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Least favorite venomous snake?

Which snake gave you the most trouble?

  • A cobra species (Naja, Ophiophagus, Walternnesia, etc)

    Votes: 8 11.6%

  • A mamba species (Dendroaspis)

    Votes: 22 31.9%

  • Another elapid species

    Votes: 1 1.4%

  • North American crotalid (Crotalus, Sistrurus, Agkistrodon)

    Votes: 10 14.5%

  • A large terrestrial viper (Bitis, Bothrops, Lachesis)

    Votes: 6 8.7%

  • An arboreal viper (Atheris, Trimeresusus, Tropidolaemus)

    Votes: 4 5.8%

  • A rear fanged colubrid (Dispholidus, Thelotornis, Boiga, etc)

    Votes: 4 5.8%

  • A completely nonvenomous snake

    Votes: 14 20.3%
  • Total voters
    69
S

snakegetters

Aunty Venom
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Of all the venomous snakes you've ever kept or handled or worked with, which one was the biggest pain in the butt? Share your stories here.
 
Forest cobras

( Black Forest > Pseudohaje species ? ) due to the uncertainty of how to keep ( in the early days ). Didn't really know the humidity requirements. Tried several differences but the they consistently had probs with shedding. Had some fungal infections with what must of been to much humidity. BUT with the higher moisture, had no problem with shedding. So with trying to keep the humidity down i came up with more shedding problems again. It was stated that they ate frogs but had no problems with mice. I found out later that it was a matter of maybe not having a large enough container of water in cage for them to soak in and a dryer cage. Oh well, a reptile exhibit owned by Max Allen got them eventually and with a larger exhibit cage, they seemed to have done fine after that. These came from Mr. Leaky of Africa.
 
depends on how you mean pain in the butt. one of my cobras ( a male banded egyptian) was always set on making me dead. other than that, though, he wasn't bad to work with. My favorite puff adder, used to manage to get substrate in his mouth whenever I had him offsite for display (always used newspaper at home, but it just isn't "pretty" enough for public viewing). the day after I got him home, I would have to pull him out and clean out his mouth, swab it down, and occasionally do follow up treatment for early mouthrot (he was very sensitive to any foreign stuff in his mouth). that happened whether he was on display for 2 hours or a week. Trying to force feed neonate waglers pinky strips because I couldn't find anything small enough that they would take??? That was a pin in the butt, I think it wins for me...even though once they were big enough to take a whole pink they were easy.
 
Satan my egyptian cobra " Naja haje " plain and simple he wants to kill you. charges mouth open and ready to bite. always an experiance when having ot deal with his cage.

Otherwise i love all hots cant have enough.
 
I have a bad boy like that, only he's 12'. Kings are good fun.

I still think the worst times I've had were courtesy of nonvenomous species. Reticulated pythons can be horrible, and they are bigger and stronger than me. My king is very naughty, but he weighs only 3-something kilograms and cobras are neither particularly fast nor particularly strong. Retics can be both, and I do not like working with them.

I also think that Asian rat snakes are the devil incarnate. I would much rather play with mambas than with those buggers.
 
I think my craziest snake would be my Canebrake Rattlesnake(Crotalus h. Atricaudatus). He is also appropiately named Satan. This snake strikes out of his hide box, never stops buzzing, and once even sprayed some venom after his strike hit the bin. You think he would be a little more caring since I did save him from a bubba fixing to run him over in Osceola Natl forest.
 
Egyptian cobras

I think of all the venomous snakes I have worked with and been around for the worst to handle even to use a shift box correctly would be the egyptian cobras I have owned 3 so far and they are all things of the past I had to sell them simply because they are far more aggressive than even the mambas I have kept in the past I had one egyptian (she now resides at sean palmers cobra gardens) well over 7' she was by far nasty but didn't even compare to the pair of imports I recieved shortly after the male from the pair wouldent even attempt to hood he would just lash out as soon as you enterd the hot room he would strike constantly mouth agape and wide eyed I tryed to use a shift box with him but he would go in to the box when you left the room but as soon as he felt your presence he would flood right out of it LOL makeing it hard to keep him in when I would have to handle him (cage cleaning and water changing ect) he acted like a complete maniac I named him leroy don't remember why but I do remember always saying "LEROY GET BACK IN YOUR CAGE" in somewhat of a country dielect he would never go back in very easily but always came right out after you LOL fun times
Great poll tanith
Joe Lesh
 
SerpenXotics said:
I think of all the venomous snakes I have worked with and been around for the worst to handle even to use a shift box correctly would be the egyptian cobras I have owned 3 so far and they are all things of the past I had to sell them simply because they are far more aggressive than even the mambas I have kept in the past I had one egyptian (she now resides at sean palmers cobra gardens) well over 7' she was by far nasty but didn't even compare to the pair of imports I recieved shortly after the male from the pair wouldent even attempt to hood he would just lash out as soon as you enterd the hot room he would strike constantly mouth agape and wide eyed I tryed to use a shift box with him but he would go in to the box when you left the room but as soon as he felt your presence he would flood right out of it LOL makeing it hard to keep him in when I would have to handle him (cage cleaning and water changing ect) he acted like a complete maniac I named him leroy don't remember why but I do remember always saying "LEROY GET BACK IN YOUR CAGE" in somewhat of a country dielect he would never go back in very easily but always came right out after you LOL fun times
Great poll tanith
Joe Lesh
Click to expand...


This has to be the longest run on sentence I have ever seen, LOL...;)
 
The worse snake you ever handled Joe Lesh was that dying coral snake you sent me and refused to take in return and died. Where is my refund you bum?
 
the worst snake is ever handled was a 9ft wild caught black mamba that would climb the hook right up to my hand so i never tailed them i did it once and never again so i tried trap box but you can't get them in they just try to get out the tink gap you put the snake hook in i tried tongs but they go CRAZY they shake and have their mouth open so i ended up cutting a piece of plexiglass that perfectly fitted in the cage with about a 1mm gap on the sides and a piece of wood horizontal in the middle to put in and force him to the end so i could clean his cage
 
snakegetters said:
I have a bad boy like that, only he's 12'. Kings are good fun.

I still think the worst times I've had were courtesy of nonvenomous species. Reticulated pythons can be horrible, and they are bigger and stronger than me. My king is very naughty, but he weighs only 3-something kilograms and cobras are neither particularly fast nor particularly strong. Retics can be both, and I do not like working with them.

I also think that Asian rat snakes are the devil incarnate. I would much rather play with mambas than with those buggers.
Click to expand...
Wow. Surprised to see that. Asian rat snakes are the devil incarnate.

I agree actually. Used to have a couple cave rats. Beautiful animals and all. The bites didn't bother me until they got bigger. THEN I learned how to handle them and avoud the teeth. Didn't know I was getting experience to keep hots. I have no interest in hots and will likely never GO there, but I guess I could if I had TOO. The stories I've read about blackforests and mambas and taipans would make me say NO to those of course :)
 
Well there was no choice on the pole for my pick. The sawscale viper. They are so nasty, they will never run. They hold their ground and strike like lightning.
 
Eastern Diamondback...

I had a 5.5 ft adamanteas that did not tolerate tongs and would not ride a hook.
I am used to them being easy to handle but this was the exception. When restrained, it would open it's mouth wide and SPRAY venom everywhere!
 
I hate any spitting snake. I've kept a few, they are a pain to handle and they mess the glass of the cage.
 
I would have to say my ex banded forset cobra. She was almost 7' and really wanted me dead lol, she gave me the MOST trouble, either moving into trap boxes or any thing else, i have ever had with a hot. the bush viper and the EDB werent too bad, but they got me. And i know why i wasent afraid of them like many of the other species of hots i was afraid of and did'nt tag me.
 
the largest pain in the butt for me was a col red tail boa..i was watching for a friend...everytime i tried to feed it or clean it's tank..it would try and play tag with me...got me once in the shoulder....damn that hurt
 
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