our Black Mambas are somethings! for sure they are one of the most challenging snakes i have worked with within the last years. nevertheless they are the most amazing ones besides the Kings, Taipans and forest Cobras.



my male as he was only 8 moths old. today he is not even two years, and already two meters long, growing like crazy!

Mario,
looks like your polylepis will get some younger brothers and sisters pretty soon:



Cheers
Peter

Hi Peter,

it looks promissing! Congratulation, I keep my fingers crossed for eggs!

Best regards,
Peter P.

you know, i love Dendroaspis polylepis!
and the two babies i have from you are just beautiful!!

this time of the year, we use to re-arrange our enclosure, today, i have already done my Dendroaspis angusticeps cage, right now i am eating my lunch (fried chicken, rice (of corse) and sotanghon soup (kind of glass noodle sop) ), after i have my lunchbreak done, i go up to the snakehouse and introduce the young female to the male, not for breeding reason, but i know they enjoy company so much...

the male is about 180cm and the female 140cm by now. its just amazing how fast they grow!

the cage is set up already... lets see, i am excited.



cheers
Mario

i forgot - congratulations peter, i only can recommend your snakes. if somebody here is looking for black mambas, thats your chance, peters animals are amazing!


cheers
Mario

hey all,

Dendroaspis polylepis, are jut amazing beautiful and very smart animals.
how they look at you is just crazy, you will never see that with a "Morelia viridis".
I love this awesome looking snakes!
even I'm not handling them!(just not enough experience with snakes, like P.Zürcher,my Dad or P.Pastor).
But i have a huge respect for this species and the first time i saw them i was close to s**t in my pants!

again! JUST AN AMAZING SNAKE!!!

Greetz Ben

By the way Congratulations to your gravid female(again), Peter!

Ben

one year ago I had the problem with my adult couple of polylepis trying to eat the same rat. Usually I'm very carefully feeding these guys, but the female was going to shed and refuses food under that condition as a rule. No rules without exceptions, this time she decided to eat and I found them on both sides of the rat, heads already very closed.
Nice situation, beeing alone with two adult polylepis and the necessity something to do pretty quick!
I used my biggest hook and one hand to pull them out of the terrarium, and just arrived on the floor of my african-room, both of' em said goodbye to the rat, starting a even bigger problem, I tought.
Fortunately, I was wrong and it was'nt a big deal to tail them, picking them up from the floor and back to the terrarium.
Inside or outside of the cage is a complete different story due to more space available outside, resulting in less fear or nervousness.
The male (13 years) is captive born, the female's a wild caught specimen purchased at the Hamm show 4 years ago.
Alfred WALLNER, a wellknown austrian breeder (where my male's coming from), used to tail his adult polylepis regularly while separating them for feeding (he did'nt have any hiding boxes in his mobile reptile show).
Warning: This is not a invitation for people reading this to try it the same way! Black Mambas, as all snakes, are individually different, and experiments like this could end fatal!
Cheers
Peter

Yes, Benny, they watch you, and they always know what's going on.
Even if they're not the most beautyful colored Dendroaspis, they're magic due to their special behaviour.
Did you ever see them spreading their neck like a cobra?
Cheers
Peter

well, yesterday was the day for my young black mambas.
after being nearly two years old, it was time to introduce both of them to each other. no, sure not for breeding purpose, but i know Dendroaspis polylepis is happy with company.

therefore, i build them a new enclosure (200x90x150cm) and brought them both in the new area! it was very funny to observe them, i could see them how shy they where. well, it was successful! first, they could not stand the body contact with each other, every time one of them touches the other - both are starting to get crazy and you got an idea how fast they really are. so, they tried to flee as quick as they could, only to get back together in the end again. and the whole game starts from the beginning. very funny to watch.

today in the morning, the laid together on the highest spot and was watching me doing my business with cleaning and feeding others. fascinating snakes, with a totally interesting behavior! i am so happy working with them - thanks again peter!

some picture:




the new cage for 1.1 Dendroaspis polylepis...



first eye contact - (wow - who are you?)


a happy bachelor, after he meet his new braid


so, they are happy - i am happy - the world is ok for today!



cheers
Mario

Really nice snakes everybody. And Mario; that enclosure looks just great!

hey Peter,

no I never saw them spreading their neck like a cobra!
why would they do it?

If you check under the "curiosities" you can see how the Naja melanoleuca are looking at me while I'm cleaning glasses, i found that really cool as well!

Greetz Ben

ya i think that`s why.
hopefully I'm gonna work with them soon.
I'm already really excited.

Greetz Ben

...and here they are, finally (couldn't wait anymore)
This morning, I found 12 eggs, 3 more were laid a bit later.
Unfortunately, the female didn't use the very large box filled with soil and moss. She crawled under the box (what she never did before) and did her business completely hidden.
Taking out the eggs was a kind of adventure, as the male was defending eggs, female and just everything, biting frontglasses, snakehook and moving very fast in order to be everywhere at the same time.
Amazing, I never saw that before!

Peter

Whhhouuaaaa!!! Congratulation, Peter!!! Amazing. I know that feeling from our own breeding 2 years ago... Our adult animals are together now, so we hope in the best as well!
Nice size of clutch, but as I saw your female on own eyes, I am not surprised by it...

We both with Marek keep our fingers crossed for problemless incubation...

Best regards,
Peter P.

Congratulations Peter!

I keep my fingers crossed for you! I hope to breed with my Polylepis-Group as well this year. We will see...
Can you give some information about mating time, gastration period, origin of the adults, and size/age of them?
Do you keep them the whole year together? Do you hibernate them? If so, at which temperatures and how long?
So many questions, hope it doesn´t make to much trouble...

Thanks and all the best

Frank

Praise the Lord!
they are here!


congratulation peter!
cross my fingers for the incubation time!


cheers
Mario

Congrats Peter,

We all cross our fingers that all the eggs are hatching!

Greetz Ben

Hi Frank
My breeding couple is from different origin and different age.
The male was bred by Austrian breeder Alfred WALLNER in 1994 and is a south african polylepis; the female was wild caught in Tanzania in 2004 at the age of 2 or three years. The male is about 3 meters, the female might have 2,7 meters.
Some people told me (there's a paper about polylepis-breeding from Austrian herpetoculturist Alexander BRUNNER) that southern and northern polylepis cannot be bred together due to completely different breeding times, however, my animals didn't read this paper
I'm keeping them together, no separation at any time, no hibernation, just let things running trough.
Mating time here is November until January, with significant peaks in late December and early January.
Cheers
Peter

Hi Peter,

thanks for the information. I keep 2,2 Dendroaspis polylepis (all South African locality) in two different colourmorphs (dark grey and olive-green-yellow-grey -> cannot explain it better). 2,1 of them I keep since a couple of weeks, 0,1 since four years. I lost the male to her last winter during a to cold hibernation, I´m still very ashamed on that, it was defenitely only my fauld. Last year the male showed mating behaviour around September-Oktober, but I couldn´t observe any mating. As all the Dendroaspis I keep have been bred in the EU I hope they will get the Northern Hemisphere breeding rhythm.
I will see.

Best regards

Frank

Congratulations Peter!!! Breeding Black Mambas is so rarely done, so i understand the excitement.

Last year mine mated and the female gave me 8 eggs. From the start some eggs were discolored and only 2 eggs made it through incubation. Out of them hatched 2 females which were so cute and lovely.

Picture of female halfway though gestation.


Pictures of the 2 babies.








Breeeding Data:
Mated: 1st August 2007.
Laid eggs: 24t November 2007 (114 days gestation)
Hatched: 5/6th February 2008 (73 days incubation @ 30 degrees celcuis)

Nice pictures, Craig, thank you!
Where's your female coming from? I never saw southern specimens that light brown colored.
I'm sorry for your bad luck with most of your eggs, just try it again!
I had the same problem with my Naja nivea eggs recently, only two of'em were good, the others have been rotting away within the first two weeks. Maybe the problems are on the mothers side, this girl's 19 years old
and already the 2007 clutch wasn't okay.
Cheers
Peter

Thank you for the compliment Peter.

The 'brown' female originates from the 'Northern Province' of South Africa. Brown ones are known from here as well as the adjoining 'Mpumulanga' Province. Also in the Loskop Dam area of the Mpumulanga Province there are the brownest ones known and the area is famous for this.