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Lyre Snake Care

A

aliceinwl

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I have a new juvie lyre snake (~1.5 ft). Does anyone have experience keeping these caging (all I could find said to set them up like a rat snake, so I have him in a standard snake cage: 10 gallon, tight hide, water dish, UTH, and aspen shavings), feeding, etc. I'd like to get him onto rodents so any tips on converting him would be appreciated. I have a lot of experience scenting and a diverse array of herps that could be pressed into service, are there any that you guys have found to be particularly "enticing". I'm going to give him a week to settle in before I attempt feeding.

Thanks,
Alice
 
of course Lyers are

notorious lizard eaters. You will need to examine all possibilities of converting over to rodents. The Texas lyers are thought to be as bad eaters as neonate or wild caught grey-banded kingsnakes as to switching over. As you know also they are completely nocturnal with baro pressure maybe being a very big determining factor of feeding. At least in my observation. Did you say what species this one is ? Doesn't really matter as all lyers do the same. A heavily habitat type scenario cage appears to be the way to go on this species. I do know of people keeping and a few successful breedings in captivity. But to my knowledge and observation, they need quite a bit of room cage wise even as juveniles ? My .02,
 
Alice,
I only have experience with a WC adult that I had for less than a month. I passed him on to someone else and haven’t heard anything further. I tried getting a hold of him today with no success. I do believe he was working with juveniles and may have some suggestions. I will try again this weekend if I don’t hear back.
 
Any info would be appreciated. I plan to give him a week to settle in and then offer a live pinkie (maybe I'll get lucky). If that doesn't work, I have a pet banded gecko that I'll use to scent a washed f/t pinkie. I also have night lizard that could be pressed into service. I know a guy who had a lyre snake that ultimately died, but he was able to get it to take tree frogs (I have a Hyla regilla and a H. cadaverina I can use for scenting as well). If this doesn't work, I'll get a lizard tail and stick in the mouth of a f/t pinkie and see if that works. If I still have no luck, I'll catch him a treefrog (and then try to get him to take treefrog scented) and if that doesn't work, I'll do the same thing with a side-blotched. I'm wondering if in terms of feeding, if it would be best to cup him or leave him in the cage. I've had good luck with cupping when trying to get some new snakes feeding or converted to rodents.

-Alice
 
The lyre snake didn't take the live pinkie I offered initially. The next week I offered a f/t washed pinkie with a piece of skink tail in the mouth and that disappeared :) Hopefully, it works again.

-Alice
 
He didn't eat at the next feeding. I offered a pinky with a mouthful of skink tail and placed it under the slab of cork the lyre snake hangs out under again. This time, however, I used a large rather than a small pinky. The lyre looked like it might be going into a shed cycle at the time (aside from feeding, I've been leaving him undisturbed, and even then I just barely lift the cork to slide the food under). Provided the snake isn't shedding, I'm going to try again with a smaller pinky and the skink tail in a few days. If that doesn't work again, I may try rubbing it on one of the treefrogs and re-offering it.

-Alice
 
Hopefully he takes again after shed. Could you post a picture afterwards?

Alice, I meant to ask if you field collected this one and from what local?
 
He (I actually don't know the sex) was collected outside of Anza. I don't have the exact location handy. When I peeked at him this week, it didn't look like he was shedding so I thought I might have been mistaken and offered him a frog scented pinky with a skink tail in the mouth; it was refused. This morning, however, there was a shed wrapped around his hide so maybe that was the problem after all.

-Alice
 
No sign of the two pinkies a la skink tail I placed on top of his log tonight.

-Alice
 
Another update

This week, I took a frozen, thawed washed pinky and rubbed it thoroughly on my live western skink, the skink deposited some "pee" on the pinky during the process. I placed the pinky on top of the bark slab. A few hours later it was gone :)

He's a very nervous little snake, if he catches me looking at him while he's out, he buzzes his tail and shoots under the bark slab. Fortunately, he's never tried to bite. I'm still making every attempt to keep disturbance to a minimum. Hopefully, he keeps eating for me, and if he'll take scented consistently that would be even better.

I posted some questions about lyres on KS and one of the responders said that he'd had good luck feeding them pinkys scented with a frozen skink or anole. He would set the lyres up in a shoe box size enclosure, on newspaper, with a tight hide and place the pinky at the entrance. He felt that substrates like aspen interfeared with the lizard scent (my aspen bag had been sitting around open for ~ a year so it wasn't too smelly). He'd successfully converted multiple lyres to rodents using this method. I figured I'd repost it here in case someone else looking for acclimation information on lyres ends up perusing this thread.

-Alice
 
Last week I offered a pre-killed washed, unscented pinky and it was refused so I rubbed it on the skink again and it disappeared quickly. Tonight I again offered a pre-killed washed unscented, and it quickly disappeared. My skink will be a happier camper if this continues ;)

-Alice
 
Last edited:
aliceinwl said:
Last week I offered a pre-killed washed, unscented piny and it was refused so I rubbed it on the skink again and it disappeared quickly. Tonight I again offered a pre-killed washed unscented, and it quickly disappeared. My skink will be a happier camper if this continues ;)

-Alice
Click to expand...
Yeah!! That’s great to hear! Did you sex “him” yet?
 
I have successfullyn kept several w/c lyers over the years. All of mine ate unsecented small mice. The Lyers I had kept originated from the Palm Springs area and Borrgo area in Calif.

Try this. Put a box stuffed with cardboard in the cage. These snakes love to press themselves in tight crevices. By jamming themselves into a cereal box (or other box) like this they will feel secure and probably eat anything in front of them... Or at least in front of their box at night :) :)
 
Did your lyres take unscented mice right off the bat? What kind of longevity and growth rate did you notice with yours?

Ever since mine took his first unscented, he has not required any additional scenting and has been readily taking his weekly rodent meal. He does not seem to be a fast grower. But, he's turned into an easy keeper and an interesting addition.

I feed him mostly pre-killed or frozen/thawed, but when I have offered live, he does constrict. Although I don't handle him much, he seems to tolerate it well and has never threatened or tried to bite (I thought I read somewhere that they were "nippy"?). He does a great tail buzz when disturbed.

-Alice
 
I know I'm resurrecting an ancient thread here but as a new keeper of a w/c California Lyre snake I'm seriously scratching my head as to why there is so little information about captive husbandry on these stunning snakes.
 
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