Hi Joe. In my experience, the only way to know for sure whether you have an Indian Star or a Sri Lankan Star is to know who bred them. I have bred and hatched 100-150 each from all three varieties of Stars, and if I didn't keep good records, would still have a very tough time telling young Indians from young Sri Lankans if they got mixed in together.

All that said, a 3 year old male Sri Lankan of just about 6" in my collection produced live young when bred to a 5 year old female who was exactly 8" at the time.

To tell whether your males are Sri Lankans or not, you would have to try to trace them back to their breeder. If you cannot trace their lineage back to an honest, well-known Sri Lankan Star breeder, they are more than likely NOT Sri Lankan Stars.

Sadly, a number of years ago, a few unscrupulous dealers began selling every Star they had as a Sri Lankan because the prices were higher for them than for the Indians. To make things worse, unsuspecting buyers bought what they thought were Sri Lankan Stars from these dealers and then kept them in with their REAL Sri Lankans, producing hybrid Stars without even knowing it.

I recommend buying Sri Lankan Stars ONLY from people you know and trust, and only when they can be traced back to the original imports from the 1980's and before (and there AREN'T that many of them).

Hope this helps.

Bill Z

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]