Quote:
Originally Posted by TheFragginDragon
I'm very interested in these, could you please tell me how you have them set up (type of caging, heat, light, etc etc)? Do you feed them live, or f/t? What is their demeanor like?
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I have kept copperheads (northern, southern, an intergrade) in a variety of diffrent ways, everything from totes in a slide rack (what you see the northern an southern in in the pics) to Locking cages (like what the intergrade is in from herpcages.com) to aquariums an normal snap lock totes/tupperware. I have also kept babies in critter keepers.
Bedding I have used news paper, paper towls, an mulch (which is my fav) and aspen.
Heat i have used UTH, an Lights. I have even at some points due to my reptile room getting a certain temp or even over it, even gone without heat. Coppers tend to be fairly tolerant of cooler temps atm my guys have a cool side of 75 an a heated basking spot of 85.
In the summer you can actualy keep them with a high end of 90 durring the day an a cool of 70 at night an in the winter if you cool them for breeding temps can be droped as low as 50-60 degrees.
Feeding I have fed live but honestly I have never had a problem getin a copperhead whether captive bred or wc to take f/t normal white mice sometimes even right off the tongs some you may have to lay it down an let them take it over night. I have even fed chicken gizzard an deer meat as well as an ocassional piece of beef an some specimine's will happily take them without hesitation - I might get some critisim for that but it was an experiment since I use all the above if I have to assist feed babies.
my adults get fed 2 mice every week, where as if i have babies they usualy get a pink or fuzzy every 3-4 days depending on if the lump has vanished or not.
Just in my experience southern coppers tend to be so much more laid back then northerns. Southerns to me tend to ride a hook a bit beter an be more relaxed when maintenance is needed. The northerns tend to be alil more agitated an wanna fly off the handle an take off. The intergrades seem to be a pleasant combination of the 2.
Coppers are pretty easy to keep imo
. Hope this was helpful