Echis carinatus sochureki sexual dimorphism

Hi all.

A quick question Smile

Could you tell me the degree of sexual dimorphism in size that exists in adult Echis carinatus sochureki? I recently acquired an unrelated couple, supposedly born in the same year, but I see the male way bigger than the female. I thought on putting both snakes into a big decorated terrarium but I do not know if that would be a good idea, so they are kept each on their place so far. Later I will post pictures of the animals but if the male is around 60-65 cm long, the female must be around 30-35 cm. I do not know if such a difference in size is normal for adult specimens, or if the female still has to grow.

Thank you for your help. Very Happy

Actually the female should be bigger. On your case most probably the female was a very bad feeder as a babie. So you should feed your female properly now.
They can be dangerous to each other if kept together.

Hello Israel,
I agree with Peeter. Normaly the females are bigger and has much more boddie mass than the males! I´ve keeped diff. Echis species over the years, and a normal size for adults of both sexes are around 60 cm. I´ve seen a lot of WC from Pakistan, no one was bigger than this. But I keeped and breed this species and of corse this ssp. manny times. My biggest adult CB female was around 80 cm. The biggest male not more than 60 cm.
Like Peeter wrote, it can be dangerous for the female that it is keeped together with the male.
I will prefere to keep this female seperate for one year, and feed them good, not to much. The male will not grow up much more, only you will overfeed them.

BTW.: i have had such a case in V. a. ammodytes! And the ,,smale one´´ was never grow up, like the others. It´s sometimes like in humans ;-)

Ok, so the female will remain in her own cage and I will try to get her feeding and growing, and will pair them only for breeding. I will ask you when I attempt to breed them.

Thanks Peeter and Peter for the input!

Hi,
yes that sound very good!

Only for Information - I have ,,breed´´ with a female that was around 35-40 cm maby a little bit more. I got a group of them 2,3 and this female was the smalest in this group. It was only the first days in the same Cage, than I seperate them. I´ve not sean that the have copulated. After some months it gave birth to 6 offsprings. Maby it was already mated before I got them? Echis cam be mature in very young age! But I prefere, to let them grow up for nearly the normaly adult size. In the most cases I breed with females of all species not before the are 3 or 4 years old. The males I used for breeding, when I think, the are mature.

Last night the female ate very well, but the male not... maybe he did read this thread and wants her to catch him in size. Smile

hello mates ¡¡ hola Israel que tal ?

In my experience is better to keep them separately , i get some neotates i kept them in the same terrarium and they are so aggressive with themselfs , one female kill the others ....best keep them separetly and try when after low temperature when temperature is raising after that period , but contact the last owner maybe they were togheter but i think is better to not loose the couple .

hehe maybe male have read it hehhe

Best whisses ¡¡

cheers ¡¡

Hi Carlos,

No, they were not kept together because they come from different owners.

Cheers

» Echis carinatus sochureki
» Echis c. sochureki feeding
» Echis carinatus sochureki
» Echis carinatus?
» Echis carinatus sochureki