False Water Cobra
- Hydrodynastes gigas
Description
Commonly known as the False Water Cobra, Brazilian Smooth Snake and False Cobra; Hydrodynastes are what the common names say, a mock cobra. A lot of people look at me when I mention having H.gigas as if Im a crazy person keeping true Naja species. False Water Cobras, sometimes referred to as Falsies or FWC are indeed venomous, but are rear fanged and require chewing-like motion to have the venom flow down the grooved fangs to even get the slightest bit into its prey or potential enemy.
Ranging anywhere from 5-8` with females being larger, H. gigas are not to be taken lightly. They are very bulky for a colubrid and do not hesitate to charge or chase when food is present. I`ve had a few run-ins with my female to a point where she was chasing me across the room! They do have a hood that they can spread out, much like a cobra when agitated, however they cannot rear up the same as true cobras but can only tilt their neck to the side that the threat is at to show off. Ive also seen my female flatten the majority of her body as well, which the typical cobra cannot do.
H. gigas are a diurnal species, with eyes that are so dark that it is very hard to see the rounded pupil. Babies are brownish-yellow with black saddles and banding. As adults the colors lighten up to a grey or yellow depending on the specimen. I will talk about this further in.
Range
Hydrodynastes are found in Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname as well as other countries.
Feeding
Food is a BIG thing with False Water Cobras...they love, love, love to eat. As mentioned before, I have been chased down just trying to feed my female and seemed to have thought I looked better then a rat on hemostats. One thing with H. gigas however, they cannot take down large meals. My adult female gets no larger than a medium rat or two, where as my male will only take down smalls. By the girth, it looks like they can take down larger, but their mouth structure does not allow them to eat larger food. Despite what some people think, I feed my H. gigas a variety of food items. Im sure in the wild they would not only eat rats as they spend a great deal of time in the water. Lucky for me, they are garbage cans! Hydrodynastes will eat just about anything; dont take it for granted though! I give mine a variety of rats, whole fish, frog legs(with another larger meal), chicks, squid(on a rare occasion due to salt content), and the odd stillborn snake if any happen.
Temperament
To make it short and sweet, I dont trust them. H. gigas are either tolerant or downright aggressive. My female is tolerant once out of the enclosure but is aggressive and defensive in it. As for my male, I can touch and handle him in or out of the enclosure.
Venom
The venom has not been studied enough to know what the venom causes or what it can potentially do. The only time I have ever been bit is by a newly hatched neonate that chewed my finger and left it tingling and burning for about 5 minutes. I have heard rumours that someone had their arm amputated from an adult. No proof to back it up however.
Husbandry
Hydrodynastes are big and need room. They use up every bit of space I give them. I have them each in a 4x2, soon to be upgraded as they love to move. I would suggest avoiding top opening enclosures because a) humidity escapes and b) I find it much more comfortable to open it frontwards so I can go to the side and feed them without my hand dangling above their head. I keep temperatures between 80-88F with humidity fluctuating between 60-80% . For those who use paper or newspaper for substrate, it is useless with H. gigas. They go to the bathroom...a lot. Its easier to just scoop the substrate. I just use Aspen for my pair, however dirt and other substrates are okay as well.
Breeding
Despite my success so far with fertile eggs; Im still unsure on how exactly to go about the process. Im still trying to figure out what is best with tweaking things here and there such as temperature, humidity and introdution times, but it seems the basics are with a slight cooling, lower humidity and less feeding much like a Boa Constrictor. With this method however, I didnt get a large clutch and only half seemed to be fertile. I hope to soon change this and figure out the best way to successfully get it going.
Misc
There are 3 species of Hydrodynastes that I know of, H. gigas being the most common, and H. bicinctus and H. melanogigas being the less common of the three.
There is a small flutter about H. gigas with what is in captivity and what they look like. Remember how I mentioned adults tend to be between yellow and gray? A lot of people think it is sexual dimorphism, but it doesnt make sense when I have personally seen a pair of each coloration. In my opinion (not a fact at all),they are not the same. I personally think that H. gigas are the large gray specimens because as the latin name is simply put, gigas means giant. The yellow FWC tend to have more legit banding than the gray counterpart which have more of a blotched banding. I have also noticed that the yellow female has an ocellated spot on the hood where as my pair of grays do not. Through close observation between an adult female yellow and an adult female gray, the facial structure on the yellow one was much more rounded and ``taller`` than the gray which had a more flat, oval head. The postocular and preocular scales on the yellow female were more rounded and larger, as well as having 2 scales less than the gray female. Lastly, I have noticed that the gray individual was much, much larger than the yellow one. This however I cannot say how much it would play as a factor. I cant say for sure as I do not have enough individuals to look at and compare, and who knows how many and how far in they have been crossbred. Maybe it is just a weird coincidence but I am pretty certain with myself on this.. Im pretty sure they are both different species or subspecies.
Please note that the 2 "colors" have been crossbred so comparison has been difficult in most cases. I took the most obviously different individuals to compare. This included 3 greys and 3 yellows, as well as a select few google images.
-Ashley Dezan
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