Spider-tailed Horned Viper — Fact Sheet

Pseudocerastes urarachnoides · Spider-tailed Horned Viper

Full care guide

Provisional active-season targets; read the guide for evidence, seasonal restrictions and breeding uncertainties.

📋 Quick reference

🌿 Enclosure and decoration

Use at least the practical 120 × 70 × 70 cm layout in the table and allow the snake to stretch fully. Check door gaps, vents and cable holes against the smallest animal housed. Fix rocks directly to the enclosure base so excavation cannot undermine them; retain clear sightlines to shift doors. Avoid sharp gravel, aromatic wood and unstable piles. Remove waste after securing the snake.

🌡️ Heating and temperature

• Basking spot: 32-35 °C
• Warm zone: 24-28 °C
• Cool zone: 21-24 °C
• Night: 18-22 °C

🐁 Feeding

Bird-luring behaviour is documented, but the BfN husbandry review reports acceptance of mice and chicks. Verify the individual’s reliable diet before acquisition. Offer appropriately sized thawed whole prey, no wider than the body; do not use wild birds. Juvenile feeding refusal needs professional assessment, not amateur force-feeding.

The table gives an initial adult feeding interval of 14-21 days; adjust portions and timing to weight trend and condition. Deliver food through the collection’s protected feeding system. Avoid live rodents and substrate-coated food; dehydration, low temperatures and oversized meals increase regurgitation and impaction concerns. Whole prey normally needs no routine calcium or vitamin dusting. Do not improvise supplementation or force-feeding.

⚖️ Legal status

CITES Appendix II and EU Annex B. International trade requires the appropriate export or re-export documents and, for EU entry, the required import permit. Retain evidence of lawful parental stock and captive-breeding history; an invoice saying “captive bred” alone is not enough.

The Bern Convention is not the principal trade framework for this wholly Asian native range; do not infer exemption from national protection.

Legal review: 17 September 2026. National capture, possession, registration, breeding, sale and transport rules may be stricter. Verify permits before transfer and keep invoices, breeder identity, parentage and import records. Trade status does not itself authorize keeping a venomous snake.

☠️ Venom

Experimental studies show strong procoagulant and cell-damaging activity, substantially different from the neurotoxic profile of P. fieldi. Human outcomes are poorly documented; potentially serious bleeding, clotting disturbance and tissue injury must be anticipated. No species-specific antivenom was identified in the reviewed BfN report, and cross-neutralization cannot be assumed.

Treat every bite as an emergency, including an apparently dry bite. Move away, call emergency services, keep the person still, remove rings and support the limb without compression. Do not cut, suck, ice or tourniquet the wound, and do not catch the snake. Follow poison-centre instructions. Agree a receiving hospital and antivenom access before acquisition; treatment belongs in hospital.

🩺 Common problems

• Overheating: repeated escape attempts or unusual exposed resting require immediate measurement of the cool retreat.
• Dysecdysis and dehydration: review drinking access and the moist refuge; repeated problems need veterinary assessment.
• Respiratory infection or stomatitis: wheezing, bubbles or oral discharge require prompt professional care.
• Dermatitis, impaction, obesity and parasites: dirty wet bedding, substrate ingestion, excessive feeding or persistent weight loss need correction and diagnosis. Do not use automatic deworming or home restraint.