Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so ive been reading and talking to other who work at shops. ive been looking into naja and rattlesnake venoum. i questioned this when talking to one guy about owning venoums. he told me he would rather get bit by a cobra than a rattle snake. so i got on line and looked up what i could. i found a few places that gave charts. actording to them (and not by much) an e. diamond back was more venoumous than the naja naja naja. is this correct and does any one where have any other sites or books i could check out to help me in my "research"

Please tell us where to find these charts so we can set them straight. An Eastern Diamondback bite is probably more painful than a naja bite (which may be what the people you talked to meant) and the eastern has bigger glands, but naja naja venom is FAR more toxic (about 5-30 times depending on route of envenomation).

Look here for one of the better charts (remember that this is sort of reversed scale where lower numbers mean more powerful venom):
www.venomdoc.com/LD50/LD50men.html

My guess is that he was talking about the damage that would be done if the victim survived the bite. The EDB would do massive tissue damage, possibly resulting in the loss of the bitten limb. The naja venom is much more neurotoxic and probably more likely cause respiratory paralysis and death. Chances are, it would be less agnozing. The two people that I've talked to who have been bitten by rattlers have said it felt like they'd been hit with a baseball bat when the snake struck.

some naja bites produce EXTREME tissue damage, even more than a diamondback would. One bite even ate a hole in a man's stomach.

Actually, quite a few Naja produce cytotoxic symptoms, including VERY nasty necrosis...I've seen some N. kaouthia bite pics that were really bad, and the thing about that guy getting a hole eaten in his stomach, well that was N. kaouthia as well.

As for what I'd rather get tagged by, a C. adamanteus (let's just say any n.a. crotalid) or a Naja sp....Well, ideally, neither, but for the sake of argument, the adamanteus or any other rattler would be it every time...if only because there is quicker access to the AV than a Naja bite.