Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i saw a show on tv where they followed an indian family whos source or income was to catch and "milk" venomous snakes and then release them..........it was what the entire family did from young to old.......i was wondering are there people in here or that anyone knows of who raise hots for this purpose........where does the venom go and how much money does it bring in.......im just curious as ive read a few posts talking about having it take forever to get AV from this country or that..........do we produce these in the states and if so who does it..........thanks......Jerry

Well for most of us keeping hots, its not neccisary to milk our hots..... Infact it can be a very stressfull event for the snake even if performed properly...... There are very few that make a living just milking snakes...... The people that do do this for a living have a very hard and important job..... Venom that is milked is dried and later injected into horses or goats....... The blood from the horse or goat is draind...... Not all of it though...... No harm is done to the animals...... It is like me or you getting blood taken at the hospital only on a larger scale...... The blood is brought to a lab where it is spun and the antibodies are separated from the blood...... The antivenin are the antibodies built up by the horse or goat from being injected with small amounts of venom....... The reason AV is hard to get for exotic species is because of all the red tape and paperwork needed to get it into this country not because it is hard to make...... It is actually cheaper to get AV for African species like gaboons and cobras than it is to get AV for native species like rattlesnakes and corals..... But it is very time consuming and can take forever to aquire it once all the paperwork is in....... FDA permits are a pain in the ass ti fill out..... Hope this answers some of your questions.....

wow very interesting.........seems like there would be more of it done here though for our own supplies.........do hospitols have access to these or are they special order types that have to be flown in in an emergancy or is there just not enough time to even consider that with some types..........how long for instance would you have if one of your gaboons got you good...... does each species require its own AV or are there ones that will fight off differant venoms........sorry with all the questions im very interested in the hot guys and you who maintain them..........sorry to say ive had one too many "harmless" snakes not make roll call to think of what if it was a hotty......they are all where they should be now but through the years more then once there has been an empty cage or two due to escapes........thanks for your help and "BE CAREFULL"

How long would I have??? Its hard to say....... Anywhere from maybe 20 minutes to an hour give or take..... Glad I have not had to find out.....LOL...... It all depends on the bite........ Hit a vein you can die pretty fast..... If it is intramuscular you can bet you have little time to get to the hospital..... A bite into the skin and into fatty tissues you have a much better time line...... The longer you wait the more chance you have of loosing tissue dur to gaboons highly necrotic venom....... The AV used for gaboons is the same stuff used for puff adder bites and all South African cobra bites.... Questions are good and you are asking good ones...... If you need to know anything else just post it.....

>>i saw a show on tv where they followed an indian family whos source or income was to catch and "milk" venomous snakes and then release them..........it was what the entire family did from young to old.......

What you might be missing here is that "making a living" in rural india probably means a few dollars a day. You might be able to make a living doing it here, but you'd have to do a LOT of milking and it's just about the most dangerous thing any reasonably sane person will ever do with a hot snake. The hospital bill for one bite could cost you a couple years worth of profits, and I don't imagine most insurance agents could keep a straight face if you asked them about insurance to cover this...
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Larry D. Fishel
Side effects may include paralysis
and death but are generally mild.

oh i dont plan on doing it for a living see that would require me owning venomous snakes.........ive got over 130 ball pythons and thats not my living i was just curious to the amount of it going on