Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
I'd like to ask the experienced keepers (especially ones with gaboons and eyelash vipers) about a good path to follow in order to get to starting a hot collection. I'm seventeen years old and have a decent/large amount of experience with herps, tarantulas, and such. I REALLY discovered the world of hot keeping a few years ago and as luck would have it, fell in love with the Gaboon viper. After some essential research, I put that snake into the when you're a hot herp god and ready to die category. My next choice is a yellow eyelash viper. I know I'm too young and don't have enough experience yet to get into these snakes, but I'm trying my best to gaurantee a safe and definite future with them. I'm currently burrying myself in the college course herpetology books, as they're the only detailed source of info I can find on hots other than the web, and desperately trying to contact the proper authority in my area who issues permits. If anyone can give me any advice on an outline of where to go from here or any info AT ALL, it would be immensely appreciated. Thanks in advance...

ps-you all have gorgeous gaboons!

What you want to do is to find a person in or around your area that has been keeping hots for a long time, to mentor you.... But the person teaching you needs to be a good hot keeper with good habbits to teach you..... There are some people that keep hots that are not good and make poor mentors.... You also have to know for sure that this is for you...... Venomous snakes are not for everyone and for very good reason..... Train with whatever snake it is you want to keep under the watch of your mentor...... Nothing can teach you to work with a gaboon better than a gaboon..... I will not give you a time line on anything.....
Some people will say "work with (insert non venomous species here) for a year and then you will be ready" and this and that..... That is absolute crap..... Knowone can tell you if you are ready or how long it will take before you are....
Working with a good mentor that keeps the snakes you want to keep is the best way to go and only you and your mentor will know when you are ready.... to keep them yourself....
Good luck.... Gaboons are very rewarding to work with but on the same token, can make you too complacent at times and that is not a snake you want to get too comfortable with....

Awesome. Thanks so much. Is checking in with my local reptile specialty store a good place to find mentors or should I go to a zoo/museum? Thanks again.

Try and find a private breeder that you could volunteer or work for, because if you try to do that at any zoo:

1. You have to work there for a long time, which isn't a bad thing, but it can take months/years to be able to work with what you want to. If you already have the experience, sometimes they will hire you right into the position you want, but if you are lacking they generally don't want to train you.

2. If you volunteer (like at the Columbus Zoo, for me) they will obviously not let you work with venomous because they don't want the risk of you being bitten (which is legitimate). And also in the case of volunteering at the Columbus zoo, they don't read applications or resume's, they have a lottery to select volunteers.

Private breeders generally like the help, and you can learn alot too. I worked with one for 2 years on every Wednesday night. They were only colubrids (in general), but I quickly learned how to keep them, breed them, and handle them.

I haven't had any training with hots, but I can bag Black Racers without any trouble, so I doubt that I would have much trouble learning.

Try and practice some with racers, pine snakes, or anything that is very snappy for a long time, and you will become very proficent with these wonderful animals without being bitten.

Good luck
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Currently have:
0.1 Antherystic Elaphe guttata
1.0 Elaphe vulpina gloydi
1.1 Morelia Spilota Cheyni
0.1 Leucistic Elaphe obsoleta linheimeri

Saving for:
Agkistrodon Contortix mokasen

Thanks so much. Checking into my local herp society seems like the perfect place to find a venomous mentor. Any other good places?

Its good to see you are keeping a common sense approach to this. I learned to handle hots at an internship in Cost Rica. Depending on where you live, I know the kentucky reptile zoo is looking for interns, while you wont handle hots they will i am sure let you observe. good luck.

Your local herp club is a great to find hot keepers... no snake is unmanageable with practice. 5 years ago I wouldn't have thought much about people keeping Black Mambas, but some people do it with great efficency.

Good luck, there's a huge world out there and I'm sure that with a steady hand and calm mentality you can do anything with these wonderful animals.
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Currently have:
0.1 Antherystic Elaphe guttata
1.0 Elaphe vulpina gloydi
1.1 Morelia Spilota Cheyni
0.1 Leucistic Elaphe obsoleta linheimeri

Saving for:
Agkistrodon Contortix mokasen

Thanks so much for being so kind and informative. You people are so nice. I've read most of the messages on this board and it has only fueled my disliking of other herpers or peoples stereotypes of hot keepers. "If they have something that dangerous then they're just doing it for the thrill." So wrong...it's a completely different part of snakes and reptiles in general. Like you have boids, pythons, and colubrids....there's venomous. Vipers, rear fanged, and others. Even though the people who keep hots to show off do exist, the anti-hots are so full of it. Thanks again.