All Angles Creatures
Squamata · ColubridaeEntry 17,961 of 21,572
Bindee keelback snake, Rhabdophis bindi

Reptilia · Squamata

Rhabdophis bindiDas, Smith, Sidik, Sarker, Boruah, Patel, Murthy, Deepak, 2021

Bindee keelback snake

Photograph by Rejoice Gassah, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A day-active, meat-eating snake from the Oriental region, reaching 810 mm nose to tail.

ReptiliaSquamataColubridaeRhabdophis

Grows to
810mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Semi-aquatic
Body length across Colubridae

Longer than 60% of all colubrid snakes anyone has measured.

60% of 2,008 species are smaller40% larger
98 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest3,800 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 98 to 3,800 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

21 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Still living
Extant

The animal itself

Limbs
None

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
598mm23.5 in

Das et al. 2021 (max 598 mm SVL, 810 mm total length, 5 females 453-575, mean 526 mm SVL, smallest is gravid; mean total length of the 3 with intact tails 697 mm)

Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
810mm2 ft 8 in

snakes only in this source

Female length · mean, nose to tail
697mm2 ft 3 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
105.4g3.7 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

How it lives

Diet
Carnivorous

amphibians (Das et al. 2021)

Active
Diurnal

"The species is active during day time, however one individual was found active during dusk" (Das et al. 2021)

Where it lives
Semi-aquatic

"In Bangladesh, one individual was sighted emerging from the water and crawling into grass by a railway line (Mahony et al. 2009)" (Das et al. 2021).

Region
Oriental
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
20–100m

27-100 (Das et al. 2021)

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous

Das et al. 2021

Eggs or young per clutch
3eggs

"We recorded a gravid female in the month of May. The female (SVL 453 mm) had three eggs with the dimension of 11.50 x 5.27 mm."

Naming and history

Suborder
Serpentes
Infraorder
Alethinophidia
Subspecies
No
Described by
Das, Smith, Sidik, Sarker, Boruah, Patel, Murthy, Deepak
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
2021
Type locality
India

Keeping one

2 ft 8 in × 16 in × 24 in(81 × 41 × 61 cm)

Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.

The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 1 × 0.5 × 0.75.

Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.

From this animal’s own total length of 2 ft 8 in (810 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 0.75 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Bindee keelback snake. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.

Feeding

A prey item should be between the same width as the widest part of the snake's body and about 1.5 times that width.

Widely used across snake husbandry references. An alternative formulation gives prey at 10-15% of the snake's body mass. This is established practice, not a measurement.

12kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 105 g, the heaviest recorded for Bindee keelback snake — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.

An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

  • Length snout to vent · adult female mean
  • Length snout to vent · adult male mean
  • Length snout to vent · adult mean
  • Length nose to tail · adult male mean
  • Length nose to tail · adult mean
  • Largest female · snout to vent
  • Largest male · snout to vent
  • Largest female · shell length
  • Largest male · shell length
  • Hatchling length · snout to vent
  • Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • Largest juvenile · snout to vent
  • Largest juvenile · shell length
  • Egg length
  • Egg width
  • Body mass · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Body mass at hatching
  • Longest recorded life
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How it hunts
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Average clutch
  • Mean clutch · smallest reported
  • Mean clutch · largest reported
  • Clutches in a year
  • Clutches a year · fewest
  • Clutches a year · most
  • First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • Hatchling length · smallest recorded
  • Hatchling length · largest recorded
  • Age at first breeding · female
  • Mature from · youngest recorded
  • Mature by · oldest recorded
  • Size at maturity · smallest recorded
  • Size at maturity · largest recorded
  • Venomous
  • Fangs
  • Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
  • Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Pupil
  • Sex decided by
  • Conservation status
  • Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
  • Population trend
  • Red List criteria
  • Biome
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Habitat
  • Active in
  • Range size

Others in Colubridae

Take this data

Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.

This species as JSON · the whole dataset

Cite this page

The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Rhabdophis bindi. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/rhabdophis-bindi

@misc{rhabdophis_bindi_2026,
  title  = {Rhabdophis bindi},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/rhabdophis-bindi}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
  3. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.