Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone,

I was working at my advisor's house the other day and was cleaning the Cerastes vipera cage. I hooked him out and moved him to a hot safe plastic box. Once in the box, he started going back and forth rubbing his scales together. He was doing exactly what I've heard saw scale vipers are known for.

Is this a common practice for this species? What about Cerastes cerastes? I've never seen either of these two do this before. I've seen the C. vipera pretty mad before, so seeing this behavior in a pretty standard situation was surprising.

Later,
Dave

I have a pair of Cerastes cerastes & they do that whenever I move them around or startle them.

Mine did it all the time when I first got him, but I guess he's a little more used to me now and it's very hard to get him to do it. Cerastes and Echis are very closely related.

I have Cerastes c. and yeah, mine do it as well.Frank