Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been in the general reptile hobby for near 12 years now and have had numerous species of snakes and lizards both aggressive and calm. I have decided to make the plunge into hots; however, I realize that nohing can prepare me for a hot snake so I want to learn with a hot snake that will allow me mistakes and not kill me or land me in the hospital on a respirator. I tried to find someone around me that could teach me but there is no one.

Questions:

1. I really feel that the southern copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix contortrix) would make a good starter do to what I have researched. What does everyone think? Any other suggestions?

2. How do you properly read the LD50 chart on venomdoc.

In response to your first question, I feel that Coppers are a fine first hot. I would recommend that you find someone local who keeps hots and work with him or her for a time under supervision to get a feel for how things are done.
As to your second question, An LD50 chart gives a baseline of toxicity based on the amount of a given toxin that caused death 50% of the time and expressed in mg/kg or milligrams of toxin per kilogram of body weight. An LD50 of 1 would indicate that 1 milligram of toxin per kilogram would be lethal in half of the test subjects.
Hope that helps