Swaggomancer
11-07-16, 06:11 AM
Hi!
A couple years ago I captured a young Clifford's rat snake that had fallen into my pool. This is probably what sparked the craze for herps, especially native snakes, that I have today. I ended up letting the diadem snake go, just because I couldn't feed it at the time (no lab mice for sale here). However, now I have a group of quail handy - I bought them for this specific purpose - and my fridge is getting packed with their little eggs. Maybe I can finally get something going here.
Otherwise, I have two young Greek tortoises roaming my backyard - along with a fair few wild occelated skinks. Just a week ago I bought two WC Egyptian green toads that I've been keeping. They were being sold for university dissection, I think.
They do sell snakes (locally caught) here too, they sell them for traditional medicines though - I've never seen them sold as pets yet. People just kill them and eat them and they are supposed to be some sort of "miracle cure". Same thing goes for Uromastyx, scorpions, tortoises, and chameleons. All of them are crammed in tiny containers and sold to be killed. It isn't illegal, but...ugh.
Something cool about these shops though is I get a good look at all the native snakes. I've seen a Montpellier snake, Egyptian cobras, all sorts of vipers, a false-smooth snake, Algerian whip snakes, diadem snakes, schokari sand racers, and probably a few more. I'm usually drooling at the mouth by the time I've seen most of the snakes.
A couple years ago I captured a young Clifford's rat snake that had fallen into my pool. This is probably what sparked the craze for herps, especially native snakes, that I have today. I ended up letting the diadem snake go, just because I couldn't feed it at the time (no lab mice for sale here). However, now I have a group of quail handy - I bought them for this specific purpose - and my fridge is getting packed with their little eggs. Maybe I can finally get something going here.
Otherwise, I have two young Greek tortoises roaming my backyard - along with a fair few wild occelated skinks. Just a week ago I bought two WC Egyptian green toads that I've been keeping. They were being sold for university dissection, I think.
They do sell snakes (locally caught) here too, they sell them for traditional medicines though - I've never seen them sold as pets yet. People just kill them and eat them and they are supposed to be some sort of "miracle cure". Same thing goes for Uromastyx, scorpions, tortoises, and chameleons. All of them are crammed in tiny containers and sold to be killed. It isn't illegal, but...ugh.
Something cool about these shops though is I get a good look at all the native snakes. I've seen a Montpellier snake, Egyptian cobras, all sorts of vipers, a false-smooth snake, Algerian whip snakes, diadem snakes, schokari sand racers, and probably a few more. I'm usually drooling at the mouth by the time I've seen most of the snakes.