My opinion

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Posted by WaiLuiHerp on February 02, 2003 at 18:28:11:

In Reply to: Re: One last reply posted by Animal on January 30, 2003 at 15:31:28:

I agree that CB animals are always the first choice, if you can afford them. Though we don't have much choice in some cases, because some species still don't have any CB available in the market, so please don't be afraid to try WC animals, otherwise we will never learn how to keep them alive.

I am personally keeping a lot of WC animals from China, that includes those delicate species most people are afraid to deal with, like the moellendorffi and porphyracea vaillanti. It is true that I felt very frustrated in the beginning, because I lost quite a few of them before I found the correct information out! One thing I learned the most is that there is not enough information about the climate of where the animals come from, so I never knew whether I created the right climate for them or not. Here is a good example: Everybody thinks that the moellendorffi should be kept in a cool and humid environment. But it ends up that they still did not survive. Most people would blame on that because they are WC and full of parasites, or they are so stressed out from the trip. I even heard someone here in US said that he saw people in China removed the gall bladder from the mandarina for food. As I am Chinese originally from Canton, in the southern part of China, we all knew that Chinese people only eat certain kinds of snakes, but they never ate the mandarina, same as the porphyracea. There are few kind of ratsnakes that are popular in Chinese dishs. They are E. taeniura, E moellendorffi, E.radiata and E. carinata.
Few years ago, when I had a field trip to Guangxi in the south-west part of China. Also that's where most of the moellendorffis originally come from. I had a guide who was a professional snake catcher, he took me out to search for geckos. He also showed me what kind of environment where he usually found the moellendoffi. I found that climate is very high humidity and also very hot. I also know few people in US who have had luck in keeping this species alive, they are all living in the Florida area. I can tell that the climate where the moellendorffi originally come from, is very close to Florida's hot and humid climate.

Here is a photo of my albino moellendorffi.

Wai

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