Cobras are in!!!
- Thread starter snakeguy101
- Start date
A. gigas;4111177; said:BEAUTIFUL!!! Where'd you get them, and for how much? i wish i could get some, but my 'rents won't let meThen again, i'm 13...
but i've handled copperheads and water moccasins at the local park since i was 9
I got them from a show in S Carolina at a good price but at the time, they were not eating so it took some work to make it worth it... If you want to get into hots, I would wait and take your time while learning how to handle them. Find someone else that has had a LOT of experience with them and have them teach you what you need to know.
the copperheads and moccasins were held by hand, and i have never been bitten. i even milked a few of them. once i even caught and milked a coral snake at age 11 (all in secret of course, if i told the 'rents, they wouldn't have let me... lol)
A. gigas;4112110; said:
you are going to wind up dead that way. Free handlers are the WORST thing for this hobby and I will not have anything to do with them. If a kid like yourself gets bit it could mean the end of me being able to keep the snakes that I want to keep because you wind up dead. I will not tolerate this.
If you want to keep hots, learn how to handle them the right way. I want to be able to keep my snakes legally.
Unless there is a veterinary reason or you own a venom lab, there is absolutely NO reason that you should have picked up those snakes. The risk is WAY too high for what would have ultimately been no benefit whatsoever. The venom that you claim to have milked could not be used as it was not obtained in a sterile environment and you wanted to keep it a secret so you would not have had the help you would need to sell it anyways. It could have also killed the snake since corals are notoriously delicate and succumb to stress easily.
Please, Don't act like you are hot sh*t when you don't know what you are doing. I would have respected you a lot more if you were not so stupid as to go and pick up a venomous snake with bare hands.
Even though I have had hots for some time now and have been working with them much longer than you claim to have been, I will not touch a hot snake unless it is with a hook or in a tube. NO EXCEPTIONS. It is just too risky and pointless.
My advice is as follows: stick to keeping fish until you get your ego out of the way. otherwise, go ahead and wind up dead or in an ER. I will not be praying for you, just praying that I can keep my snakes.
Sorry for coming off so harsh but this is something I feel very strongly about. I do not mean to stop you from getting into hots, I just want you to know that you are going about it in the worst way possible....
sorry, i forgot to mention i was using arm-length gloves that were proved to be fang-proof. sorry for the misunderstanding. i now always use a snakehook, as i was bitten by my 3 1/2 foot rosy boa, and it was NOT pleasant. it was perfectly nice the first day, then the second day, i reached in and the moment my fingers touched it, it was latched onto my thumb. i guess she must've been sleeping and i startled her. since then, she has shown no inclination to bite, but i still use my 40" snakehook to remove her from her tank. none of the snakes i handled was harmed in any way, and were immediately placed back where i found them,excluding the coral. it was at a nature preserve, and in the middle of a trail during a hike. the reason it was not released was that the nature preserve wanted one for display, and the milking was to reduce the amount of venom in it's glands for safer transport. it was still alive and thriving last time i was there. i was actually requested to do this, as the guides were volunteers, and i had more experience than both of them combined. they had already asked me to take some large water snakes away from an area where some smaller children (5-7 years) were fishing. they saw it go off without a problem, or even an attempted bite. i would not have handled or milked the coral if not asked to. (i also got paid $50) again, sorry for the misconception.
