Edwardsii are very straight forward captives. Care is the same as most desert Crotalus species. I keep mine on paper towels (I keep all my animals on newspaper or paper substrates), with a hidebox and a shallow water bowl. She was wildcaught by me in September '08. She refused to eat for the first several meals, but I realized that was due to the color of the mice (white)...she consistently feeds on dark colored mice (which would make sense since wild rodents are seldom white). She's been doing great for me since.

If it is wildcaught, it may refuse rodents, in which cases, scenting with lizards is recommended. However, I've heard of very few people who had to resort to this, they will normally take appropriately sized rodents after they settle in.

While small, these guys are capable of producing a serious bite. Their venom, drop for drop, has been compared to that of scutes, so you don't want to take a bite. I've heard that they give a very high percentage of dry bites. I personally know of a keeper who sustained at least five (!!) bites within a very short period of time (~2 months), all of which were dry or presented very minimal symptoms of envenomation.
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Abhishek Prasad

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