If history holds true, you'll get a variety of responses to your question. Some will be helpful, others will be condescending. For some reason, many on the forum don't like these kinds of questions. I'm by no means an experienced venomous keeper but I'll tell how I arrived at my decision to keep venomous snakes.

I live in rural southern Georgia and have had the opportunity of coming into contact with all of our native venomous species over the years. I have been keeping snakes, mainly the big constrictors (I've had my share of run-ins with anacondas, scrub pythons and African pythons) for almost 18 years. I received my first venomous, a mid-sized EDB, after an acquaintance captured it and brought it to me. I kept it for a few weeks and then turned it loose. That happened several times over the next few years -- catch a wild EDB, keep it for a little while, feed it a time or two and then release it. That taught me how to deal with venomous snakes slowly. If I ever got nervous or uneasy, I simply turned the animal loose. You can't do that with a mangrove snake or some other exotic species. After a few more years, I felt like I was ready to keep a venomous snake long-term. The opportunity presented itself when another friend brought me a small timber rattler. That was in 1997. I took the snake home, offered it a pre-killed mouse and it ate it quickly. I've had the snake ever since; it's now a fat and happy (yet irascible) three-footer. In the interim, I've had a number of other snakes come through the doors of my snake house, mainly EDBs. At the moment, I have that timber, two small EDBs and a nice cottonmouth. I have native venomous for two reasons: I don't need a permit and my ER, which is less than 10 minutes from home, knows how to treat a native venomous bite and has anti-venin on-hand. The ER director also knows I have the snakes and is aware that I could come in at any time with a bite. Luckily, we've had no close calls.

I said all that to say this: You'll know when it's time. As far as the best "starter hot," I'd say get something that is generally easy to care for and something that your local medical center knows how to treat. Copperheads aren't bad, though I haven't had good luck with them. That timber has been fairly easy to deal with and the cottonmouth is very laid back. The two EDBs aren't bad, either. The rattlers eat well, shed well and aren't any trouble.

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