Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey guys got a question, yes im a newb and dont plan on gettin a venomous reptile soon but how will u know when your ready to???where could i look up info on venomous and about the certain snakes venom??and wut would be a good begening venomous snake to start with??

Hey,

This question gets asked a lot and here is the usual response:

The best venomous snake is someone else's. You'll know you're ready once your mentor has taught you as much as they possibly can, you own your own house and you can afford a possible $20,000 hospital bill.

Find a mentor in your area. Join the local herp society. I guarantee at least someone there knows someone with venomous. I've made numerous connections through my local society and currently work with a mentor. We've become great friends. He now trusts me with his venomous in a way he trusts no one else. I'm the only person who he will do intense hands on procedures with. I started working in May and I now work with every single one of his 20 venomous species.

Dave

I would agree with what the previous post said, work with someone else, get a little experience under your belt, and then decide if possible death/maiming is worth keeping a particular animal. If you decide it is (as most people here have), then I would recommend keeping an animal you have worked with...i.e. if you work with someone who keeps rattlesnakes and other pit vipers, don't go get a forest cobra. As for how long to wait before keeping venomous, that's a personal decision only you can decide...contrary to what many people will tell you here, handling venomous snakes is not hard. It's really more about confidence in what you're doing than anything else. Don't mistake confidence with foolhardiness though, the two can go hand in hand. Get some experience first. When you are confident in yourself that you know the animals basic behaviors and habits, and you are comfortable with using the tools associated with venomous snakes, and you have both the time and money to properly and safely maintain, by all means go out and get a hot...anyone who tells you not to is full of [bleep], EVERYONE started out as an amateur here, not a single one of us popped out of the womb with a snake hook in one hand and a mamba in the other. As long as you aren't in it to be cool, or to be macho, or to impress anyone, and as long as your intentions are purely on being able to appreciate the beauty of these animals in the comfort of your own home, and of course you aren't stupid and try to "box" with your cobra, or play chicken with your rattler, you and your snake can have years of enjoyment together...of course, keep in mind that bites occur to even the MOST EXPERIENCED keepers, and that is an inherent danger with keeping venomous. If you're willing to take this risk, and willing to spend the time and money to get the experience and tools to keep them safely, then by all means, get yourself a hot.

complancy is deadly! This goes without saying, but NEVER get too comfortable with a hot snake...i've seen many pics of people (breeders!) who should know better freehandling gaboon vipers, a woman letting a yearling spectacled cobra (Naja naja) rest on her shoulder (yikes!), etc...the reasoning for this is always the same: "I've worked with venomous for a long time and i know the animals and their behavior, I wouldn't take this risk if i didnt know what i was doing"...well guess what, they don't know what they are doing...these are wild, un-tamable animals, NEVER give them the benifit of the doubt...you can get away with freehandling hots for a while and not get bitten, but sooner or later...I have a friend who is very experienced with hots (35 years!), and was bitten 3 years ago by a western diamond back (C. atrox) when he, in a moment of complancy, reached in it's enclosure with his hand and tried to remove it's water bowl...wham, he was hit...lucky for him it was a dry bite, but don't count on this being the case.

>>contrary to what many people will tell you here, handling venomous snakes is not hard. It's really more about confidence in what you're doing than anything else.

I would say that this is only partially true. The confidence that comes with experience will make things much easier since you can concentrate on what you're doing rather than being distracted by fear, but working with hooks (especially small fast snakes that require two hooks) is a physical skill that takes a fair amount of practice to master. If you've worked a lot with nonvenomous (using hooks) that will help quite a bit.
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Larry D. Fishel
Side effects may include paralysis
and death but are generally mild.