Captive breeding of slow worms?

This summer I became the happy owner of a group of imported (apparently Italian) Anguis fragilis, at least one of whom is female. I do hope that one of them is male and that I can attempt breeding these animals in captivity.

Are there any other folk out there who are breeding slow worms, whether of British origin or otherwise, who could offer any tips?

And equally importantly, though I know I don't require a license to own my animals (or native British ones, either) is there any license required or obtainable that would allow me to trade or sell captive-bred offspring from these imported animals? I have enquired with DEFRA, but have not yet received a response.

Any light that could be shed on this by anyone here would be very much appreciated - thanks!

Post moved by admin - Hi welcome to RAUK, this post was moved as the species forums are reserved for questions and comments regarding native species in the wild or animals that form part of a structured conservation based captive breeding project . Please post pet related questions in the off-topic forum

Just a little point why did you feel that you needed to import these slowworms? -

JC

herpetologic2 wrote: Why did you feel the need to import these slow worms?

I did not personally, myself, import them or request that they be imported on my behalf. They were imported by an individual I do not know personally, then offered for sale from a specialist reptile shop here in the North of England. I happened to hear of the shop and the slow worms, did what research I could into their keeping - primarily by quizzing the individual who mentioned the shop to me, as she had successfully been keeping an imported female slow worm as a pet for nearly a decade and had heard of the opportunity to purchase a second animal - and set up a suitable enclosure prior to obtaining my four animals.

What was wrong with british slowworms?

I have never seen a British slow worm. I've only lived here in Britain for the last seven years, have only seen one native reptile (a vivi) near where I live due to not knowing where to look (yep, I'm more aware of where to look now, and intend to attempt observation of wild British slow worms in the new year) ... there isn't anything wrong with British slows, and if I can acquire neonates next autumn (I do not wish to take adult, breeding-age animals from the population, but I do not feel that removing a small number of neonate animals, the majority of which are unlikely to survive in the wild, poses a threat to the wild populations) I would certainly like to set up a separate breeding group of these animals.

It just makes me wonder if the Italian race slowworm consitutes a non native species of the UK? I am sure that would be open to debate - I know that Italian race grass snakes are considered a different species to the grass snake in the UK - releasing them into the UK would be illegal - is that the same for your slowworms?

I do not know if releasing Italian-race slow worms would be legal, and had not in fact considered doing so in any way, shape or form. My animals are kept in a vivarium, indoors, and will remain that way, just as my captive-bred leopard geckos and my captive-bred corn snake will. None of my pets will be released under any circumstances, and my vivariums are secure to ensure they do not escape - for their own protection, as we have pet cats - so the release legalities do not particularly concern me.

If I do have a legal way to sell offspring of any generation, the animals will not be sold as anything other than Italian-origin captive bred PET animals - with a full captive-species care sheet and a contract to the effect that if someone no longer feels capable to keep their animal, that I will refund their money on receipt of the animal back into my custody - that they are absolutely and under no conditions to be released into the wild.

I have to admit I'm worried that the slugs in my garden might carry parasites that I'd prefer not to pass on to my slow worms, hence my hesitancy to collect them... I know that some species of slug and snail do carry some pretty nasty stuff. For the moment, I know my four are eating waxworms with some regularity, even dusted with calcium, and I offer other prey items on occasion, including very small hatchling locusts (which my geckos adore, but the slows don't seem interested in).

And don't worry, I won't be allowing my critters to wind up in the wild, whether they LOOK like native species or not - which is one reason why any British-origin slow worms I keep will be kept separately to my imported guys (I don't want to mix bloodlines - no matter if they're separate subspecies, separate species or just plain geographically separated populations of the same subspecies).

If I posted a link to some photos here of my four animals, would anyone be willing to hazard a guess at species, subspecies, age and gender? I've been told that one of them is absolutely a female (dark copper back, sort of chain-patterned black stripe down the centre, solid black belly, and fairly chunky of build) but we don't know what the other three might be.

Chap-ette, really *grins* Don't let the masculine name fool you - it may be my middle name, but my first name is more feminine!

Okay, here's a link to the first two we got:

http://www.ssthisto.com/VHRStuff/SlowGender

We've been told that "Gretel" is definitely female (the darker copper-coloured individual), but that the person who was looking at them couldn't tell for sure what "Hansel" was. The photos on that page are some two months old, and since then Hansel seems to have lost more of the dorsal stripe and developed speckling in black/dark brown along the brassy-coloured areas of his/her top side.

We'll sort out some more recent photos of Hansel and the other two and post them once I can assemble them on a page for everyone to see.