Psammophis egg laying

One of my Psammophis sibilans females laid some more eggs. I observed here laying her last egg. Unfortunately the female was killed by her sister (or brother) a couple of days later, so it was indeed her last egg Crying or Very sad

Psammophis egg laying GroteFoto-68FMBGEW

Psammophis egg laying GroteFoto-OPS3A8ZN

Psammophis egg laying GroteFoto-GODZ3VQA

Psammophis egg laying GroteFoto-SGL7MH8P

Psammophis egg laying GroteFoto-XFMVEIQG

Psammophis egg laying GroteFoto-KP3UFR34

Psammophis egg laying GroteFoto-3P7QVIUJ

Wow, that's a series of photographs! Perfect moment, perfectly captured!

Sorry to hear of Your loss!

Thanks for the superb pictures!! I am a big fan of Psammophis sp. It's just a pity, that there are so seldom available. I had a pair WC Psammophis shokari for about 8 years. They where really great animals. Interested in every thing what i was doing in the snake room.
I wish you good luck with the eggs and I'm sorry for your loss.

Quote :: Unfortunately the female was killed by her sister (or brother) a couple of days later

How did this happen? Where there any fighting tracks or did the female have bite wounds?
I also would be interested how you keep them. Am i right, you kept 2.1 in the same enclosure?
Regards Ambros

Excellent work, sorry to hear that this specimen is killed!

Hi,

I kept 1.2 in a cage of 90x60x35cm with a hot spot (over 45 degrees centigrade), sand and some wood/rocks. It was a captive bred trio and both females have laid eggs. They were born in 2009 so still too young to die. The head and neck of the female were wet and covered with sand. The mouth of the other female was also covered/filled with sand, so I assume that she killed her. I didn't see a fight, so I don't really know what happend. Maybe the female that laid eggs was hungry and attacked the other female but that the other female was stronger? I don't know. I have 1.1 left and that female laid one clutch of eggs so hopefully they will do fine.

kind regards

Gilian

Thank you Gilian for the reply.

Quote :: The head and neck of the female were wet and covered with sand. The mouth of the other female was also covered/filled with sand, so I assume that she killed her. I didn't see a fight, so I don't really know what happend

Sounds strange. What is the size of your animals? I suppose it was the first time you breed with them? Lucky you have 1.1 left.

Perhaps look elsewhere for the cause , case in point , once when i was breeding Deathadders Acanthophis pyrrhus , i used a sand substrate eventually the males hemipenes became encrusted with sand and semen and could not retract his organs of which one was rendered useless and had to be amputated after a long soak in water with an antibiotic , i had several problems using natural substrates versus paper.

*some pers. husbandary notes.

Regards Albert

Quote :: head and neck of the female were wet and covered with sand.

I suppose she was in the mouth of the other snake

Ambros: They are about 70 cm long. Maybe 80cm. This is the third clutch I got from this trio and the second one from this female.

Albert and Fabian: The breeder of my animals also found one animal from his breeding trio dead once. The couple he had left was sold to someone else and he bred them again. One of his three hatchlings tried to ate his two brothers/sisters. So I think that this is what happened to me too. I think that the other female ate part of this female but regurgitated it again.
I expected that putting males together would give problems. I hope that females only eat females and males only males.

kind regards

Very well done Gilian and great pics !

Some Psammophis sp. do eat other snakes so housing them together is not a good idea in my opinion.
Check this out...
http://barefootnaturedoctor.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/snake-eats-snake/

Regards.

Thanks for your comment.

One of the eggs of a previous clutch hatched a couple of days ago.

Psammophis egg laying GroteFoto-7J8YZF8D

Psammophis egg laying GroteFoto-A7AYC3JD

regards

Wow. Those one looks nice Wink

Very nice Gillian!

It is just wonderful to see others that are into odd colubrids as well! I have a pair of P sibilans and P mossambicus and a lone male P tanganicus I have yet to find a mate for unfortunately. They are VERY hard to get here in the US. I am very glad to see someone taking the time to breed these with some regularity though. Great pics by the way.

Bummer about the death, but thanks a lot for sharing the series of photos!

» 1.1 Psammophis sibilans
» Aspidelaps lubricus cowlesi laying eggs
» Some snakes I kept in the past (Masticophis, Rhamphiophis, Psammophis, Ahaetulla, Oligodon)
» Cerastes gasperettii gasperettii (laying)