looks very good

Hi Ralph,
Sind schon verdammt hübsche Kerlchen! Wünsche Dir auf jeden Fall viel Erfolg bei der Langzeithaltung.

This guys are damn amazing. Wish you all the best with this animals.

Chris

Wooow thats one beautiful snake

Realy liked the color, hope they will make it so you can maybe manage to breed them

And Congrats to an awesome snake Ralph


Sebastian

@ Ralph
very unkind of you! How can i sleep the next few days,
after seeing this beauty. I'm dreaming since the last century of hispida.
Thanx for the pix (more please)
Greetings
Rene

Hello guys,
thanks for the positive Comments here...i hope i can get them stable in the future,but it looks really good ....

@Rene: I cross my fingers that you come to sleep again,otherwise i can get some hispida for you in the backhand ,when you are interested ...at the moment are some animals available

Wish you a great day guys and keep your heads up high...with a frozen nose of course..
Greets Ralph

Please what do you feed them at the moment, very interesting snakes that take the extra effort good show.

Does anyone have any for sale I wonder? And how much they go for?

I have a lot of nice fat earthworms and slugs in my yard.

Hello guys,
mine are feeding on Earthworms without any problems.

@Yasin: Maybe i can help you ,to get some nice ...in the new year ,of course

Greets Ralph

Hey Ralph,

I would love a pair. They would be like new years presents .

Please e mail the details and the price when you have the info available.

You have my e-mail right?

Stunning! - now I just need to see those feeding pics!

Ralph can you describe how you feed earthworms to them?

Thanks
Bob Herrington

Hy guys,
i don´t make anything special to feed them .
Just put some worms in a little box and let them over night in the Terrarium.
The animals feed themselve , only first feeding was need to force feed .
After that they take all without any trick, BUT the animals only eat in the dark and not at day.
Next time when i got some holiday i feed them and sit some hours with a Headlight ,to make some pictures

Hey Ralph.

very nice little snakes.
i wish you the best and hope they prosper well in the futhure.

I cross my fingers for you.

Cheers, Tom

PS: we must phone times again

Superb !!!! Thats great infos for me and thank you, to sharing foto... Good luck with them..And please share more info and photos...
Radek.

Wow Ralph,
fantastic animal, if you can please post a photo when they eat worms, it's a dream for me to see this.
I buy six of them 5/6 years ago but only one survive for one year but only with tubing force feeding, i try with slugs,worms,pinkys and frogs but without success.
Hi Brad it's not the first time i hear the story of the leeches and becouse i found all my specimen full of Trematoda (flukes) and they can host, it's in my opinion a realistic supposition.
Ciao
Michele

Leeches were my idea

Oooops sorry mate

Hi Ralph how is it going with your beautis?

No pictures of the feeding yet? I am dying to see evidence of these animals eating worms.

I am interested,too. What happened?

Hello guys,
finally i have sold the animals last weekend to a friend...
I have a space problem at the moment and need to set some terrariums new .
He saw them and fell in love with them
But i will try some others in the future of course,that are definetly animals i want to keep longer ,but at the moment is the space more importent for me ...
Keep you updated ,of course ...
Best regards ,
Ralph

Do you have any other pictures on them except those you showed us??

Best regards,
Sebastian

Like it?!? I god damn love it, every part of this snake makes me want a pair of my own.
For hos long have you kept it? How often do you feed it?

Thanks for the picture

Hello everyone, nice forum here. Love the Mac touch

I'll be getting a pair of atheris hispida in the next few weeks both wild caught and apparently in captivity for some weeks now and drinking and eating but I'll see more when I get them. I have also got a pair of atheris ceratophora coming too. Something with more of a challenge, I will be documenting all the work on video with these species and jotting down their health and activity as the days progress to journal for others to learn from, may it be a success or a slow fail, it will not go without knowledge.

I will see what state they are in first and get them hydrated.
I will first be getting stools tested. Using aluminium foil as a substrate so stool samples do not dehydrate quickly.
Treating any ectoparasites initially and endoparasites later as results come back to me.

Food items will start with a moist naked pinky mouse, also in my food inventory I will be trying some farmed worms, some reed frogs and house geckos, quail chicks are apparently the taken item for them at the minute willingly but I'll have to see that for myself. It has been said many places that they will eat snails, but there has only been one animal that I know of that has had remains of snail found in its digestive tract, this should not be considered a regular meal type going by the stomach of one animal. It only lets us know that it may just be one rare food item of opportunity.
Slugs would be more appropriate than a snail but do not use wild caught slugs yourself for parasite reasons, leeches are a possibility and they can be bought from sterile environments, I may see if biofarms uk sell some.

I can say that from experience of others, hispida will investigate most food items but not readily hunt them and forceps feedings work well when you take advantage of their defensive behavior when you gently tap the food item off part of their body. They are reported to strike, catch and when they get the food item in their mouth they continue to eat in one single flow without interruption or pauses like other snakes. Sometimes pinkie mice get folded over in the mouth as they try to work it down their mouth but because it folds they will spit it back out and leave it, lets hope hispida don't go thinking that mice cannot be swallowed after one fails to go down and refuse future mice feeds.
Young born at about 2grams that have been captive bred can be moved to naked mouse parts and change the behavior of their diet from that of the adults.

I can only wait and see how I get on.
I may or may not upload to youtube as some people will be quick to slander for buying a species that is going extinct and very difficult to look after, If you guys would be interested in the videos I will put them up as they may be a help to everyone in learning more about about this snake.
Not long ago boomslangs, bush masters, rhino vipers(nasicornis) and many other snakes were deemed impossible to keep in captivity.
Lets make atheris hispida a snake we can understand and learn about, to prevent making more mistakes and errors of husbandry.
To be one more snake that will not face extinction, this is my goal.




Robert kane

I'm definitely interested in successful captive keeping of this species.

I'm currently just starting into Atheris, (squamiger, chlorechis and soon ceratophora) so the reality of my attempting to keep hispidus is zilch right now. Possibly in the future if the more experienced keepers can figure out their secrets, I'll one day have a shot at it, so best of luck!