Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all,
Just wanted to share these pics with you.
The left and top ones are common variations of orange+brown and back+white specimens but the one in the center looks very strange (maybe Hypomelanistic?)
Tell me what do you think.

The one below also shows a stripped specimen.

my photo gallery

"Aw mommy can I have those purdy snakes ?" )
Wanna buy wanna buy!

Oh man, I sure hope you're from europe (unless you are able to ship them overseas ....

Yes, I’m from Europe. But these snakes are not for sale, they are part of my private collection. All of these four are females but they did not breed this year.
I sure hope that the bright one is something genetic, I’ll try to breed her next year and I’ll let you know what comes out.

Does anyone have any opinion on what exactly is this specimen (Hypomelanistic or just a bright specimen)? She don’t have any black parts (only some relatively bright brown), her eyes are dark, and her tail sort of fades out in a blurred gray mess.
Thanks.

Hi.
I´m from Germany and I have V.palestinae(diffrent couples)for many many years.
Most of the females are nice coloured brown,like your ones.
Also with the stipe is very common.
Regards Hans

Wow! Those Vipera Palaestinae sure are pretty! Are they related to Russell's Viper? A subspecies, perhaps? What can you say about their toxicity? Captive behavior? Thanks for sharing.

Hi,
Thanks,
As far as I know they aren’t related to the Daboia russelli except that they both Viperidae.

You can look at their classification at.
http://www.kingsnake.com/viperidae/

Regarding their venom, it is quite bad, (but not as bad as the russelli).
You can learn more about its toxicity from Bryan Grieg Fry's site (look at the LD50 tables).
http://www.kingsnake.com/toxinology/

They are grate at captivity.
They are calm; they don’t jump out of the cage and start crawling allover (like some cobras and other Elapidae might), they stay calmly on the hook when moving them.
They are good eaters, and the babies start feeding quite easily.
They don’t make a lot of mess when [bleep]ting (like some large bitis species might).
I think they are quite similar to all other mid to large size Vipera species in these matters (and Crotalus as well).

Please tell me if you have any other questions.

Also...your photot gallery is outstanding. You are fortunate to be able to work with such a variety of animals.