Thought I would share this pic of a very nice red Namaqua Dwarf adder I saw over the weekend.



H

Hi Henko!
Very nice! Tell us more! Something about the location....
best regards
Philipp

Hi Phillip

Im unfortunately not going to share any information regarding locality as this would just be a reason for people to exploit this threatened species more!

Btw - Red Namaqua dwarf adders are well known to do horribly in captivity and die easily!

I believe you'd understand.


H

You are absolutly right Henco.

The picture and the snake are very beautiful, thanks.

Cheers,
Albert

wow! so cool! very nice!

a little jewel!
very nice.

Henco:

Very nice dwarf...It´s one my favorites dwarfs...

I listened about, is very complicated the feeding in babies, is it difficult?

Congrats man!!

Good intention , but I am quite sure that this threatened species as well as other will find the way to Europe / USA soon.

Fabian - Unfortunately so many wild caught Bitis does go overseas already!

That is why some people (including myself) are trying to breed a variety of localities and species so that CB stock can become available more often, but snakes like B. schneideri is not kept by any person I know!
B. caudalis
B. cornuta
B. atropos
B xerepaga
are the more common species in captivity and are being bred successfully.


Snakemaster I have no idea but I can only think such a minute animal will not be easy to keep, although I know some people have had success in keeping them alive but not bred!

They live in a very unique environment where mist rolls in almost every morning, nights tend to be fairly cool and day temps spike up very high. It would be near impossible to recreated this in a cage.

H

Years ago I already had B. schneideri in my collection. Unfortunately most WC animals die very soon, it really depends a lot of how the animals have been transported and housed until they are sold. Interesting fact is that females always did very well for me, and I never ever lost a single female, but males are a pain in the A**..... they always died and rarely accept food in between.

That's why I decided not to start again with schneideri as long as there are no SA CB animals available. Its a stupid thing just to ''import'' snakes (not to mention that most are illegaly WC), just to see them die @ you place...... that's very very sad for some of these already threatened or at least hard to find species in the wild, and also bullshit for your wallet. That's not worth it, the only winner in this game is the one who distributes them and makes the cash.

B. caudalis are very very easy to breed, have had babies myself already years ago before the where kept by too many people. 3 times I even bred these myself and twice I had received a pregnant female..... anyway, breeding is no big deal. Only problem is it to put female and male together, because I had adult females at home with the ''Nickname'' : Black Widow...... think this says all. These 2 females have never bred for me because the bite or even killed and swallowed every male I offered. They just where a nice and welcome snack :-(

The same for cornuta, easy to bred

B. atropos I have never bred yet, but I am working on it...... also here is problem that these guys are cannibalistic (sometimes).

B. xeropaga is even more rare, and hard to get nice and pretty animals.

But what I am missing is Bitis peringueyi ! These guys I also had many years ago with good success and also had babies more then just once. They are really fantastic snakes, very nice and interesting in behaviour and usually do very very well- can usually also be switched to mice very easy and also the babies are not too difficult.

just my two cents

Thanks for that Marco.
I truly hope that more people would realize that WC animals are prone for disease or death and the majority of the animals collected are not even attempted to be bred in SA and shipped overseas for the quick buck! It sickens me!

I really hope that some of us in SA and the breeders abroad will have a good breeding season so that some more CB animals can become available.

I think I've been very lucky to see many of South africa's dwarf Bitis.
Bitis caudalis
Bitis cornuta
Bitis atropos
Bitis rubida
Bitis scnheideri


Then Bitis xeropaga and Bitis armata - hopefully I can check them of my list this year!
As for inornata and albanica that is another story...


H

On a bit of a side note, there is an article in the current issue of the Journal of Herpetology(Vol. 45, No. 4, December 2011; pps: 457-462) entitled: 'Morphology, Sexual Dimorphism and Growth in the Smallest Viperid, Bitis schneideri(Reptilia: Squamata: Viperidae)' by Brian Maritz and Graham J. Alexander, that might be of possible interest. Good photograph, Mr. Nienaber. Thank you for posting it. Sincerely, Jon Davidson .