Common Trinket Snakes
Common trinket snakes, Coelognathus helena helena, suffer from "brown snake syndrome" - that is, no one gives them a second glance because at first glance, they're brown. That said, these snakes are far from common. With lateral white and black stripes and a beautiful olive brown coloration down their backs and tails, trinket snakes are everything you want out of a beauty snake but without the size and defensive temperament. Calm, inquisitive, and great eaters, trinket snakes are quite literally the perfect snake.
Trinket snakes are a joy to handle, as their calm demeanor makes them easy to interact with. Babies and adults are curious and slower-moving than your average colubrid, meaning they handle beautifully. Additionally, they're voracious eaters on frozen thawed rodents and stay a very reasonable size. Like beauty snakes, trinkets will vertically flatten their necks when they feel threatened, but this is just a display - in our experience they're unlikely to bite and quick to settle. If you don't have one of these snakes, you're missing out on an incredible species.
Common trinket snakes, also called Indian trinket snakes, are native to India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. They have the striking beauty of an old world rat snake with an amazing personality. In the wild, these snakes are found in humid forested areas, which means in captivity they need a hotspot between 83-85 degrees and 65%+ humidity. These are often found in their native range by locals and are handleable even wild-caught, though of course we recommend getting a captive bred individual.
Trinket snakes, like most colubrids we work with, stay a really manageable size for captive keepers. Females grow generally larger than males, up to around 4ft, while males stay around 3ft. They are rodent eaters in the wild and regularly take frozen thawed mice in captivity. All of our trinket snakes are very reliable eaters and quick growers. These snakes spend equal time curled up and exploring, and are incredibly easy to interact with.
We are hoping our trinket snakes will be ready to breed in 2027.
