FaunaClassifieds - View Single Post - good beginner venomous snake
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Old 05-06-2004, 06:31 AM   #5
snakegetters
Snakekid, that's a pretty smart and mature point of view.

Some kids do end up keeping venomous snakes, for better or worse. I hid sidewinders under my bed in jars when I was a little girl. LOL As an adult I no longer think this is a good idea, but you can't really stop a determined kid from bringing critters home. So education is better.

I advise parents whose children want to keep venomous snakes to let them start with the "theoretically venomous" species like hognoses, mangroves, paradise flying snakes and other rear-fangers that cannot cause any real or serious envenomation. These animals should be treated as if they were truly venomous and kept in high quality locking cages for handling with snake hooks only. A few years of maintaining these animals plus a few years of experience working with belligerent nonvenomous species should well prepare the young keeper to start safely with venomous species.