WC Mangrove- 5 1/2 ft

WC Mangrove...

thats like almost 4 feet.....

not to mention you shouldn't be freehandling it...

Mangroves aren't all that venomous...

Originally posted by Ontario_Jordan
not to mention you shouldn't be freehandling it...

If you can get it in a pet shop, I wouldn't be too worried about it.

Originally posted by Stevefromsd
If you can get it in a pet shop, I wouldn't be too worried about it.

Be worried. Last I checked they were still importing Psammophis and Conophis. Neither genus is legally regulated in many states, meaning they could show up at a pet shop. I think that most states finally got wise to Rhabdophis after there were some fatalities, but probably not all. These are rear fangers that have the potential to do bad stuff to people.

So yeah, there's stuff that can show up at a pet store labelled as nonvenomous that can hurt you bad or kill you. There was a case in Georgia awhile back of a pet store employee hospitalized by exactly such a bite. Psammophis was the likely culprit.

I also saw a dozen boomslangs at an importer's labelled as Jackson's tree snakes. They'd have sold them to me at Jackson's tree snake prices too, except I was honest about what they were. I bought them anyway, but at quite a discount for saving them what could have been a lot worse than considerable embarrassment if they'd have been shipped out to a pet store under that name.

I always thought that Magroves only caused a bit of swelling, and maybe a bit of naseua. Not anything fatal unless you had a weak immune system, or you were small.
But, you are much more edapt at answering venomous questions, than I, Tanith. I guess he probably shouldn't be freehandling so much... I would never freehandle any hots, except some of the mildly venomous colubrids, like Hognoses and ect...

Boiga dendrophilia is not thought to be a very serious bite, but every snake bite is basically a crap shoot. One potential issue is allergy and anaphylaxis. A long time snake keeper who has been exposed to snake proteins for years may well react very badly to a B. dendrophilia bite. Someone bitten by a mangrove and later in life bitten by a cobra or a rattlesnake may have a much worse outcome again due to the prior exposure to snake venom proteins.

My personal protocol is to avoid *all* snake bites including those from species with no detectable toxins in their saliva. I also boot snakes from my collection that I observe to be in the habit of flinging venom around. I avoid working with spitters. I take the potential for anaphylaxis very very seriously. It can mean the difference between a survivable envenomation and rapid death in a real bite.

Other members of the genus Boiga can deliver a bit more of a whack in and of themselves. Best place to ask about the specifics would be the venomdoc.com forums.

Tanith covered this very very well but I would like to make a post also.

A hot is a hot IMO and should be treated with respect I would never think about free handling a hot. Why so it when you can hook them to move them.

Now onto the Mangs venom. It is not the venom they lack it is the delivery system. They have a three finger toxin on the level of Death Adders. Dr. Fry called it a "Death Adder Lite"......... Dr Fry is awesome and anyone interested in Rear fangs should go check out his papers about them.

So Mangs have the venom on the level of Elipids. They just do not have the delivery system. but I would not want to be the one that got tagged by 6 foot adult that can strike 3/4 of their body and end up in the hospital...........

Respect is what they deserve at all times.

LOL Tanith already brought up Dr Fry's Site. It is a great site and I read it a lot.

Tanith have you worked with any mangs? These are my Favorite hot and man I can not get enough info about them. Dr Fry has helped me tons.