Gravid filesnake

[mfezi]

here are some animals that are gravid

Unicolour file snake, she should drop any day!! so excited









Red Beaked snake





I also have gravid eastern tigersnake, gravid Atractaspis fallax (the giant stiletto), gravid house snakes, Lyresnake eggs, rufous beaked snake eggs and a few animals thaty look very promising!!!

[slangman]

awsome pics , really made up for ya . looking forward to seing some pics of the whippers when they hatch

[Serpy]

Good luck with them man i hope you have a 100% success rate, definitely post pics when the little guys and girls breath some fresh air

[mfezi]

red beaked laid 17 eggs, 14 of which are good

[Rob]

Congrats. Holding thumbs for you on the unicolor.

[gaboon69]

how can one not be proud of that?Very nice.
Please shout if you are selling babies mfezi.

[Natal Black]

Thats ridiculous !!! Those baby red beaked's have the prettiest babies !! That would be a sight to behold.








ps *this topic is in the wrong forum* Took me a while to find it.

[Pythonodipsas]

Great news Don. You're doing wonders with African snakes and their public promotion.

[mfezi]

its a double edged sword.. when i started there were not even brown house snakes on the kingsnake classifieds, i tried for 2 years to get any, now there are tons of african animals...

I am happy that people enjoy african reptiles, but i am worried that it will turn into another indonesia....

as for cb, i am excited about that as it will hopefully replace WC soon

don

[Bushviper]

Mfezi I know what you mean. Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique are shipping thousands of reptiles every month. The good thing is that more people get to see our wildlife. The downside is they are not really going to appreciate it.

If you can buy lizards for $1 then they become a food item and the irony is that we are not even allowed to keep some of those same species here. Selling snakes for $5 does not make them sought after and as a result whether they live or die does not really matter.

Africa is not geared for controlling and utilizing reptiles and exploitation will take place. Certain species which have slow reproductive rates and have tiny localities can be exterminated in a matter of years. Flame bellied lizards are probably one of the rarest of the girdled lizards but are sold for $18. The trapper probably gets $3 which is good for him but bad for the animals.

Like you I am in two minds. If we were running the show instead of politicians and animal rightists we might be able to get it right, however I do predict doom and gloom for the reptiles.

[mfezi]

When I was in Tanzania, Joe Beraducci made a valid point, he said that he has no issue collecting every animal he sees and putting it in a cage, that does not make animals disappear, its habitat destruction!!

He said he saw areas that 10 years ago you saw chameleons everywhere, but once its slashed and burned, and people build houses, who cares about the poor chameleons anymore, they are long gone. I agree with him on that count. Its better to have an animal in a cage, than dead on the ground.


That being said, I am glad that SA is closed for WC export as I hate the idea of our WC animals leaving in large numbers.


I will continue to breed as much as possible so that people will hopefully, no longer see the need to buy WC afican animals Beraducci is doing a great job with cb chams out of Tanzania as well, and the government has realized that and is issuing him permits that no one else can get because of these efforts.

Trade in reptiles is not going away, if you go to the CITES website, 120 000 cobra permits are issued every year out of Indo alone... for skins... thats scary!!

well, enough of that, lets hope my eggs hatch!!

don

[mfezi]

whoops

double post

[froot]

Your efforts are not going unnoticed Don, keep it up. I have always maintained the same, that the demand for reptiles will always be there and the best thing to do is to study their husbandry and captive breed them in order to alleviate pressure by the trade on wild animals.

[Bushviper]

Mfezi then when you look at the other side of the coin Australia is a prime example. They allow no trade in captive bred or wild caught specimens, hardly any people collect inside the country in any case and they still have rare and endangered species. Same with their parrots and small marsupials.

In Australia it is lucrative to smuggle Green tree pythons back to Australia. In Australia they cost about $6000 to $10 000. In South Africa we cannot afford snakes locally but they are cheaper in Europe. Local gaboons R2000, in Europe or the US R350.

Striking the balance is the difficult thing. I am a firm believer in utilization but there has to be a political will to make it happen and work. Probably this will not happen in my lifetime.