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Gravid Trimeresurus albolabris
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by kuishe on February 12, 2005
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I recently bought a T albolabris and it turns out that she´s gravid. I´ve searched the web for information on how to care for her in the best way until the big day, but so far I haven´t found any good information on the subject. How much and often should I feed her? Is there a preferable temperature profile? Is there something special to consider once the litter drops? Should the youngs be removed at once?
I would be really grateful for info from you who had breeding experience with T albolabris or if someone knows any good weblinks or books where useful information can be found.
/KuiShe
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RE: Gravid Trimeresurus albolabris
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by Rob_Carmichael on February 12, 2005
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Our facility had the wonderful experience of raising a gravid T. albolabris. We basically provided her with a basking area (pro product radiant heat panel) that allowed her to bask in temperatures that reached between 90-92 deg. F. The other areas of her cage ranged from the low to mid 70's to 80. She did spend a lot of time thermoregulating so we feel it is important to give this species choices. We also made sure she was well hydrated with twice daily mistings (she particularly enjoyed lapping up the drops off of her body).
During this time, nearly 6 months, she did not feed and we were a bit concerned but never worried as she maintained good body weight. After giving birth, her appetite was quite ravenous. We separated the babies once she was finished and set them up in a communal group until their first shed at which time we separated them out. Raising these babies was a bit problematical at first but with a little patience, they all did fine. We had 7 babies and all grew up to be big, robust and healthy juveniles (they are still currently under one year of age).
Getting these babies to feed was a real pain but once again, it just takes patience. I actually got a handful of them to take wax worms; quite shocking but sometimes desperation breeds success. Others took very small frogs (chorus frogs). We knew we wanted to get these snakes on to a rodent diet so once these babies took a few meals, we began the process of getting them on to rodents. First, we tease fed them small pinkie parts. It would usually take a few tries before the snake got its fang lodged on to the pinky part. We would then lie very still as any motion will cause them to let go. Once the snake realized that the food had to be swallowed, they would do so. Each week we offered slightly larger prey until they eventually began taking full grown pinks from hemostats (usually with a slight bump on the snake's nose to elicit a strike and hold). Babies were raised in small critter carriers w/mulch bottom, plastic leaves for climbing/basking and a shallow water bowl. Temps r anged from 72 to 80 degrees F.
Hope this helps. Rob
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RE: Gravid Trimeresurus albolabris
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by kuishe on February 14, 2005
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Thanks allot for sharing your experience!
I walk on needles until the big day and hope it doesn't get to big of an enterprise feeding the little ones. She's quite big, almost a whole meter long. I found info that an albolabris may deliver as much as 30 youngs in a litter. That would be quite a task..
Does anyone have any "secret" tricks on feeding juveniles. With my luck I'm gonna need them, I will probably end up with some realy picky ones ;-)
Is there some signs that will indicate that she's ready to drop?
/KuiShe (Viper in Chinese if anyone wonder)
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RE: Gravid Trimeresurus albolabris
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by Rob_Carmichael on February 18, 2005
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The only trick you will need with feeding baby vipers is patience....they will test every ounce of it! We initially, and by accident, discovered that a handful of our baby Tri. albolabris took wax worms; very strange but some of them really relished them and it helped put weight on quickly. Others refused them. We eventually relegated ourselves to tease feeding pinky parts to our babies. While the snake is anchored on a low lying branch, we would gently bump, via forceps, a pinky part (usually head) trying to elicit a strike and hold behavior. THis would normally take multiple tries until acheiving success. once they do grab it, DON'T MOVE A SINGLE INCH. If you do, they will release the item and you will start pulling hair out of your head. In a short period of time, all of our babies were pounding full grown pinks right off of tongs.
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