Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am searching for someone who can help me touch up on safe handling of a venomous reptile. I generally only work with rattlesnakes. and when i do i use a home made snake hook made out of a 4 ft long fence post. But i keep the snakes head away from me at all times and i keep my hand grasped on the area of the tail under the rattle. Is there anything that i am doing wrong if so please tell me. I am a up and coming 16 year old reptile relocationist

There may be plenty of people who hook and tail rattlers as you do. They may consider this method to be safe because they are skilled at doing it. But I was taught to never touch vipers or pit vipers, unless they are tubed, due to the speed of their strike. The safer alternative is to use 2 hooks when 1 is not enough (heavy or wiggly snake).

Your fence post hook sounds like it might be heavier than ideal. If it is much heavier than a commercial hook I would consider it too heavy. The more quickly and easily you can manipulate hooks, the more effective and therefore safer you will be. Consider making hooks from old golf clubs, which can be found for practically nothing. Also consider making a pair of much smaller hooks. They will work better on small rattlers.

Thank you. I may have some old golf clubs around my house that I could use

(I'm assuming for the moment that you only do this occasionally and you don't handle venomous snakes on a regular basis.)

Well, if you can spend a few bucks, my first suggestion would be to get TWO real snake hooks. If you can help it, you shouldn't have ANY part of a rattlesnake's body within roughly one body length of ANY part of your body. I don't necessarily always do this myself, but I handle 4-5 foot rattlesnakes on a regular basis, and I have years of experience in holding them in such a way that the hooks are blocking them from striking towards me.I don't currently have any that are too heavy to handle with hooks alone, but you shouldn't be tailing a rattlesnake without a fair amount of experience. I hate to say it, if handling them is just an occasional thing, I'd rather see you kill the snake than yake a chance on tailing it. (You're relatively unlikely to die from a rattlesnake bite in the U.S., but you might when you see the hospital bill.)

Then next thing would be a good, solid wood crate. I put an eye hook in the lid of mine, where I can close the lid using a hook, without getting near the box.

Third suggestion, if at all possible, but least likely to BE possible, find someone locally who can give you a little one-on-one instruction in handling. Many keepers will be happy to do this for free, though they might ask to do it at YOUR house for liability reasons.

Next, you might even want to research your local laws. Here in Florida, relocating venomous without a Venomous Reptile License is illegal, and the license is not a simple thing to get.
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