Slow worms - Page 2

retri · #11 (**permalink**) 25-03-2008, 06:05 PM

Kool, id love to come catch one

but they are lizards not snakes

I would probably use a snake trap or a net and a piece of corigated metal.

Johnny_Beard · #12 (**permalink**) 25-03-2008, 06:10 PM

lol yer come anytime, and i never new that they were Lizards, do they have legs then? what do reps need to be classed as lizards?

Ssthisto · #13 (**permalink**) 25-03-2008, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny_Beard

lol yer come anytime, and i never new that they were Lizards, do they have legs then? what do reps need to be classed as lizards?

No, slow worms and other legless lizards do not have legs (although some of them have little stubs). What they do have - that snakes don't - are:

1. Eyelids (the only lizards without eyelids have legs)
2. One-piece lower jawbones
3. A tail that is half or more their total length that can be 'dropped' or autotomised if the animal feels threatened.

Snakes have two-piece lower jawbones (which lets them swallow things bigger than their own heads), clear "spectacles" over their eyes rather than eyelids and comparatively short tails (often as little as a fifth of their total length - and they don't drop them voluntarily if they're scared). Snakes also have belly scales that they use to move caterpillar-like across the ground; legless lizards do not have this type of scales, and the scale size is pretty uniform all the way around them. Because of this, a legless lizard is stiffer and does not move as gracefully as a snake. And many legless lizards have some form of external ear hole - not all of them, but quite a few!

A snake trap would not be particularly effective to catch slow worms since they wouldn't be eating prey larger than their body diameter and thus wouldn't climb into a bottle and get 'stuck' because they've consumed a food item too big for them to squeeze back out... there are things that would work, but a little bit of book research or reading on the 'net ought to point you in the right direction.

tortoisechap · #14 (**permalink**) 25-03-2008, 07:12 PM

I'd see if you can get a captive bred one first someone sells them on pre loved i belive. I think if you got a wild one in both the capture and the keepinng it might drop its tail which wouldnt be very good for it.

Ssthisto · #15 (**permalink**) 25-03-2008, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tortoisechap

I'd see if you can get a captive bred one first someone sells them on pre loved i belive. I think if you got a wild one in both the capture and the keepinng it might drop its tail which wouldnt be very good for it.

Those animals on Preloved are almost certainly wild-caught to order.

I have contacted people off Preloved (the same one three years running if I remember the name rightly) regarding their "captive bred" slow worms. The person in question could not answer simple husbandry questions, let alone tell me what they feed their neonates on or how they conditioned their adults to breed; they're always offering adults for sale as well as neos, and people who have received animals have said they've gotten scarred specimens with dropped tails or dead animals. All of that points to WC and illegal rather than CB, well acclimated animals.

And with my experience of my three (WC in Europe and legally imported) slow worms, it's harder than you think to get them to drop their tails. Even when they're quite agitated by being picked up, they seem reluctant to do it - so if you're careful about how you catch them AND how you handle them until they realise you're not a threat, I wouldn't think they're more likely to drop their tails than, say, hatchling leopard geckos.

Philcw · #16 (**permalink**) 25-03-2008, 07:35 PM

We will have some CB Uk common lizards soon-ish

and will be looking at slow worms etc...
We have full permission for what we are doing also.

They will not however be for sale until our UK breeding project is well established.

retri · #17 (**permalink**) 26-03-2008, 12:04 PM

Kool, how do you keep your lizards in regards to container/size and temp etc?

a.m.phibian · #18 (**permalink**) 26-03-2008, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philcw

We will have some CB Uk common lizards soon-ish

and will be looking at slow worms etc...
We have full permission for what we are doing also.

They will not however be for sale until our UK breeding project is well established.

Out of interest Phil, who is it that's given you permission for your venture? You can PM the name of people etc if you prefer.

reef · #19 (**permalink**) 26-03-2008, 09:35 PM

Following an amendment in 1988 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981, part of Section 9(1) and all of Section 9(5) apply to the slow-worm’s listing on Schedule 5 of the Act. Consequently, under parts of Section 9(1) slow-worms are protected against intentional killing and injuring but not ‘taking’. Under Section 9(5) it is an offence to offer for sale, transport for sale, advertise for the purpose of trading any live, dead, part, or derivative of, slow-worms. Section 9 applies to all stages in their life cycle. T
y dont u just leave em where they belong

Ssthisto · #20 (**permalink**) 26-03-2008, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reef

y dont u just leave em where they belong

Because, if everyone did that, there would be no reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish or mammals in anyone's house, anywhere, ever.

ALL of the animals you currently own according to your signature come from pretty recent wild stock (last hundred years or less) ... the original breeding stock has to come from somewhere. The first captive bred cornsnake didn't just appear in someone's vivarium somewhere - its parents were caught in the wild and brought into captivity.

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