Greetings!

Finally, finally I found one of my favorite snakes! I love the Bitis genus, and these cute little devils are one of the cutest, nicest and most fascinating of them all!

Of course, all snakes are my favorites, but you get the picture

I got her yesterday, and unfortenately, any normal-colored sand wasn't aviavable, so I descided to give black sand a try, until I get normal colored.
The positive thing with the black sand, is that I can see where she is buried, so that can be helpful, but I don't think i will keep the black sand for very long.
Just til I get some real sand
What do you think?

Anyways, here are some pics!

0.1 Bitis peringueyi CB March 2008.
One question, on the breeders certificate, it says that this snake is born 2008 03 09.. is it March 09, 2008, or September 03, 2008? Since B peringueyi normally gives birth during March to April, I assume it's March 09, 2008?
Thanks

Nice speciemen, but please use another substrat, it's not suitable for peringueyi. They prefer a reddish one, and it has to be a sand and not the kind of sharp edged product you are using at the moment.

Yes, it is definitely March 2008

Good luck with her

Best Regards
Marco

I am definitely envy you!
Very nice snake thats high on my wish list.

Regards

Sascha

Fascinating snakes! I would love to work with these in the future. I assume they would be very similar to the schneideri in habit? What is this snake feeding on?

She will get some real sand today
There was no reddish sand aviavable, so this sand was just so she could bury her self over night. She will get nice sand today

Yes, the habits of B. schneideri and B. peringueyi are very much alike: The difference between them is that the scheideri is nocturnal, and the peringueyi is diurnal.

Now the sand has been changed!
New pics.

Better !! ;-) But believe me, you don't need a drinking vessel in it's cage. It's much better and realistic too, to spray some warm water 3-4 times a week. They will drink it from their skin......the same goes for caudalis and schneideri. This works perfect...

I have used drinking vessels for cornuta, worthingtoni, atropos and xeropaga only.

Best whishes and have fun with this beauty :-)

Marco

Thanks!

Yes, I know it's a skin-drinker, perfect headshape for it too, but I just put the water in, just in case.
I'm gonna spray her, and even give her fog a few times a week..

Oh yes, she's fun all right, huffing and puffing, and making it clear that she is huge!
Gotta love her

Hi Jan. I have a pair of these here in the UK. I keep mine on "calcisand". This is powdered or granulated calcium designed for reptiles. In the past, when using natural sand, the pink mice would get it stuck to their skin and it would then be ingested by the snakes. Unfortunately there was so much sand that the snakes died from impaction of the gut. Also, definitely no water bowl. They hate long periods of high humidity. I put my snakes into a plastic box and spray them lightly until they drink. This avoids saturating the vivarium with water. Sometimes you may have to spray them for 5 or 10 minutes before they begin to drink.
Good luck Jan.

Hi Jan

“Yes, the habits of B. schneideri and B. peringueyi are very much alike: The difference between them is that the scheideri is nocturnal, and the peringueyi is diurnal.”

I found that B.schneideri seemed more crepuscular from observations I made on specimens in the field. I found many schneideri basking on top of or in low bushes during the early morning almost until midday in some cases. Im not sure how active they are at night as I only observed these during daylight hours.

I think schneiderei also function at lower temperatures as their habitat is generally fairly cool being close to the coast. Is peringueyi similar in this respect?

i think that i have seen this little girl somewhere? you got it from Therese at expo syd? nice animal!

Nice one you have there!

Cool snake! I saw that one at Expo. Its one on my must have list hard to handle? sidwinding snakes are a pain in the but to handle ..

no. it wasnt my but i looked it for long time there

Very nice

You have just put another snake on my very long list. I love the placement of the eyes as they remind me of a sole (fish).

Bjorn, A friend in Capetown had his peringuey's mating the other day , hopefully there will be some CB's !!

Andrew, I know him well he works with me. I will have to see when the time comes.

Okay, now this beauty refuses to drink. I have sprayed her cage, placed her in another box and sprayed her, I have even tried to use a fog-generator that creates realistic fog. But no, she just won't drink. I have also tryed to inject water in her food, but then she won't eat..

Any tips?

If you spray regularly then chances are she just isn't thirsty. Otherwise try a very shallow dish with water placed in an area of the cage that she regularly moves over. I find they're more likely to drink when finding water themselves than when being sprayed.

Let me just clarify, by shallow i mean very shallow. Just put enough water in to basically wet the surface of the dish. If its too deep they'l ignore it

Great specimen. I love their 'cross-eyed' look.