Posted by:
LarryF
at Thu Jan 6 00:37:12 2011 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by LarryF ]
>>Crotalids typically replace one fang on alternating sides at an interval of roughly one month.
This may (or may not) be a useful generalization, but it is certainly by no means a hard rule.
All my crotalilids (actually all my snakes) are housed individually, and I regularly (as in maybe 25% of the time that I find fangs) find 2 or more in one cage during the same cleaning. I use paper substrate and rinse the container and replace the paper at every cleaning, so these are not leftover from previous defecations. I have found as many as 4 in one cleaning, and I don't look very hard...
They usually pass though the digestive system but are occasionally "spit out" so, some of these events may include fangs that were shed up to a few weeks apart.
Captive snakes in particular sometimes retain fangs longer than "intended" and it's not two uncommon to see 2 fully formed fangs up against each other on EACH side of the mouth. So shedding 2-4 fangs in a short period should net be surprising. ----- What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.
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- C. Atrox - sflaskamp, Mon Jan 3 21:45:51 2011
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