Red Spitting Cobra

Red Spitting Cobra (Naja pallida)

Length:

Most adults range in length between 70 – 120 cm with a mamximum of 150 cm, the tail is fairly young and can be 15 – 19% of the total body length.

Zoological Description:

The Red Spitting Cobra is a relatively small cobra that is quite slender in body proportions. They have a small head (some specimens can have big heads with huge swollen venom glands clearly seen at the side of the head) with large eyes, with a round pupil. The tail is long and the body is cylindrical of shape.

The colour of this cobra can be variable depending on the origin of the snake. The specimens from southern Kenya and northern Tanzania have a orange red colour, with a broad steel blue or black throat band. In some specimens we also see two or tree throat bands but this is not common for specimens from East Africa . The ventral side is also reddish from colour with sometimes a crèmes white throat. Specimens from other areas can be yellow, pinkish, pink-grey, pale red or steel grey which can be mistaken for dark green, most of them will have the throat band, but this throat band will fade or even sometimes disappear in larger adults. The true red specimens will become red-brown with increasing their size.

Scalation:

- Dorsal scales on the midbody 21 – 27 rows

- Ventrals 197 – 228

- Subcaudals 61 – 72

- Subscales are Paired

- Analscale is single

- Upper labials 7

- Upper labials entering the eye 1

- Preoculairs 2

- Postoclurairs 3

- Lower labials 8 (7-9)

Taxonomic Note:

The Red Spitting Cobra together with the Mozambique Spitting Cobra (Naja mossambica) and the West African Brown Spitting Cobra (Naja katiensis) were thought to be a subspecies of the Black Spitting Cobra (Naja nigricollis) for quite some time. After this is the Naja pallida seen as a subspecies of Naja mossambica and named Naja mossambica pallida, this confusion still exists especially in older articles and books. Now the Red Spitting Cobra is placed as a separate species. Specimens from Sudan , Egypt and Eritrea may be a separate species but research needs to be done.

Geographic Range:

The Red Spitting Cobra is know to occur in northern Tanzania , Kenya where it is wide spread in the dry country of eastern and northern Kenya . They also occur in North and east Ethiopia , through Somalia , Ogaden , Eritrea to northern Sudan and southern Egypt . Red Spitting Cobras can be found up to 1200 m altitude.

Habitat:

Adult are mostly nocturnal and hiode in day time in termite hills, old logs, under ground or in brush piles to cover the day. Juveniles seem to be more day active.

These cobras prefer grassland semi desserts and savannah. They are often found near water holes where they hunt on frogs which is there main food, they are also known to be cannibalistic, this could be the reason that the juveniles and smaller specimens are day active while adult are preferred nocturnal

Captive behaviour:

Red Spitting Cobras are in captivity pleasant and thankful snakes to keep. Freshly wild caught specimens can be very defensive when disturbed, they will rear up there front part of the body flatten off there narrow hood hiss loud and spit there venom in the direction of there attacker, when there attacker is not impressed they will often choose to move away and hide. After keeping them for some weeks in captivity they will calm down fairly quick and some keepers will never see them hood again.

When kept in a big enclosure are Red Spitters active and curious snakes that will check al the insides of there enclosure. My Red Spitters are pretty docile but can be fierce and furious when feeding time is there, live prey items will be hunted down, but also dead prey items offered will be taken on a pretty aggressive way. I handle my Red Spitters by tailing them and keeping them away from my body with a snakehook. When working with these snakes I always wear safety glasses, or even better a face mask. Juvenile Red Spitters are fast moving and pretty easy to agitate.

Feeding:

In nature do Red Spitting Cobras feed mainly on amphibians, but small mammals, birds, eggs, other reptiles including other snakes will be taken to. When kept under good circumstances are Red Spitting Cobras easy feeders in captivity. I feed my snakes mostly with dead defrosted mice, rats or chicks which are offered out of a large tweezer. When offered dead food items I will feed them in there enclosure live prey items will be fed in a bin, otherwise they will breakdown there enclosure because they are furious hunters. Hatchling are fed with crickets and small grasshoppers which are mostly taken from the first time they got offered after 3 months I start to offer them baby mice and soon they will eat them to.

Breeding Red Spitting Cobras:

For a long time was the Red Spitting Cobra one of the most bred cobras in Europe, but because people couldn’t get rid of them many cobra keepers sold there adults or stopped breeding them. Now the red spitting cobra is not bred that much any more and to get some can be a real pain. I was also one of the stupid guys that sold his adult breeding group and because of that I didn’t breed them for several years. Now in March 2002 I purchased a new adult pair of Red Spitters and I had they first mating already which gives me a good hope.

Red Spitting Cobras are egg-layers and can produce clutches from 6 – 15 (24) eggs in early European summer in captivity after a gestation period of 2 months most mating will be seen in April. I incubated the eggs in a dry incubator on a temperature between 28 – 30⁰C and the humidity around 80% when the humidity runs low I spray with water. After about 60 days the eggs will hatch, hatchling will molt after 9 – 12 days when offered there first meal. I never gave any of my Red Spitters a real hibernation period, but there is a fairly big difference in temperature and humidity in my snake-room between Dutch summer and winter time. In winter time I will feed my snakes less than in summer and I will also give them smaller food items, because the digestion is slower.

Enclosures:

JJuveniles are kept separate in plastic boxes on newspaper, with a small carton hiding box, a cricket box with humid soil and a small water-dish. The boxes are placed on a heating cable. Adults are kept as pair true out the year.

The enclosures measure a size of 120 x 50 x 50 cm (Length x Height x Wide) they are build from chip wood and are build in a sort of rack construction. The enclosure can be opened true two glass sliding doors, which can be locked with a glass showcase lock. Heating and lighting are done by a 60 Watt spotlight on the right side of the enclosure, the bottom of the enclosure is also heated true the enclosure under need the enclosure of the Red Spitters. The average temperature in the enclosure is around 25 - 28⁰C and directly under the spotlight 34 - 38⁰C.

As a substrate I use a mixture of river sand and peat, which I don’t really like to use because of the dust, but the snakes seem to do perfect on this mixture. I have kept my Red Spitters also on a mixture of coco-peat, potting soil, river-sand and peat, which I mostly use at my other species of snakes but this substrate is to wet for the Red Spitters and gives them skin problems. As decoration I use hollow cork, some sand-stone rocks and Elephant trees to give the enclosure a bit more colour. I don’t use a hiding box because the decoration provides an of hiding places in the enclosure. Water is provided twice a week in a shallow dish. In the enclosure I have placed a plastic box filled with some coco-peat which is a bit humid which is used for egg laying, and for the rest of the year to keep the humidity level good.

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This page is not build to stimulate people to keep venomous snakes. All Captive information given on this page is based on own experience