Red Tailed Green Rats

[UwabamiReptiles]

Originally Posted by a153fish

I love these and have tried to keep them 2 different times with no success. Your right about the imported ones, which is what I had. They do well, for a short time, and then they just start going south. I think stress eventually does them in, along with the parasite loads they may be harboring. I know they can be bred, cause I met a guy in Winter Haven years ago who was doing it. He offered me some babies, but I didn't feel comfortable at the time to take them on, and I had other interests. If you get them to breed, and I have any space, I may be interested in a pair of babies. Good luck with them!

Oh P.S. they may benifit from a taller cage, with climbing branches. I believe they are very arboreal, and in the wild most likely feed mostly on small birds, and lizards. Mice shouldn't be a problem, but I had one take a live mouse, and the mouse bit him in his mouth. My mistake! The bite became infected, and he spiraled out of control health wise.

Sorry to hear about your two bad experiences, thats the main reason I jumped on these when I saw they were CH. I did have these guys in 6qt with some plastic rods and vines but after a fiasco(I won't even get into it lol) I decided to set them up in 66qts with lots of perches covered in vines and plants. It took me about 2 days to find out these guys are a lot easier to deal with if they have a lot of space. I plan to build a tall cage for these guys when they get bigger. You are right, they are almost strictly arboreal so a tall cage with lots of branches with dense foliage is the way to house Gonyosoma. As far as feeding, the other reason I jumped on these was because they are f/t rodent feeders. Both have already eaten for me so I'm happy that that shouldn't be problem(knock on wood).