Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently attended the hamburg show and sked a particular vendor who had some atractive squamigers about effects of their venom. His reply was something to the effect of "Umm yeah its pretty mild ive known three people who have gotten bit and not much happened one guy just went and sat down at his computer and had a little swelling but thats about it" I mean he made it sound like it was nothing more serious than a wasp bite. Now I know it is up to the buyer to be very aware of the consequences of a bite from any species that they are thinking of aquiring. However, I think that that is a little bit of creep manuveur to down play the potential effects of a bite by a snake to people just to make a $100. Especially when the effects could be deadly. Just a thought. What do you all think?

Hi:

I was @ the Hamburg show also. Wasn't that an awesome show? It was awe-inspiring to be face to face with the gaboon viper (separated by glass, of course). I really admired the strength and quiet, but deadly power implied by their muscular bodies. There were lots of gaboon vipers!

Regarding what you said about the vendors, I found they certainly did not have the vehement warnings that I see at most web sites. They seem to, at least for the milder species, to down-play it. However, one vendor was honest with me when he said that the massaugua does pack more punch than the copperhead and the pigmy which I was looking for. I stayed away from the massagua. He was an honest vendor. But it meant that I could not do business with him (he didn't have the snakes I was looking for).

The bottom line is that Before a person goes to these shows, they should do research. Because of the nature of the interaction, the buyer should always put a grind of salt on what a vendor says. Read websites that have more neutral points of view (though some sites go too much the other way to try to scare you out of it--I don't like those site either.)

just my thoughts.