Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was just kinda wondering do most of you collect your snakes or purchase them? and also, do you make your own enclosures, or buy them for venomous to kinda ensure safety?

cheers,
Pete

Pete, since I am not sure how old you are, I am only going to assume you are an adult 21 years of age or older (if you are younger, then I wouldn't recommend getting a venomous snake just yet...nothing personal to the younger folks who will surely tell me off but if they do, it will only show their immaturity thus proving my point that they are not ready for the responsibility of owning a venomous snake).

I personally use manufactured cages such as Habitat Systems, Vision, Neodesha and Crescent Moon Creations (this company makes beautiful custom wood cages). Each have their positives and negatives and some need a little modification to make them suitable for hots. If you have carpentry skills, then make your own but I don't, plus, I kind of like the plastic style cages for ease of maintenance.

As far as a "first good hot" herp, I would recommend one of the Sistrurus or a southern copperhead.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
Lake Forest, IL

thanks for the input. i'm 19 now; i'm not planning until actually posessing my own hot snake til i'm out of college and living on my own. i'm just sory of collecting information right now. one of my professors has a couple of hots (a timber rattlesnake and some copperheads) and he said he'd teach me how to handle them. right now i'm building my body of knowledge.

cheers,
pete

That's good to hear; you can certainly increase your knowledge so that by the time you are ready to start working with venomous, you'll be way ahead of the ballgame. Keep an open mind, always be willing to learn and live a clean lifestyle and you'll be a good candidate for working with the greatest animals on earth. Rob