Afew pics for you!

Great looking snake Bud...how many times has that bad boy nailed ya?

I still have not located a fang shot but I am still dearhing my pics.
Never! not this guy.- buds quick tips-
Even some wild caught specimens mellow out after while.
several things must be kept in mind,never tease or threaten the snake.
never mess with them during feeding time and of course keep it well fed.
Also the biggi never pin a venomous snake its cruel, and disrespectful to a
powerfull,intelligent reptile. most elapids fangs do not retract so when you pin them the fangs can stick into or through the lower jaw.
got to go
later

Originally Posted by bud mierkey

I still have not located a fang shot but I am still dearhing my pics.
Never! not this guy.- buds quick tips-
Even some wild caught specimens mellow out after while.
several things must be kept in mind,never tease or threaten the snake.
never mess with them during feeding time and of course keep it well fed.
Also the biggi never pin a venomous snake its cruel, and disrespectful to a
powerfull,intelligent reptile. most elapids fangs do not retract so when you pin them the fangs can stick into or through the lower jaw.
got to go
later

Understood Bud...I don't freehandle hots, mostly because I'm somewhat attached to the various parts of my anatomy and don't want to see them rotting off (I currently do not work with elapids...hopefully soon!), but do make it a point to try and keep the animal as calm as possible during handling, if for nothing else that it makes it easier and safer for me to handle them, as well as being safer for the animal.

However, how do you avoid pinning the snake since you self innoculate? One would assume you would have to pin the snake to obtain the venom for your injections.

Also, I should add that I rarely pin hots, because I rarely ever need to. Since I don't innoculate, I don't need to milk them, and since I've rarely had to medicate any hots, I really don't have a need to pin them.

I never pin any hots for venom extraction.
I use gloves let the snake slide through and with bare hand quickly grab the head gently but firmly.
For mambas and cobras and other elapids bare hands work ok most of the time.
but this is for the snakes benefit not mine.
also i never ever massage or squeeze the snakes glands to force out venom.
the grab method has been used for a long time you get bit now and then but thats the price you pay for this hobby.
my worst week i was bit by a 6ft green mamba a 5 foot eastern diamond back then a 4ft naja nigrollis then to top it off a 1foot death adder all within a day of each other.
The single day record was 3 bites from popes pit vipers in one day I stopped and went home after that.
and never went to the hospital or have had any antivenom ever.
tim presented the work on SI to the herp congress in south africa this year.
and a major university is going at it now very promising stuff.
I might add these bite examples were years ago.
later

What are all the venoms you innoculate with Bud? Obviously mambas, but which others? I'm curious, because you seem to take bites a few bites from snakes which have a primarily cytotoxic venom (nigricollis, adamanteus, etc.), and I'm curious on how you avoid suffering the necrotic effects.

My innoculations vary depending on the snakes I work with most.
atrox/edb,mambas, water cobra now.
water cobra gives you cross reactivity for most african cobras.
as for necrosis it depends where you are bitten.
a finger tip is vulnerable since it has limited blood flow and tissue.
the same bite to a fleshy area arm or thigh has a better chance of antibodies getting there faster so less necrosis..
some snakes inject so much venom necrosis common although no antivenom is needed.
Thats just the way it is.
here is a pic of a bite to a finger although there was no swelling and no av
there still was a little killed tissue at the bite sites.
this was from a atrox X helleri 3 footer no av!
blood work showed no clotting abnormalitys at all.
quite a nasty cross to get bit with but a good test of SI.

Originally Posted by bud mierkey

My innoculations vary depending on the snakes I work with most.
atrox/edb,mambas, water cobra now.
water cobra gives you cross reactivity for most african cobras.
as for necrosis it depends where you are bitten.
a finger tip is vulnerable since it has limited blood flow and tissue.
the same bite to a fleshy area arm or thigh has a better chance of antibodies getting there faster so less necrosis..
some snakes inject so much venom necrosis common although no antivenom is needed.
Thats just the way it is.
here is a pic of a bite to a finger although there was no swelling and no av
there still was a little killed tissue at the bite sites.
this was from a atrox X helleri 3 footer no av!
blood work showed no clotting abnormalitys at all.
quite a nasty cross to get bit with but a good test of SI.

Ow...some nasty pics, but pretty minimal considering what the effects could have been if you didn't have an immunity...

Out of curiousity, how long have you been injecting for? I've contemplated for some time starting my own innoculation program, but needless to say this is not something I would jump into without doing A LOT of research on, and I even if I decided to go for it, I won't be doing it for a few years...If you want, we can carry this conversation on through email or pm if that is more conveneint seeing as how we are kinda diverging off topic, LOL