Would you ever keep venomous snakes?

Originally Posted by lefty_mussolini

It seems that truly poisonous snakes wouldn't be much of a risk at all, as long as you didn't eat them.
But what about truly venomous snakes?

Point, taken, point taken


And I truly agree about the car thing- this morning I saw someone turn left out of a gas station.... but instead of waiting for there to be no cars coming,

he decided to wait until there were cars coming at him from BOTH directions. Then, he quickly pulled out, as if to say
".....think fast or we all die! hah!"
It was pretty darn close to being a three car smash up.

some people.

I have actually eaten snake before, in soup- my mom's side of the family is chinese, and i've eaten some odd things.

I try not to ask anymore, because usually I don't want to know. And usually it ends up being actually really good.......

Like others here I had a g/f who had kids (young) and decided to cease. Having trouble getting a license now. Since it has been more than five years I need another 1000 hrs of experience or proof of.

I kept a baby cottonmouth for a few days, and have caught a several others. I found myself making stupid mistakes with the snakes, but managed never to get bitten.

I'd get the snake out of its pen with my stick. It would start to crawl off and I'd start to put a hand down in its path to keep it where it was and suddenly realize you can't do that with this snake. I'd start to reach into its cage and remember you can't do that with this snake. I'd start to do other things that I did with non-venomous snakes and realize that's not the rules with this snake. Before long, I realized sooner or later I was going to get bitten doing something careless that wouldn't have matter with a non-venomous snake. So I let it go where I caught it. Now I just flip them and enjoy them from a safe distance.

I won't keep a hot snake, especially now that I have kids.

I will definitely be getting into hots eventually, but I need a seperate snake room for that, and we've decided that it should be away from the house. Most likely we will start with copperheads or perhaps some of the crotalus species which we've handled before. I'd also like to eventually get an eyelash viper, but I would probably like to try to get the anti-venin from Fla. It will be expensive, but responsible ownership is a must!

I used to keep a few venomous snakes, but then it dawned on me one day of just how stupid that was LOL.

I'm as curious about the venom itself as I am the snake that injects it. Hemotoxic venom is nasty stuff. If I knew I had to die by snake bite, I'd pick a cobra over a rattlesnake any day. I would die, but at least I wouldn't melt doing it. Snake bite photos (graphic):

http://www.venomousreptiles.org/libr...ebite%20Photos

Well you could always get a Mojave Green. Neuro and hemo toxic. You won't live long enough to melt!

I'm just beginning keeping reptiles, and right now I'm starting off with beginner species. Down the road it's inevitable that I'll get some larger species with more difficult care needs, but I will never ever own anything capable of killing me, including large constrictors. I'm too small to be handling a snake bigger than me by myself and I can't always guarantee that there'd be someone there to assist me.

To me, keeping venomous reptiles is just too risky if it is just another hobby. I can see very educated and knowlegable individuals keeping them for the betterment of a species and to collect venom. I love to watch them in the wild, where there should be enough room between my snake and myself. I've seen cottonmouths down at my uncle's place in southwest Missouri up close on their dock. I've heard stories of some who won't hesitate to drop down into a boat from some overhanging branch. I love observing them in their habitat, but I'd never willingly disturb them, much less keep one.

There is a nature center about 20 minutes away from my house with all kinds of native wildlife from Missouri. That's been my best opportunity to see these snakes. I've never seen anything other than a cottonmouth in the wild. They have several varieties of rattlers, a cottonmouth, and at one time they had a beautiful copperhead, but I didn't see it last time I went.

Most of the snakes that fall into the boats from above are mistaken for cottonmouths when in reality they are harmless water snakes. Most people can't tell one from the other as the brown watersnake especially, looks almost identical to cottonmouths including the large triangular shaped head. When you have a big dark snake fall into your boat on the water, most people aren't going to try to do an I.D