Why Won't These House Snakes Breed
The more common questions is why are my house snakes breeding but producing infertile eggs. Quite often this is in the attempt to create heterozygous amelinestic (AKA albino or amel) house snakes where the breeder obtains say a amelinistic male and attempts to breed it into a "normal" female. Amel house snakes are still quite expensive running from 200-400 an animal so this is a common tactic. Get a male, breed him to several females creating hets, then breed the hets to get some hets, some possible hets and some new Amels. You can also breed known het females back to the father and get 50% new hets and 50% Amels.
I went on quite a bit about the amels because it is the most common breeding attempt that ends up with infertile eggs but the actual cause is not really related to the amel/albino trait at all.
This problem is from the fact that when we think of "common" or "brown" house snakes there are actually TWO species that look quite similar to each other and most of the herp world is under the impression that they are indeed one in the same. Then when you try to interbreed these animals they are more then willing to go through with the act but you get slugs (infertile eggs). On some occasions you may get a few good eggs and the offspring will be hybrids between the two and mostly infertile.
So what are the two species and how do you tell them apart? Unfortunately they look very similar and are difficult to tell apart to say the least but there are some things that may help you know. The best bet is buy from a known source and get animals of a known blood line.
The two species in question are...
1. The Brown House Snake or by its' scientific name Lamprophis Fuliginosus - These most commonly come from Tanzania in todays pet trade. They are highly variable in pattern and color with the most sought after color phase being "red". The picture below is a L. Fuliginosus
2. The Cape House Snake or as it is known by its' scientific name Lamprophis Capensis - These snakes are often called "brown house snakes" which simply causes greater confusion between the two species. Within the species of L. Capensis there are several "phases" which are tied to geographic region. The two most common phases are Zululand (which are generally dark in color and get the largest of any phase and species) and Transvaal (which also grow larger then most house snakes and are generally quite light in color). Like L. Fuliginosus, L. Capensis is highly variable in color and pattern. Many have a spotted or chain like pattern, some are striped (like the one in the upper right image on our blog) and some are basically a solid color. The picture below is a Zululand Phase L. Capensis
As you can see this can be quite confusing but if you are breeding two animals and getting infertile eggs this is the place to start looking. Once you work with these animals and view some from known sources over time is it fairly easy to know what you are looking at but explaining it is difficult.
So why is the problem so common with Amel animals? Well, because all the known lines of amelenistic house snakes are of species L. Capensis including several from Zululand Phases and at least one from the Transvaal phase. Now all species of L. Capensis will interbreed so you can breed a Zululand Phase to a Transvaal but when you try to breed a Capensis to a Fuliginosus again you get fertility problems.
So that is half of the problem. The other half is if you buy a "normal" house snake or a "red phase" house snake the odds are it is a Tanzanian animal and of course an L. Fuliginosus and that amel is certainly a L. Capensis. So if you are inclined to breed Amel house snakes of any for that matter take all of this into consideration as you procure you animals.
7 comments:
There are more than two species that cross into Tanzania.
Consider L. maculatus as well.
http://www.reptilescanada.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9166
http://www.reptilescanada.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11438
It appears that the taxonomy of these gorgeous snakes is just starting to sort itself out within the herpetocultural movement.
http://www.reptilescanada.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11598
I think it is of interest of everyone involved with house snakes to assist in the attempt of helping positively identify the different species within Lamprophis, both for the general keeper and the hobby at large. I have found out the hard way that L. maculatus (and possibly some of the other species as well) cannot earn the title of "voracious feeder" near as easily as hatchlings...
Thanks for you comments and I will be checking out those threads soon. I know there are 18 Taxon in total at this time but the two most common species that are attempted to breed with negative results are True Browns and Capes.
I wanted to start off easy with this stuff so as not to overwhelm my visitors. My next article is being written not and is about olives. Talk about confusion there you have
True Olives
Blacks that are called olives
Brows of an olive phase (called olives by many)
and of course
Capes of an olive phase as well.
I am currently buying my stock from importers that understand all this and gettting pure bloodlines. This species will never take off fully until people learn about all this and stop trying to beed (sometimes with success which causes more problems) different species.
The other issue is many of the animals in the pet trade right now when you ask the breeder/dealor he does not know what he has many times he thinks he knows but you can tell by his answers he is clueless.
I will keep working at it and thanks for the threads and the comments.
I understand that even the taxonomists who classify the snakes have not completed their work by a long shot. Rumour has it that there have been occasions where two L. fuliginosus from two different regions will not breed.
I fell in love with the genus a few years back, and went through some efforts lately to get my current pair. I was first under the impression that I was obtaining L. fuliginosus and upon discovering they were in fact L. maculatus, I shrugged and thought little of it.
It turns out that some non-fuliginosus hatchlings are hard starters, and indeed, I have had problems. I had been researching these snakes for a few years and have found that there is little information on the matter.
These being my first snakes, it has been a long and difficult learning process, and I am now making an attempt to simulatenously learn as much as I can about these snakes as a genus and to fuel discussions on how different the various species can truly be.
Some African house snakes, as hatchlings, are not "beginner's" snakes.
you are speaking about doing a write up on the south african olive house snake Lamprophis ornatus, the english name is false for this species since their is already a true olive house snake, lamprophis olivaceus which is found through out much of central african tropical regions. The true name for this south african house snake should be ornate house snake
Crap.. This make sense as to why my "het" pair aren't producing.. Because they definatly aren't pure Cape's, and now that i've read this, they do indeed look like crosses.. I've been ripping out my hair wondering WHY they won't breed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/blkkestrel/HouseMaleBody_8862.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/blkkestrel/HouseMaleBody_8900.jpg
Hmm. Actually, now that i've read your whole blog, it looks like they might be two different ssp.. My links didn't work, but my male is SUPER light red/cinnamon colored, with a high amount of pattern, and greenish gold eyes. He looks almost identical to Don's photo of the Transvaal animal. The female is a darker more normal "brown" color with less pattern. Maybe she is the more common "brown" variety, which i've now learned is a separate ssp. Odd, since I purchased this pair together, and was told they were siblings.
Post a Comment