But if I were going to be working with the general public then to avoid even the slightest chance of a child being even slightly nicked I would go to great lengths to ensure that nothing could go wrong. Like you, I've let my own kids hold a variety of harmless snakes. But I regarded them as reasonably sensible kids. And I supervised the handling pretty closely. With the general public you never know. Some kids are pretty ornery and liable to do some pretty foolish and mean things. I couldn't be too surprised if a snake reacted to an unexpected and threatening movement or grab.

So when I give advice over the internet to folks whose background and intentions I'm only partially clear on I'm going to sound like a nervous old fogey. But I just don't want to give anyone any extra reason for considering us "crazy snake guys".

Regards
John

[ Hide Replies ]

• Colorful rats - TrpnBils, Sat Apr 23 18:16:19 2005
• RE: Colorful rats - duffy, Sat Apr 23 19:04:14 2005
• How much bigger? - jfirneno, Sat Apr 23 19:27:53 2005
• RE: How much bigger? - trpnbils, Sat Apr 23 20:01:19 2005
• Okay fine... - jfirneno, Sat Apr 23 21:20:26 2005
• RE: Okay fine... - TrpnBils, Sun Apr 24 00:43:48 2005
• Very good. Sounds like you've got the bases covered... - jfirneno, Sun Apr 24 10:17:14 2005
• Kids & ratsnakes....... - duffy, Sun Apr 24 06:00:15 2005
• Duffy, I agree with your observations on ratsnake behaviour... - jfirneno, Sun Apr 24 10:32:20 2005
• How about a greenish rat.... - Hotshot, Sun Apr 24 15:19:48 2005
• Or you could even go with an albino black rat..... - Hotshot, Sun Apr 24 15:23:11 2005
• RE: Or you could even go with an albino black rat..... - trpnbils, Sun Apr 24 15:46:16 2005
• "greenish" rats........ - duffy, Sun Apr 24 16:24:32 2005
• Oddrat input... - Conrad, Sun Apr 24 19:40:23 2005
• males get big.... - Gargoyle420, Mon Apr 25 01:11:29 2005
• RE: Colorful rats - Mass_Chaos, Mon Apr 25 22:46:57 2005