Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Heres a question for all you hot keepers:

If you were to be bitten by a potentially lethal species, and survived, would you continue to keep that species? Or continue to keep venomous at all? This scenario assumes envenomation that had serious consequences, not dry bites.

I would continue to keep the snake(s). I know what could potentially happen, I don't see how it almost happening should scare me away. Even if I do have to sell som snakes to cover medical bills :/

It kind of surprises me that people will get bit and then drop all venomous species. I've talked to some who say they are either now afraid or uncomfortable with the animals. This tells me that they were either in the hobby for the wrong reason or they don't feel that their skills are great enough. From everyone I've talked to who has dropped all species, they shouldn't have been working with them to start with.

Just my experiences.
Dave

The reason i asked this question, is, as i'm sure you know, a person can become hyper-sensitive to snake venom if exposed to it in large quantities (as through a bite), and can suffer even more severe complications in the event of a second bite. Second, hyper-sensitivity to the antivenin for the species can also develop, making a bite situation even more perilous. Personally, I haven't been bit (knock on wood) and don't plan on it, but if I were to get bitten by say, a black mamba, or any other seriously life threatening snake, i MIGHT consider giving up keeping that species, not because i'm afraid of the snake, but because if i got bit once, i can get bit again, and I'd rather have many years in front of me keeping many varieties of venomous than having that time potentially shortened by keeping a one particular one....but who knows, maybe I would still keep it, i haven't been bit, so until then I can't really say...