Reptiles and Captivity

[nvlooi]

IM NOT TARGETTING Mr Kid!!! - you are probably older than me and might even have more years with reptiles as a interest

http://www.sareptiles.co.za/forum/buysell/single_ad.php?ad_id=2649
But his add made me think of myself 10 odd years ago.

When I learned about snakes and realised they can be kept in captivity I started with a bang.
Keeping everything I could find in the veld and everything cheap at a petshop.
I ended up with a variety of animals from Brown water snakes to Mozam spitters. (I lived in Natal at that stage)


Soon after a while I could not manage the amount of animals and their specific diets and several fell ill and started dying so I released animals and would catch "fresh" ones...

My point being, it is wonderfull the variety of animals we have in SA, but one must realise and it happens so often that you tend to loose interest in some species and you end up with animals few or no one would want, thus you end up killing them or releasing them.

So please for everybody that is out there that love ALL indigenous reptiles...(especially first timers) keep in mind what you really like and is 'keepable', and only keep those not all the 'cool' ones.


Again the add only made me think of myself many moons ago... Im not targetting Mr Kid, infact all those species are kept and bred in captivity but the Psammophis species need VERY(huge) special cage requirements.

I believe there are people on the forum that would gladly help you with some of the animals.

If this post is offensive, please mods correct me and remove the post.


H

[snake kid]

Hey no problem man, I can understand your concern but i'm collecting for my busnes (I have no idea how to spell that sorry mods ) I do tourism and want to educate people about snakes in the Oudtshoorn area. All my snakes are on permit I don't collect in the wild and also I have done Holiday jobs at a snake park so I know what I am dealing with.
and I doubt that your younger than me i'm 18 so I have still got allot to learn. but I have put allot of research in and build my own cages big enough and very comfortable. It_bit_me is a witness on that.

[nvlooi]

Thanks for the post Mr Kid, Im glad you did not get all excited about my post as it was just a general concern I have due to the fact that I have made such a mistake in the past.

I should then add that your list does make sense in order to educate the public, although I still believe a Psommaphis sp is not a very easy genus to keep even if some 'europeans' do so.

I believe there is a market for what you want to do, go for it and I believe it will work...good luck and keep us updated... have a chat with Tony sometime!!!


H

[snake kid]

All is good. I know Tony and Rian still need to do one of his courses though.

[Fooble]

Right on. Felt exactly the same when i saw the add got me thinking of it.

[Rodwraylva]

Sadly the most spectacular species of snakes that South Africa have to offer are hard to feed :'( like the quill snouted snakes and gecko eggs) and a lot of underground species like the blind snakes and the thread snakes also hard to feed in my opinion Would be lovely to have that collection Snake Kid wants and use the wide spectrum to educate (Starting to feel uncertain if quillsnouted snakes eats gecko eggs )

[snake kid]

Yes and other snakes that I really want I cant get on permit Rodwraylva as nvlooi mentioned I cant get the whip snakes and then I really want to start a breeding program for the red adder to boost their numbers a bit but nature conservation simply refuses.

[it_bit_me]

The good news is that most of them arn't that hard to find. You'll have a problem finding berg adders and whip snakes but the rest of them are kept by locals.
You'll be very lucky if they all come from one guy.
I'm looking for dysky bellies and and the strange thing is that no-one in SA has interest enough to breed or keep them so some species just don't get the attention they should.

[armata]

The red adder population does not need boosting they are fine and safe and remote. You can see good numbers in various areas at the right time of day/year.