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Lots of fantastic elapids, everyone! Great stuff! I'm loving those outdoor Tiger cages, getarealdog, and the animals themselves are great!

I don't get on the forums too much these days, but I just found some discussion in this thread about the albino Northern Death Adders about which 'species' they are.

I don't claim to be an expert on Death Adder taxonomy or phylogeny, and there's certainly no consensus on the topic anyway. I call them praelongus not because I'm making any bold taxonomic statement, but because the most universally accepted taxonomy considers them to be praelongus (check any mainstream Australian herp book, and according to it, the albinoes are pralongus, based on morphology and distribution). I sell them as praelongus because according to the licensing system that's what they fall under.

If at some point in the future Death Adders are universally split into a hundred species and everyone accepts them, I'm quite happy to call them whatever name fits them best, but the label isn't all that important to me, especially since just about every Death Adder race/locality/morph/individual seems to have its name argued and changed every few weeks :p In terms of locality, I'm obviously not going to give out anything too specific, but if you get a typical Acanthophis distribution map, look at the area of the Northern Territory shaded for 'praelongus' (as defined by all the mainstream books, licensing departments, etc.) and stick your finger in the middle of it you're not especially far off.

If anyone wants to check their DNA I'm very happy to give sloughs or scale clippings. Maybe it's a long shot, but people seem to like doing Acanthophis DNA studies and it would be cool to have the albinoes looked at. A lot of NT 'praelongus' (in the traditional sense) seem to come up as more closely related to stuff from thousands of km away, even PNG than Acanthophis living over the hill or on the other side of the river, or so they say. I quietly suspect that if nuclear DNA was used rather than mitochondrial DNA the results would be totally different, but that's another story! :lol:

I've become pretty good at accidentally destroying cameras, but I have a new one due to arrive any day and will photograph some albinoes in the near future. I'm really excited about this year's pairings, it's the first year I've had second generation albinoes to pair up, so I've had more choice of animals to choose from (my selected holdbacks rather than just the few originals) and have had a go at matching them. There should be some absolute rippers born in a few months!
 
Good on you Sdaji keep up the good work. Any chance of breeding some cold tolerant albino's so they can get outside too lol! Anybody bred from Sdaji's first lot of albino's that he sold?
 
Hah! I'll let you know when I have cold tolerant ones.

Actually, I wouldn't be all that surprised if you could keep them outside as long as you set the enclosure up in a clever way. They're surprisingly cold tolerant. I haven't told too many people this, but when the very first albinoes were just a couple of months old, in a Melbourne winter, I accidentally unplugged their thermostat and they had no heat for about five weeks. They started being less keen to feed but did keep eating and growing. They were sitting at room temperature (about 10-12 degrees overnight, mid teens during the day, sometimes probably as high as 18-20). That was when they were just little babies. Once I realised and plugged the thermostat back in they returned to feeding enthusiastically like normal and digesting meals faster, but I was amazed they'd been able to carry on without supplemental heat. The adults still lure for food during winter when being cooled hard. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the adults could live outside. I'm not sure if I'd stick pink-eyed animals outside where they'd be using the sun as a heat source though.

The first albinoes I sold will now be about 20 months old. If people have really pushed them hard they might have gravid ones. I know a few people who have paired them this season are hoping! Exciting times :)
 
Actually, I wouldn't be all that surprised if you could keep them outside as long as you set the enclosure up in a clever way. They're surprisingly cold tolerant. I haven't told too many people this, but when the very first albinoes were just a couple of months old, in a Melbourne winter, I accidentally unplugged their thermostat and they had no heat for about five weeks. They started being less keen to feed but did keep eating and growing. They were sitting at room temperature (about 10-12 degrees overnight, mid teens during the day, sometimes probably as high as 18-20). That was when they were just little babies. Once I realised and plugged the thermostat back in they returned to feeding enthusiastically like normal and digesting meals faster, but I was amazed they'd been able to carry on without supplemental heat. The adults still lure for food during winter when being cooled hard. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the adults could live outside. I'm not sure if I'd stick pink-eyed animals outside where they'd be using the sun as a heat source though

Sounds like a outdoor adder enclosure could be my next project.
 
Had some out through the week, the smaller red belly (2nd pic) had been off the tucker for a while but is eating well now and getting some condition on.
 

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Some newbies Speckled Browns. My first Pseudonaja, 7wks old, small but have them feeding on fish till big enough to take scented pinky's. Thought the "non speckled's" were trippy, does anyone know if they remain like this till adulthood?
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they will darken slightly but usually stay that way as adults
 
Some newbies Speckled Browns. My first Pseudonaja, 7wks old, small but have them feeding on fish till big enough to take scented pinky's. Thought the "non speckled's" were trippy, does anyone know if they remain like this till adulthood?
February11th201264.jpg
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February11th201218.jpg

are they they ones on herptrader ?






try'd posting this on another thread but went in this box ........owell
 

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Nice baxtor, pair? Don't know what mine are, got "mum" here boarding at the moment & has been mated on a lot of occasions so fingers crossed she's gravid.
 
I love the look of that 'Silver' animal Baxtor and as always Nigel, your animals are top notch!
 
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