trying to keep its coiled poster as intact as possible.

We did not attempt to pick up the fox snake other than placing its head in a small water dish while it drank, and it did not try to move for days. It just stayed in a series of tight coils. I thought that was significant. Then, to our surprise, on the 7th day when the box was opened the fox snake crawled out! After letting it crawl about for several minutes I placed it in a proper cage and offered it a dead mouse which it ate immediately.

Three Days later id defecated with no problems and I gave it another mouse. By now it was a strong and lively as any fox snake, but still felt somewhat like a bean bag as it crawled through my hands.

About a month later, the tough old fox snake was released in a large swamp newar where it was found.

This was not the only time a snake’s marvelous ability to endure and recover from seemingly fatal physical trauma has amazed me.

Back in the 1970’s at my old pet shop, the Pet Dragon, a hatchling California king snake was accidentally caught in a closing cage door. Upon opening the door and removing the little snake, we saw that its back was reshaped at mid body in a perfect right angle. As its survival even though the post injury half of the little snake seemed to function normally.

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