For the attention of jjspirko.

[dr del]

Hi,

I found an intresting thread on differentiating house snakes on another forum and wondered what you thought about it?

Linky.

I posted some pics of my little male to ask his opinion as judging from his criteria it's a cape house snake - though I don't know if the clean while under the eye stripe is significant. Hopefully he will see it soon.

I'm unsure what I want his answer to be as capensis seems to be even rarer than fulliginosis - and their like hen's teeth over here.


dr del

[WingedWolfPsion]

Awesome info link, thanks. That helped me out, too, I have 1.1 capensis and 0.1 fuliginosis.

[juddb]

Jack's gonna love this thread.... Thanks for the info Dr D.

[jjspirko]

Thank you Dr. D,

I have met that guy before and traded emails I think I will join that forum and chime in there.

So many have tried to breed L. fuliginosus to L. maculatus and then they get slugs or no results at all. Likewise up until VERY recently there have never been any albino L. fuliginosus OR L. maculatus and so many have tried to breed amels to them and the amels are always Capensis or Capensis Hybrids.

What I have found

The gentleman that posted all those pics is about the most informed I have ever come across in regard to Lamprophis but there is one problem with his views on them. That is he will tell you that none of the "big three"

Fuliginosus
Maculatus
and
Capensis

Will not interbreed but that is not totally the case. The truth is you should NOT do it but it has been done with varying degress of success amoung the three and it appears the most common success has been Fuliginosus to Capensis. The issue is the hybrids are then often sterile. Many of the sub species have been interbred and this has resulted in a lot of hybrids being labled capensis and passed around.

For this reason I ONLY buy my animals from known sources. Mostly I buy wild caught from a known location or I buy captive bred from people that know their stuff. Right now I consider that to be this dude (in canada so I can't buy from him). Don at Mefezi.com and Dr. Neil Ford from UT Tyler.

One thing that will have to happen in the House Snake world for it to get as popular as it can is for these species to be accepted and understood and for breeders to understand just because you can do some much hybridization of North American colubrids does NOT mean you can do it with species that look so much more similar in Africa.

Thanks again Dr Del I have been looking to reconnect with that dude and his last thred over there seems to have vanished.

[dr del]

Hi,


He certainly does seem to have lots of good info - it would be good if he offered an opinion on the species I already have.

I spent the entire season trying to find any house snakes at all over here with no luck - let alone getting picky with sex and species. The gentleman in question also has several good threads on house snakes on fauna that I found during my search - he may be more active on there as well.


dr del

[WingedWolfPsion]

Are there actual L. fuliginosis amels now?

[jjspirko]

Are there actual L. fuliginosis amels now?

Don over at Mfezi.com has a male amel L. fuliginosis it is of course not for sale the good news is he is a male and will be old enough to breed in a few more months and that means to many females to establish the line.

I do predict a lot of people then trying to breed them to Maculatus with unhappy results. Hopefully more knowledge will be out in the market place by the time he is producing a lot of animals.

I know there have been several lines of Hypo fuliginosis in the past but this is the first confirmed amel I know of. He won't tell me exactly how he got it but since it is a juvie odds are it is from CB stock some were in South Africa and there are siblings of his animal out there, etc.

[jjspirko]

Oh and Dr. D I am about 99% that snake of yours is a Capensis just with some interesting markings around the face with all that white.

[dr del]

Hi,


Cheers.

It's good to know that I will be looking for the correct species at least.
Now I just need to persuade a breeder to emigrate with all his stock.

The little stinker bit me while I was holding him and cleaning his tank tonight.

Sniffed my finger then lazily bit it as though checking what it was .



dr del

[WingedWolfPsion]

Now, here's a difficult question--you've all seen the head shots, now...



Capensis or Maculatis? lol