ok i have read alot of these posts, "what is a good choice for my first hot?", in my personal experience no hot is a good choice for the first time, when a commin garter snake could kill you, providing that the 1 in a million chance you have an allergy to them. i personally think the responsibilty level of the person needs to be considered.
1- are you legally allowed to own them?, call your codes department to find out, you may be real surprised on what you find out about reptiles, and if not are you willing to relocate to a town that does allow them?,
2- are you able to provide the daily requirenments to maintaine this animal, and do you have people to help you out on the daily maintaince, at least 2 people in my oponion are needed at all times when working with hots, i personally have 3 ppl.
3- in the event you do get bit do you know what you need to do, how are you getting to the er, will the doctor even treat you for this with out a signed waiver saying the dr and the hosp is not responsible in the event you do die, will your insurance even cover it ?,
4- what about the potential legal issues that could arise in the event you or anyone else gets bit, or it escapes, they are going to most likly make you the biggest point and you are going to be the bullseye,
5- do you drink or use narcotics?, i have not had a drink since i started with hots,
i am sorry if it seems i am being a little hard on the issue, but i keep hearing "it's not as bad as", cause with out getting hit by one you really don't know how bad it actually could be, copperheads can kill as well as gaboon's and rhino's, if you do your homework ,and do it good i think anything could possibly be a good first time hot providing you are able to deal with all aspects of hots, heck i started with 5 rhino vipers as my first hot and i did get blasted for good cause in kingsnake, made do my homework, sorry for the long post and thank you all who blasted me in the past about " my first hot".
jc
