# Bandy Bandy's



## Snakeluvver2 (May 11, 2010)

Hey 
So i just recently found out that people keep bandy bandy's
Which surprised me very pleasantly.
Anyone have any info or pics would love to see some.


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## pyrodarknessanny (May 11, 2010)

omg! love bandy-bandys! yes would also like to know about em. what on earth would you feed a captive one? (since there soo specialized and all) 

ill i know is they eat blind snakes and there theses about 6 or so different subspecies (is that right?)


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## -Matt- (May 11, 2010)

Not very common in captivity and like I told you in the other thread Jannico they are force fed (occassionally assist fed) on pinkie mice. I know of one case where they have actually taken pink mice when offered. Kept on a soil substrate so they can burrow, I believe there may be pics of captive ones in the elapids thread.

You can keep anything you want if you look hard enough to find it.


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## syeph8 (May 11, 2010)

Mattsnake said:


> Not very common in captivity and like I told you in the other thread Jannico they are force fed (occassionally assist fed) on pinkie mice. I know of one case where they have actually taken pink mice when offered. Kept on a soil substrate so they can burrow, I believe there may be pics of captive ones in the elapids thread.
> 
> You can keep anything you want if you look hard enough to find it.



met a bloke who at the time was feeding his chicks if that helps he is the only person i heard of who had ever kept em. i always thought it was illegal (i know he kept his illegally)

not sure if his were assist fed or not, i am pretty sure he wasnt force feeding though as im sure it would have come up while discussing what it eats.


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## daniel1234 (May 11, 2010)

They are cool lil snakes.
I have held one.
As said on prev thread by myself and Mattsnake, they can be fed on rodents but it is an effort to do so. The person I know actually bred them, by accident. She needed special permission to get them in SA though. They were kept in a pretty basic click clack. Not sure about substrate though, if any.


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## Snakeluvver2 (May 11, 2010)

Ah six i think and 5 are found up north.
Yer i thought they only ate blind snake too
but apprently (dont take my word on it) but they can be weaned on to rodents.


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## Snakeluvver2 (May 11, 2010)

thanks for the info guys


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## -Matt- (May 11, 2010)

syeph8 said:


> met a bloke who at the time was feeding his chicks if that helps he is the only person i heard of who had ever kept em. i always thought it was illegal (i know he kept his illegally)
> 
> not sure if his were assist fed or not, i am pretty sure he wasnt force feeding though as im sure it would have come up while discussing what it eats.



I wouldn't think that they would be capable of eating chicks? They only have a tiny little mouth. I believe Sonia Dewdney bred them in SA and she was the one that had them feeding (with a small amount of assisstance) on pink or fuzzy mice. I also know of one other person in QLD who has bred them but I'm sure there are others out there.


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## syeph8 (May 11, 2010)

Mattsnake said:


> I wouldn't think that they would be capable of eating chicks? They only have a tiny little mouth. I believe Sonia Dewdney bred them in SA and she was the one that had them feeding (with a small amount of assisstance) on pink or fuzzy mice. I also know of one other person in QLD who has bred them but I'm sure there are others out there.



i have no idea man, ive never even seen one in person. as i said i spoke to a bloke and that what he said. only met him once. know he owned snakes because hes a mate of someone i used to know (realy stuffed his life up and now i dont talk to him). seemed to be telling the truth though and i have a pretty good BSometer. either that or i am confusing it with another snake we talked about... but im 98% sure it was the bandybandy because they do only eat snakes


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## -Matt- (May 11, 2010)

Well I wont throw up any Bandy Bandy pics I have coz you've seen them in my other thread but here's a pic of an adults mouth to give you an idea of the size. This animal is dead by the way.





Ah what the hell...another head shot of a live snake


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## syeph8 (May 12, 2010)

i have seen photos and they are beautiful looking snakes and after seeing closeup of the size of the mouth i agree it doesnt look like they can eat chicks. this bloke was either pullin my leg or i misheard him or some other explination in between but i do remember asking specifically (thinking he would say wild caught skinks or something, which i thought would be most logical) and him saying chicken.


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## Fuscus (May 12, 2010)

[video=youtube;-_qWp-4vQTo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_qWp-4vQTo[/video]


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## Slats (May 12, 2010)

Cheers fuscus


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## spanna_spamload (May 12, 2010)

@ Mattsnake
Did the live one do the pose for you? its awesome when they do it


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## -Matt- (May 12, 2010)

I've had them do the defence pose for me before but from what I've seen it's only small bandy bandys that will do it for me...adults will just sit there.


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## Tiliqua (May 12, 2010)

I've dealt with bandy-bandies on 4 occasions, the mouth is tiny and sunken under the top lip (similar to black-headed pythons), an adaption to their burrowing habits. The ones I have come across are rather small, about the girth of a pencil, and about 20-30cm long. I think it would be improbable that they could even be force-fed chicks. Have assist fed them mouse tails, and pinkies, with pinkies being rather difficult as they have a tendency to burst open and get messy. Fuscus, your video does render you a semi-god, and that Bandy-bandy is the largest i've seen. Good work. Oh, and their eggs look like overgrown tic-tacs.


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## H.bitorquatus (May 12, 2010)

If bandy bandys didn't do they hoopy thing and have a nice pattern, they would be as crap as small eyeds, that head shot just proved what an ugly snake they are  Saying that I wouldn't mind coming across more this coming spring.


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## Fuscus (May 12, 2010)

I've encountered about 15 Bandy-bandies in the wild. Some assume the position very quickly while other flat out refuse. The last one I encountered was a young adult who hooped as I was getting out of the car. 







I would treasure having a pair of these animals.


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## -Matt- (May 12, 2010)

I've seen about 30 wild bandy bandys and maybe had 5 or 6 hoop up for me, all of these ones have been small snakes that reacted as soon as they've realised I was there. The biggest I've seen was about 70cm long and actually had a spot on it's body instead of the trademark stripes.


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## -Matt- (May 12, 2010)

I've seen about 30 wild bandy bandys and maybe had 5 or 6 hoop up for me, all of these ones have been small snakes that reacted as soon as they've realised I was there. The biggest I've seen was about 70cm long and actually had a spot on it's body instead of the trademark stripes.

Oh and there is no way you can compare them to small-eyes! Haha


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## PSimmo (May 12, 2010)

great video fuscus


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## -Matt- (May 13, 2010)

Hmmm I somehow double posted before?

Fuscus, thats Sonia Dewdney's animal isn't it? A slight bit of assistance and then away it goes...unreal! Be interesting to know how she got them feeding like that and just how much effort it took?


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## shlanger (May 13, 2010)

I recall back in the late 70's naturalist David Fleay at West Burleigh, Gold Coast, had an albino Bandy bandy! He showed it to me.


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## AUSHERP (May 13, 2010)

bandy bandys are far from ugly i have encountered them in the wild as well, and they always hoop for me, ill post pics if i can find them,
that video fuscus posted is excellent, it wasnt very heavily assisted was it?


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## AUSHERP (May 13, 2010)

an albino would be awesome, ive seen albino small eyeds, i wonder if fleays line was ever carried on??


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## -Matt- (May 13, 2010)

A not so bandy Bandy Bandy....


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## AUSHERP (May 13, 2010)

wow thats mad hey?


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## Fuscus (May 13, 2010)

Mattsnake said:


> ...Fuscus, thats Sonia Dewdney's animal isn't it? ..


All I know is that it is supposed to be from the gold coast


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## H.bitorquatus (May 13, 2010)

Lol if the bandy bandy was patternless, it would have a similar face to small eyed. It was kinda a joke about them being ugly by the way lol I love them, it was wrong of me to compare them to such a disgusting snake.

Hey Matt I could nearly top your 30, unfortunately they were dead or dying so they wouldn't count :lol:

Beat my two 100% live ones :lol: one hooped the other slid of into long grass. They are so common yet they are always dead or dying they must aim to lay were peoples wheels go.


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## -Matt- (May 13, 2010)

Fuscus said:


> All I know is that it is supposed to be from the gold coast



Hmmm not Sonia's then. Great effort who ever it is though!


H.bitorquatus said:


> Lol if the bandy bandy was patternless, it would have a similar face to small eyed. It was kinda a joke about them being ugly by the way lol I love them, it was wrong of me to compare them to such a disgusting snake.
> 
> Hey Matt I could nearly top your 30, unfortunately they were dead or dying so they wouldn't count :lol:
> 
> Beat my two 100% live ones :lol: one hooped the other slid of into long grass. They are so common yet they are always dead or dying they must aim to lay were peoples wheels go.


 
Also bandy bandys dont have serious attitude problems and throw themselves around like a mental lol. Yeah I find more dead than alive aswell, they say that they come out after rain (like blind snakes) but I've only seen them when its really dry.


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## snowsnake (May 13, 2010)

the video is one of Sonias, im going up there this weekend to do her awsome course, and also do a bit of maintanace work with her collection, honestly i love bandy bandys, but they are a bit of a pain to feed, and have been told (i dont believe so) that they are hard to keep.
Beautiful herps though


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## -Matt- (May 13, 2010)

As far as I was aware Sonia is in SA?


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## snowsnake (May 13, 2010)

yeah, she is
i dont know why i said "up there"....lol


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## H.bitorquatus (May 13, 2010)

Lol I have seen them in both, probably mostly dry. I also see most of my blind snakes in dry weather too. Yer small eyeds are pretty spastic, at least they are very forgiving to errors, they seem to head butt for a while then they get really pissed and start chewing like crazy (that is after you harass them for a while)


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## Dan. (May 13, 2010)

I spoke to a friend from queensland today about this and he says he had one for a short while and fed it Crickets????
Does anybody know of any Aus snake species that feeds on insects??wild or captive??


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## -Matt- (May 13, 2010)

H.bitorquatus said:


> Lol I have seen them in both, probably mostly dry. I also see most of my blind snakes in dry weather too. Yer small eyeds are pretty spastic, at least they are very forgiving to errors, they seem to head butt for a while then they get really pissed and start chewing like crazy (that is after you harass them for a while)


 
The NSW small-eyeds must be too cold to open their mouths lol the ones up here have no problem chewing on your boot, they are bloody quick and so unpredictable....one second they'll be laying their getting their photo taken, the next they'll be throwing themselves at your face before you can even react! lol



Dan. said:


> I spoke to a friend from queensland today about this and he says he had one for a short while and fed it Crickets????
> Does anybody know of any Aus snake species that feeds on insects??wild or captive??


 
No Australian species of snakes feed on insects...one eats crustaceans. However snakes have been found with insects in their stomachs but probably just eaten by mistake.

Oh and blind snakes feed on termite eggs...bandy bandys then feed on the blind snakes.


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## Dan. (May 13, 2010)

cool, thanks mattsnake.


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## Sdaji (May 15, 2010)

I've seen heaps of Bandy Bandies. On quite a few occasions I've seen several in one night, enough so that I haven't bothered to get out of the car to look at them. Most of the ones I have seen have looped. The first one I ever saw was reasonably small, and I was upset because it wouldn't loop. The other person I was with refused to accept that and pestered it for several minutes, and eventually it did loop. I've only seen a few which wouldn't loop (and other than the first one I've never seen one pestered all that much). 

Several Australian snakes eat insects, especially some of the small elapids. I'm not sure if it's normal for a Bandy Bandy though. I have always wondered if they are as specialised as people believe, and I suspect they must sometimes eat reptiles other than Blind Snakes.

Bandy Bandies are very cool, I always love seeing them (provided I haven't seen several in the extremely recent past) but I couldn't imagine a snake I'd be much less interested in keeping. Good luck to anyone who does put the effort in though


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## -Matt- (May 15, 2010)

Sdaji said:


> Several Australian snakes eat insects, especially some of the small elapids. I'm not sure if it's normal for a Bandy Bandy though. I have always wondered if they are as specialised as people believe, and I suspect they must sometimes eat reptiles other than Blind Snakes.


 
I'd love to hear more about this Sdaji...do you mean that they eat insects as a staple or on the odd occassion? What species are you refering to? It's taken my interest as I was under the impression that Australian snakes didn't feed on insects.

Cheers


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## Leon1980 (May 15, 2010)

kinda like a california king snake


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## Jimi (May 15, 2010)

Hey mattsnake, little whip snakes eat insects.


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## PK1988 (Mar 9, 2012)

hey people,

do you find these in NSW usually? im sure we had one out the back of our place one afternoon/night, if not what would it have been?

thanks.


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## hrafna (Mar 9, 2012)

yep, have seen several in the wild in sydney.


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## PK1988 (Mar 9, 2012)

Hey thanks... Is there anything else that it could have been? Are they safe to pick up?


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## girdheinz (Mar 9, 2012)

They are safe to pick up (it's not impossible to be bitten but generally unlikely), but never pick up a snake if you don't know what it is, unless you are 110% sure and you know what you are doing.

Gird


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