Starter Kits Special Offer! -50% OFF ALL LIVESTOCK

Due to its immense popularity last year, we are continuing with our 50% OFF ALL LIVESTOCK when purchased with one of our full starter kits. This covers any animal/group of animals up to £300 in value, for animals over £300 you still get £150 off their standard price when purchased with a full starter kit. Offer valid 01/10/25 until 10/01/26.

Rhino Rat snakes (Gonyosoma boulengeri) are a medium sized (up to 5ft / 150cm) Asian rat snake native to the temperate rainforests of southern China and Northern Vietnam, living at elevations from 300m-1000m. Rhino rat snakes are a diurnal species that are alert and moderately active but generally docile towards keepers and relatively tame in terms of handling. In the wild they hunt small rodents and birds but there is speculation that when young they probably hunt amphibians and smaller reptiles. This unusual species undergoes ontogenic colour change (changes colour as it gets older) whereby hatchlings start out a silver-grey colour but as they grow, they turn to a vibrant emerald green as adults. Rhino rat snakes are highly sought after and have only recently started being bred in captivity with any form of regularity, it will be many years from now (if ever) before this species becomes common place in the reptile trade.

Their unique appearance with the “nose horn” is a bit of a scientific puzzle and no one can really give a definitive reason for it. This horn like projection is also seen in a few other species of completely unrelated arboreal snake such as Barron’s Racers (Philodryas barroni) and the Madagascan leaf nosed snakes in the genus Langaha. Currently the best guestimate is that the “nose horn” helps to break up the outline of the snake’s head shape so may be some form of camouflage adaptation for when they are hunting through the leaves.

 Like many Asian rat snakes, they do not like high temperatures and although people used to try keeping them at a high relative humidity throughout their enclosure, we now know that it is far better to keep them in a slightly drier enclosure but with an area of high localised humidity such as a moss box. They do not like to be in a saturated or waterlogged environment.

This species can be difficult to get feeding when young but once established they are a relatively hardy species.