[JustABeginner2]

More for my Kukri Snake dump-post! This time, it's an account from a chap who kept and bred O. fasciolatus in captivity. Includes accounts of bites (through a leather glove that had foiled the efforts of white lipped pythons), bites even with a closed mouth, enticing hatchling to eat by offering chopped up pinky mice and photographs of a f/t mouse during and after being eviscerated by a male kukri snake (it ate everything inside the body cavity, lungs, heart, liver, intestines... the lot!)

https://www.snakesociety.nl/jaargan...61KtPLvb7Frw5qq095kH1dKHAJaGzEtijjzkJ879yVr5A

 

[ian14]

How is she doing?
Did it turn out she was gravid?

 

[JustABeginner2]

No eggs yet. She lost interest in food in late November/early December and looked suspiciously plump regardless. Now she's back on her food. She looks huge sometimes and other times it's nowhere near as pronounced. She spends a lot of her time in her moss box but was out basking on her slate hide today so I took some pics to keep track of how she's looking. As she slithered back under the slate I did put a finger under her body to try to feel for a series of lumps. I thought I could, but it might have been wishful thinking.

She's looking very healthy and colourful. Recently shed. Just got to see how we go. I've got an incubator all set up and holding temps well, ready in case. It gives me something to do while the kingsnakes are brumating.

 

[JustABeginner2]

David Zaius from Ophidiophile Farms has hatched out some of the brown O. purpurascens, and my word, they are cute! Apparently they have salmon pink ventral scales, whereas the adults have chequered cream/grey.

 

[JustABeginner2]

Another update for this dump-post!

After talking with Kurt Schaltz who breeds red Tioman Island O. purpurascens, it looks like Stabitha isn't gravid and isn't going to lay. Apparently this species can be pretty prolific once well adjusted to captivity. His females lay 4 clutches a year (his are several generations captive bred reds, as Tioman Island has been a protected nature refuge since the 1974 with no collection permitted). His girls lay 30 days or so after mating and have a pre-lay shed, 24hrs or less before laying. Stabitha has shed a couple of times over the winter so far with no eggs produced. I think she's probably ovulated a couple of times but it's not going anywhere by the looks of it.

Travis Wyman has hatched out a few Mainland Browns from a wild caught female that dropped a clutch shortly after arriving in captivity. He used a longer, lower temperature incubation method over 115 or so days. Shown in picture.

 

[JustABeginner2]

There's also the issue of the reds and browns being mixed geographically and genetically. That paper with the table of two phenotypes suggested that they are dimorphic, as in 'red' and 'brown'. I went hunting through field herp forums and photo galleries for images of wild O. purpurascens with location information. I had expected to find images of Tioman Island lookalikes from other islands and the Malaysian peninsula. It seems that the picture is much more complex than simple dimorphism.

^^Brown. Banded? Brown Kukri Snake (Oligodon purpurascens)

^^Red. Banded? SLOG (Singapore Snakes Blog)

^^Red. Banded? A wild Tioman Island animal. Brown Kukri Snake (Oligodon purpurascens)

^^Red. Banded and Banded/Barred? Alexander Matuschke's captive bred Tioman Island animals sometimes exhibit faint barring between the bands. Oligodon purpurascen

^^Brown. Banded/Barred? Oligodon purpurascens, Brown kukri snake

 

[JustABeginner2]

^^Red. Banded/barred? Borneo, Sarawak, Santubong snake compilation - Field Herp Forum

^^Brown? Barred? Phuket Nature Tours - Photos

^^Red? Barred? Other photos of this animal show no black on its scales, potentially being a naturally occurring hypomelanistic version of the other individual from Phuket. Phuket Nature Tours - Photos

^^Brown. Barred? Despite its drab dorsal colouration, this animal has bright red ventral scales. Brown Kukri Snake - Oligodon purpurascens

^^Brown. Saddled? Is this animal a mature version of the other Fraser's Hill phenotype, or do they co-occur? Brown Kukri Snake (Oligodon purpurascens)

 

[JustABeginner2]

^^Brown. Saddled? Brown Kukri Snake (Oligodon purpurascens)

^^Brown. Saddled? Snakes, Flying Frog, Caecilian, Trilobite Beetles: Macro and Still Life Photography Forum: Digital Photography Review

^^Red. Saddled? This one is my personal favourite. The alternative common names of "Maroon Kukri Snake" or "Purple Kukri Snake" make a bit more sense when looking at this animal. Pair the dark red colour with the steely blue/grey sheen of their scales on a moving snake and I'll bet it looks something close to some kind of purple. Occurrence Detail 2634006124

^^Melanistic? Brown Kukri Snake (Oligodon purpurascens)

^^Brown. Does the dorsal stripe remain or is this just a juvenile pattern? This one looks more like Travis Wyman's neonates than like David Zaius'. Brown Kukri Snake (Oligodon purpurascens)

^^ Red? Brown? Stripe/saddled/barred!? The location information is less specific for this one, but there's lots of cool pictures to browse through from this trip. trip report - Peninsular Malaysia april 2015 - Field Herp Forum

 

[JustABeginner2]

There is apparently a paper outlining the results from breeding a 'red' to a 'brown', which claims that the red phase is dominant over brown.

(Top left) Male juvenile 'brown'
(Top right) Male adult 'brown'
(Bottom left) Female juvenile captive bred Tioman Island red.
(Bottom right) Female adult captive bred Tioman Island red.

Hatchling from the pairing as a neonate, juvenile and adult.

Was this pairing really red x brown or was it just two shades of red being mixed together? My initial interpretation of the juvenile 'brown' male was that it was a red animal, even if it did get duller with age.

 

[JustABeginner2]

Found some O. purpurascens for sale, so I bought all 4 of them. Hopefully I'll be able to make up at least one pair in the future! Photos taken one with flash, one without, to try to give a better idea of colour.

Gillette looks like she may be female from the length of her tail, as a guess. Fantastically colourful for a "brown" snake! Her eyes look slightly cloudy so she may be about to go into blue. 135g

Wilkinson is nearly as colourful and from the looks of his tail, might be a guy. Only a little snake at 80g.

Stanley is a duller brown and looks like a potential male from his tail length/shape. He was much more mardy coming out of the shipping bag last night than either of the two brightly coloured ones. He's a bit on the skinny side so his 80g should go up pretty quick with any luck.

This one is currently nameless but came in a bag labelled "cow bag". 212g and furious, snake hook was necessary and she jack-in-the-box popped up out of the bag. She wanted to bite. She's gone into blue overnight. She's longer than my LTC Stabitha so if she thrives and puts on a similar amount if girth, this snake will be my biggest kukri. She's got an old wound under her jaw that I'm hoping will look a lot better once she's shed.

 

[JustABeginner2]

Wilkinson ate with gusto right off the bat. He's now gone into blue.

Stanley is the skinniest looking one but last night he really went to town on a bowl of beaten hen's egg. There's some good scale separation where he's filled himself up. With an empty stomach he's very triangle/Toblerone shaped so he's going to have anti-parasite medication in his next meal.

The big bitey one is now called "Cutlass". She shed and then was straight on her food.

Gillette is the problem child, fingers crossed on that one.

 

[JustABeginner2]

A stunning red, saddled(?) wild caught O. purpurascens youngster from West Java. This photo was posted to the Oligodon group on Facebook, by Syafri R Gremory.

As a guess, I'd say the above snake has the same Red&Yellow colour gene as a Tioman Island snake, but instead of the Banded pattern, it has the Saddled pattern more commonly seen in brown phase individuals. Whether it retains this intensity of colour into adulthood is another matter entirely.

Below is another West Java wild caught youngster, this time with the Banded pattern of a Tioman Island animal, but the colouration of a brown phase animal.

Brown Kukri Snake (Oligodon purpurascens)

Brown Kukri Snake from Citeureup on August 11, 2018 by aswad andriyanto

www.inaturalist.org

 

[loxocemus]

I know its off topic but may I ask how the xeno's are doing?

rgds
ed

 

[JustABeginner2]

I know its off topic but may I ask how the xeno's are doing?

rgds
ed

They're doing pretty good thanks Ed! One did die within a week of arrival (it was very thirsty on arrival) but the remaining 3 are all eating well and have been treated for parasites. One is so keen to feed that it strike feeds during daylight hours! Just got to grow them on some now.

 

[loxocemus]

hey 3 out of 4 wc, your doing well

 

[JustABeginner2]

hey 3 out of 4 wc, your doing well

I was gutted about the one that died, it was the biggest of the lot but it showed very little sign of being ill until two days before it died.

I have high hopes for Truffle though, the "gives zero turds" about this "Sunbeams are shy" snake. I think he/she has got fantastic potential for contributing to the captive bred population. This one has only refused food due to being in shed, every other time has been a strike feed and I've been able to photograph/video the process.

 

[JustABeginner2]

Stabitha out basking under 30°C and 10% uvb basking spot at 2:30pm. For a burrowing snake, she comes out to bask a lot!

 

[JustABeginner2]

Stanley's belly has the least chequering and least amount of colour of the lot. There's a slight hint of yellow under his neck and that's it.

Weighed the new kukris to see how they're doing weight-wise from arrival on 4th Feb to 2nd March:

Stanley - 80g -> 103g = 23g gain
Wilkinson - 80g -> 94g = 14g gain
Cutlass - 212g -> 224g = 12g gain
Gillette - 135g -> 117g = 18g loss

Gillette has been struggling but I'm pretty sure she's now turned a corner. She's much more active and is both eating and pooping.

I've also been attempting subcaudal scale counts from shed skins in the hope that it might lend a clue on gender without having to try to probe or 'just wait and see'. I'm not seeing much of a pattern here. I'll count Stabitha's when she sheds next as she's a known female. These were counted by holding the vent end of the shed skin towards me and counting the number of tail scutes along the left hand side - probably not the official way of counting but so long as I used the same method for all of them I thought I might see distinct grouping. But no.

Cutlass - 48
Wilkinson - 47
Stanley - 46 (but this shed was broken, may have been missing a row or two)
Gillette - 45

 

[JustABeginner2]

More wierd feeding behaviour from the kukri genus. If you skip to about 12:30 this lad found a Kukri snake in the wild that was in the middle of eating a mushroom.