I cannot agree that captive snakes, even those that grab and hold, "don't really use a strike or envenomate food items anymore". Most of the grab and hold snakes that I feed do indeed strike hard and squeeze prey items tightly, suggesting that they are using venom at least most of the time.

It well known that the development of powerful feeding response in captive animals is a particular danger to keepers. Many keepers, including myself, have been bitten and envenomated by calm, relaxed snakes that get a bit whacko when they think food is coming.

In fact, I have long considered that it should be known as a "rule" in keeping venomous that even a snake that you have had for years and know very well is capable of a quantum increase in feeding response at any moment.

I do think it is quite possible that captive snakes withhold venom more often than their wild counterparts during both defensive and feeding bites, but this is only a guess as there surely is no hard data.



Ian Long

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• captive venomous feeding questions - Carlton, Wed Feb 27 15:17:33 2008
• RE: captive venomous feeding questions - Upscale, Wed Feb 27 20:26:10 2008
• RE: captive venomous feeding questions - Ian Long, Thu Feb 28 11:19:42 2008
• RE: captive venomous feeding questions - Carlton, Thu Feb 28 12:24:30 2008
• RE: captive venomous feeding questions - richardduckworth, Thu Feb 28 16:28:33 2008
• RE: captive venomous feeding questions - djs27, Thu Feb 28 22:52:02 2008