Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey jst curious why u dont see them listed or talked about verry offten trying to get more info on them if n e one can help Thanks Ryan

My opinion is,research animals you are considering BEFORE you buy them.
Find out their captive requirements,diet, etc. BEFORE you buy said animal(s).

One thing I have heard about Deinagkistrodon, if they bite you, body parts will fall off if you don't get treatment!

If you own one now, you are very vulnerable. If you are considering purchasing one, there are more viable alternatives. They are the copperhead family, so root around and get a nice Pictigaster, or Southern or something a hospital might be able to treat in an emergency. I only collect Copperheads on the hot side, with the exception of Klauberi, and I feel Deinaghistrodon isn't worth a boot full of piss to collect. They aren't even pretty.

While the majority of the specimens I've seen were nothing to get excited about, I have seen a few that were outstanding. A friend of mine in college many years ago had a young adult male D. acutus that had the coloration of a nice A. c. pictigaster. Remember that many acutus specimens darken with advanced age.

Kelly

Any venomous snake purchased should be researched before you buy it. The first ones of these I had was around 1981-1982 and before they came in I called a lot of Zoo Buddies etc that I knew had them and found out as much info as possible BEFORE I GOT THEM. This was before computers and difficult to do in that time period. Additionally even then I had LOTS of expertise handling and keeping venomous snakes. Today ALL of us have an obligation to our fellow herpers to be careful about what we purchase and how we maintain it. We are under attack from all sides by HSUS morons who would like to make it illegal to keep anything. Any and all "incidents" will be used by the News Media at their urging as a tool to use to show how irresponsible we as herpers are. IT IS ABSOLUTELY VITAL TO OUR SURVIVAL TO KEEP THESE "ACCIDENTS" TO A MINIMUM. I have no idea of your level of expertise and am not intending to attack you but keep in mind acutus are nervous ready to bite Vipers and are nothing like a Copperhead or Cottonmouth. Also remember that it's likely the antivenom produced here and carried by local hospitals will likely not be effective against an acutus bite. Think of the headline news if you were bitten "LOCAL MAN GETS BITTEN BY DEADLY CHINESE VIPER" and the fallout of negative news stories that would follow. The only reason I'm making a comment is because of your post which tells me you don't know much about them. One "back in the day" common name was 100 PACER SNAKE. You get bit, walk 100 paces and die. Be assured some newsperson would use that name to sensationalize the bite if it were to happen. Again please don't take this the wrong way and this post is directed at everyone that reads this forum. PLEASE EVERYONE LET'S BE CAREFUL WHAT WE DO AND THAT INCLUDES ME..SORRY FOR THE RANT...
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Tom ,Randal good post Blain dude you are a snake raceist .But as your hunting partner and a true pictigaster lover myself I agree 98%.Your big male pic is waiting on your sweet love but do not kiss him.I will see you tomarro on the mountain we shall rule the night.I once saw a t positive albino acutus it was very nice.Care should be straight forward with a little higher humidity.They are egg layers not live birth.I think they are interesting and uncommon enjoy them follow all venomous protocalls and all should be well.I REMEMBER MINTON loved these snakes.Any snake kept is rewarding.
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Archie Bottoms

I had wanted acutus for the longest time. They are beautiful animals and I am a big fan of Agkistrodon snakes. After years of wanting them I finally got a pair of babies and raised them up. They get large and have large heads capable of injecting large amounts of venom. I had them in 3' cages and they were starting to outgrow them. They were generally calm but had a vicious feeding response. I re-evaluated my collection and realized they were the one snake I had that if bitten I would be out of luck. Hospitals don't have antivenin and not even our local zoo stocks it (they don't need it, they have no acutus). The antivenin is a monovalent and expensive. With this in mind I made the decision to get rid of them. I didn't want to but I felt it was the right thing to do. Years ago a friend of mine got bit on the hand by an acutus. He told me he barely had enough time to get the snake back in to its enclosure before he passed out.
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Derek Moynihan
San Antonio, Tx

Thanks for sharing. On your analysis & decision: better "a bit late" than "way too late"! I've had a few snakes I passed up, and some where I did what you did. Babies can be so cute but at some point you can take a look in that cage and realize you're in too deep.

Cheers,
Jimi