NATURAL HISTORY
The Dog-toothed Cat Snake or Boiga cynodon. This is probably the longest of all the species in the Boiga genus with some individuals 9’+. This species also probably holds the record for the widest natural range out of all of the Boiga and also is turning out to hold the record for the most color morphs and color phases out of all Boiga species which we will get into at the end of the video. Cynodon occur from Bangladesh and India in the north, to Indonesia in the south, all countries in between and is even found in the Philippines. The natural form of these can be found with many base colors from tan and gray to vivid gold and they can exhibit a hyper-melanistic form. The ones from the Philippines can often show some green colors as well as patternless/hypomelanistic variants. These have a very slight build and are well suited for climbing. Their diet reflects their habits as well as they primarily feed on birds and bird eggs.
CAPTIVE CARE/DIET/ACCLIMATION
These snakes can be very arboreal and providing height and climbing branches or perches will suit these animals very well. I prefer to use some type of wood bedding or substrate which helps to provide humidity. Misting or spraying is always a solid practice as it promotes acticity and movement and also drinking. Due to their slight build, they can dehydrate rather easily so direct misting is very important, especially with new aquisitions. In nature, rain is very normal occurrence in the late afternoon or during the night so I prefer to spray also around these time periods. I provide a warm spot of about 85-86f and ambient can really be anything cooler as long as the animals have the option to regulate their own body temperatures and choose to be cooler if they so desire. These snakes are nocturnal so lighting, in my opinion, is not really necessary. There are many schools of thought on this but I have never used lighting for these nocturnal snakes and that is about all I can say about that. I prefer to feed these slender snakes smaller meals but in multiples if need be for the adults.
BREEDING
We have bred this species several times and their breeding and eggs are really no different than other Boiga species. Generally in captivity, I would food cycle my snakes down in the Winter and start increasing food and pairing in the Spring which also coincides with some rain systems. I always incorporate palpating for follicles as an important part of knowing when to pair my animals but they can be paired without this. The risk you run is that if animals are not in breeding mode, they may predate on each other so you have to be careful with some Boiga but I have not experienced this with Boiga cynodon. Normal clutch sizes are not so large with about 8 on average but can be more depending on the female. Eggs are quite large and I tend to incubate all colubrid eggs around 80-81f and they will take roughly 115-120 days to hatch. Warmer temps can shorten this time period and cooler will prolong it but I feel it is better to go cooler and the babies tend to develop well.
ESTABLISHING BABIES
Establishing babies is something I would consider to be a bit more advanced compared to more commonly kept species. If you have access to button quail, this seems to be the key to getting cynodon going. Babies can be feisty when agitated so a day-old button quail left in cage overnight almost always does the trick. If babies will not feed at all, I then do assist feeding with mouse tail segents but these snakes are fragile so it is a delicate process. Luckily for Boiga, chewing is part of their natural instinct to deploy their rear-fangs so they will often chew down their food when assist feeding. Once they have graduated to feeding on their own, they can have quite the appetite.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I think Boiga cynodon are some of the most impressive of the genus. We aren’t trying to dominate the cynodon market but living in SE Asia is just revealing special animals and they keep coming our way. At the time of this video, we currently have:
Philippine/Bohol locality
Philippine patternless hypo
Normal Malaysia locality
Hyper melanistic Malaysia locality
WC leucistics from Indonesia
T+ albino or hypo if you will, also WC from Indonesia
Our breeding is successful, ongoing and the future will be interesting if we can make some progress with the morph animals. Our facility is quite a bit bigger than what we had to work with in the USA and we can always make room for more new morph animals so we will just let universe decide what direction our cynodon project goes.