Mulga Snake — Fact Sheet

Pseudechis australis · Mulga Snake

Full care guide and sources

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

Use at least 250 x 120 x 120 cm for a typical adult and enlarge for unusually long or active animals. Provide two externally operated shift hides, anchored cover, low shelves or branches, visual barriers and an unobstructed route between shifts. The layout must allow staff to account for the whole animal before any port opens.

🪨 Substrate and furnishings

Use 13-17 cm of compactable low-dust soil-based substrate, or paper during quarantine. Avoid aromatic wood, sharp or unstable décor, adhesive tape and inaccessible cavities. Guard vents and cable ports, use two independent locks and label the enclosure with taxon, animal count, venom risk and emergency contacts.

💡 Lighting

Provide 10-13 hours of broad visible light, complete darkness at night and opaque shaded retreats. Low-level UVB over part of the warm zone may offer Ferguson Zone 2 exposure, but the snake must be able to avoid it completely. Mount or guard every fitting outside reach.

🌡️ Temperature

• Basking spot: 32-35 °C
• Daytime air: 25-30 °C
• Cool zone: 22-25 °C
• Night: 20-24 °C

💧 Humidity and water

Maintain a ventilated 30-50% baseline and a local humid hide around 55-70% during shedding. Keep most substrate dry enough to prevent dermatitis and stale-air respiratory disease. Provide a heavy clean bowl that can be exchanged through protected access and monitor drinking, urates, mass and shed quality.

🪳 Feeding

Offer appropriately sized frozen-thawed whole rodents, usually every 10-21 days, adjusted to age, body condition, activity and reproductive state. Smaller moderate meals are safer than oversized prey. Whole vertebrate prey needs no routine supplement.

Feed through a protected port and secure the snake before recovering remains. Live prey creates avoidable injuries and unsafe service work. Persistent refusal or regurgitation calls for review of temperature, security, parasites and disease, not repeated handling.

☠️ Safety

This species is venomous. Venom exposure can cause pain, swelling or other systemic effects, and severity varies with species, locality, bite site and the amount delivered. A small wound or apparently dry bite is not proof of safety; every bite or sting requires urgent medical assessment.

If an incident occurs, move away, call emergency services or a poison centre, keep the patient still, remove rings and other constricting items, and follow dispatcher instructions. Do not use a tourniquet, cut or suck the wound, apply ice or electricity, give alcohol or medicines as a home treatment, or attempt to catch the animal. Antivenom choice and dosing are hospital decisions; verify the relevant product and local availability in advance. Sources: WHO snakebite guidance and appropriate species-specific toxinology or medical references listed below.

🩺 Health — warning signs

• Rostral trauma: repeated rubbing suggests reflections, poor cover or unsuitable shift geometry.
• Burns and heat stress: guard and thermostat every source while retaining a measured cool refuge.
• Respiratory disease: wheeze, bubbles, open-mouth breathing or abnormal posture requires urgent reptile-veterinary assessment.
• Dermatitis and dysecdysis: correct saturation, stale air, dehydration and missing textured surfaces without manually restraining the snake.
• Parasites and stomatitis: uncertain-origin animals require strict quarantine and diagnostics.
• Obesity or regurgitation: review prey size, intervals, heat and disturbance.
• Egg retention: prolonged straining or failure to settle requires a remote veterinary plan, not manual examination.