atroxman

Thank you all for your responses and advice, I really appreciate the help.
My normal vet is a 3 hour drive away from me; she is an excellent vet who is very experienced with exotics. My local vet will not see venomous snakes in his office but will make house calls or prescribe appropriate medications if needed. I bought the King as a captive born Indo/Tia mix. I was told that kings grow quickly and go through a thin stage as they grow. I received a copy of a receipt that Bruce got from the vet that he used for the procedure. This was a simple receipt and could have been forged but, I would like to believe that it was not. All of my venomoids except for this one was done by Rich Richey. He does not do hack jobs and I trust his work and care taken to keep the animal as comfortable as possible.

As far as the venomoid issue, my local animal control guys, which I try to keep a good working relationship with do not harass me as much because they feel safer knowing that I am a knowledgeable professional and in the event of a dropped cage or God forbid an accidental escape, no children or otherwise would (relatively) be harmed by the snake. I do not make handling snakes look cool or neat is any way. It is simply hard to show the animal and all of its small but interesting adaptations and body parts if it is in a small cage. It is also much more personal and a child is much more likely to walk away absorbing more information if they are stimulated or interested. I always end my shows using a western diamondback that is very “nippy” and show exactly why it is not a good idea to handle venomous snakes. I handle all my snakes as if they are venomous while in the show.

I’ll try to catch a few small Texas rat snakes to offer her live and see if I can get a food response. I normally would not consider feeding wild caught food items to my captive animals due to the parasite and disease transfer rate. Do any of you have a better idea on getting her to start feeding.

The pictures that Bruce sent me are to large to add into this thread. I'm not sure how to compress the pictures to fit, so if anyone can help me again I'd Appreciate it.

Thanks again for the help.

Jeff