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Posted by Richard Mastenbroek on April 05, 2002 at 09:41:26:
Breeding and Keeping Black Mambas in Captivity
Some people asked me several times to write down my experience with black mambas in breeding and keeping them. I did this but because English is not my mother language I needed to write it first in Dutch before I could translate it in to English. I need to say that nobody did a grammar or spelling check on the article, so it can happen that some things that are written down in the article sound a bit strange. I hope you guys understand???
p.s. Sean, sorry it took so long but I didn’t had the time to do it.
So here we go ;-))
In this paper I will try to explain what my experiences are with keeping and breeding black mambas in Captivity.
In October 2000 I bought a pair of Black mambas. These snakes were bought from a importer in Germany with who I have good contact the company is called Zoo Center Gaidzik. The snakes came from a guy that couldn’t keep them any more because the real estate office he rented his house from didn’t allow him to keep those animals. Both animals where for 6 years in captivity as told to me and originally came out South Africa. The female was around 220 cm and had a nice light grey colouration with darker cross-bands around the body. The male was a bit longer and measured a size of 250 cm and had a more olive colouration and also some greyish cross- bands around the body. Both snakes were quit nervous the first couple of days. When something moved closely to there enclosure they rised there front body, hissed loud and opened there mouth wide, when the big black hole was seen clearly. After day tree the snakes calmed down quit good and they started to inspect there new enclosure , at day five I placed a hidebox in the enclosure so they could hide if they liked, but they never used it not even when the lights went out at night. After the snakes were for a week in my collection I offered the there first meal, which was accepted immediately. For me this was a good feeling because you can be for sure they will do quit well. After keeping the mambas for several weeks I decided to build them a new enclosure because the enclosure they where housed in was a bit small for two large snakes. At this moment the snakes where kept in a enclosure that measured a size of 150 x 50 x 70 cm (length x wide x height). Now I needed to build a enclosure that provided the snakes of an off space but it also needed to safe for me to work in and easy to clean out. After making several drawings of building a suitable enclosure for them I decided to make a enclosure that measured 320 x 50 x 60 cm at the left side of the cage I made a small entrance with behind this entrance the hide-box. This entrance was only 40 cm wide but only needed to be used for closing the hide-box from the outside of the enclosure. I also hoped that the snakes wanted to use this hide box because they didn’t use it in there old enclosure. This small 40 cm wide glass sliding door could also be used to feed the snakes or to give them fresh water or grabbing out faeces or sheddings from the snakes. Next to this small entrance was a glass window from 120 long that couldn’t be opened, next to the window I made two doors in that could slide. Between the sliding windows and the closed window I had made a slide so I could divide the enclosure in two parts.
On the floor of the enclosure I placed 3 heat-pats from 25 Watt each on top of that I placed plastic sail. For lightning I used a 120 cm long neon-tube colour number 85 (daylight) and a 100 Watt spotlight, that also was used for heating the enclosure. True this construction I got a real good temperature variance in the enclosure that was ranging between 23 - 400C directly under the spotlight.
As substrate I used my standard mixture that I use with most of my snakes. This mixture exists out of river sand, peat, fine palm-tree bark and potting soil. In my opinion is this good mixtures that can be kept dry or humid without producing allot of dust, this mix also absorbs fluid and faeces good, and so this is easy to clean. As decoration in the enclosure I choose for some big rocks formed out of sandstone, some big three brunches and some plastic plants. In all my enclosures I like to use decorations this is used by the snakes to hide and to clime and it also gives your enclosure a more natural looking idea.
When the enclosure was finished and the mambas where placed in there new home I needed to come to the conclusion that the slide system that needed to divide the cage in 2 separate parts was not working because exactly this spot was there favourite place to lay down and rest. I had the luck that this pair of mambas was really docile and never act defensive in any way. When I wanted them to move I really needed to push them with my snake hook before I got any real movement in them. Another thing that was done for nothing in the enclosure was the hide-box that was placed in the enclosure and was still not used as I had seen before in the old mamba cage.
At the 4th of December when I came in my snake-room for the daily care of the snakes did I notice that the black mambas where acting really strange. After having a good and close look at them did I see they were mating, of course I was really surprised because I had them just for a short period (2 months). The male was quit aggressive to the female when they were mating and it looked more like a raping than a friendly courtship. After a quick round in my snake-room I decided to leave the love pair alone so I could not disturb them any longer what could ruin there mating. The next day when I came into the room where they still mating. In total took it 28 hours before the male didn’t show any interest in the female anymore. Remarkable was that the female didn’t lost her appetite what gave me the idea the just had sex for fun. After 50 days the female didn’t except anymore food and she started to get more active than she normally was. I think she started to look for a place to drop her eggs, even when she didn’t look gravid. At day 60 where the signs that she needed to lay eggs quit obviously and I could see that a shed was coming up. This was the point that I decided to create something for her to lay her eggs in. After observing her for quit sometime I noticed that she preferred to lay down at the far left of the enclosure close to the non-used hide-box. For me it was clear that this was the spot she liked to lay her eggs so I placed a black plastic box filled with humid peat and fine palm three bark on the spot. Above this egg laying box I placed a 25 watt spotlight to raise the temperature in the box with a couple degrees Celsius.
Juveniles after 9 months
Both mambas did a good inspection on the box before the female decide to have a look inside. On the 14th of February I saw the female was shed and a nice complete shed was removed from the cage what mend that it didn’t took very long before she started to lay her eggs. At this time the male was a bit nervous and act different than he normally did and he also didn’t accept any food offered to him. The next 3 days I didn’t see the female till she appeared from her box at the 17th of February. For me this was the moment of truth and I removed the egg laying box out of the cage. When I opened the box 14 eggs where smiling at me 5 of them where dried out and could thrown away immediately the other 9 eggs that where left over where placed in the incubator. The incubator that I use is a dry home made incubator. The temperature in the incubator was hold on 28 - 290C, with a humidity level from around 70 – 80%. The humidity control could be arranged by spraying water. The coming time would be really exiting.
9 month old juvenile
In the weeks after the eggs were laid the female just ate again, and was fed twice a week with semi-adult rats. The eggs in the incubator seemed to do very well and were growing obviously. After 68 days on the 26th of April, I checked the eggs and saw a small black mamba baby crawling around in one of the boxes. When this cute little snake saw my face did it pull back his head opened his little mouth like he was telling me from don’t come any closer I’m a black mamba. In the 3 days after the first egg hatched another 6 mamba babies appear from the egg, the 2 eggs that didn’t hatched where kept till 110 days in the incubator before I threw the away, before that I had to cut the eggs open to have a good look at them but the snakes in the eggs where not an off developed and were died in there.
All the babies did it quit well and had there first shed after 10 – 12 days. After all mambas were shed I decided to offer them some baby mice that were accepted right away. I noticed that young black mambas only think about food and nothing else they also act more nervous than adult ones and react on every movement by gaping and showing there small black mouth. On the second of July I found 2 of the babies death in there boxes and till know I could find any reason why they had such a sudden death. The other 5 hatchlings did quit well and 2 of them I kept till October 2001 and they had reached a length of 150 cm. One of them is given to Dexter B. and is seen quit often on his pictures.
The day I cried “a memorial to a fantastic snake”
December, winter time in Holland, poring down with rain and freezing cold a typical sad Dutch winter day for Holland when I found my female black mamba death in her enclosure. I brought her for a section to my veterinarian and he came to the conclusion that she had a cancer tumour under her lung which she died from, he also told me she was carrying eggs again. It was a sad end for a magnificent animal like her.
Richard Mastenbroek (Mr Taipan)
Copyright©2002 Richard Mastenbroek
