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Curiosity about hots

D

deviljho

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Hiya! I'm just a college student trying to learn about venemous snake keeping. I am in no way ready to keep any, in fact the "hottest" snakes i have worked with are wild Croatlus Atrox (Western diamond backs right?) and a single "hot lesson" with a Hydronasties Gigas and taught by someone who i don't think has handled hot snakes (he taught me 'tailing' i think it's called). So in no way am i ready yet.

However, living in California there are very few Hot owners around (i believe only native croatlus are legal to keep in cali) and even if i was to take a legal Croatlus Atrox (which would make me and my parents nervous) it wouldn't really help if i decided to get more into hots, especially if i got my favorite hots, (inland particularly) taipans and cobras.

So instead i turn to you. I want to know almost everything you can tell me about your hot keeping experiences. I want to build a picture of everything i should expect, like temperments, habits, care, things to watch out for (disease, over aggression, not eating etc), and what you love about it, should i decide to keep hots after the two species i am already going to work with in the future, which are Western Hognoses and Woma Pythons. I will most likely have a billion questions to ask so i ask that you be patient with me haha.

I'd also love to see pics of your hots. Many hots (again, cobras taipans and some arboreal vipers) are absolutely gorgeous. I always love to see them.
 
I don't know what the big mystique is about "keeping hots"...they have individual personalities like any other snake, but you have the added risks, downsides and added
costs, all for snakes you cannot handle to 'relate' to (which for me, is what makes keeping snakes interesting). Personal risks are obvious, but you have to consider all those around you too, making sure your snakes NEVER get loose (because obviously that reflects poorly on all snake-keepers, & tends to make more people want to ban them all). Downsides include people who will have nothing to do with you because of what you keep, those who will not rent you a place to live, the cost of home insurance IF you buy a place to live (or more likely, your rejected application for insurance), and the MANY places you won't be able to live at all. Don't forget, it won't be easy to get veterinary help for your hots either...so hopefully you have lots of experience to preclude all but the most unavoidable illnesses or injuries in your animals. That's only fair to them, eh?

Keep in mind there are local city, county, state, & national laws about this, & I can tell you that a permit in California is not going to be cheap, nor is it easy to even get approved. Unless things have changed since I lived there, such permits incur a yearly cost & home inspection, and are only approved if you have a required amount of professional experience, which you'll have to prove. If you seriously want to pursue this, you should get a job in a zoo to get the experience & references.
 
Again, I was only looking into it. I was by no means going to keep hots any time, or at least any time soon. I just want to hear about peoples experiences with these snakes, what kind of things they do, what care looks like, any funny quirks their hots have etc.
 
I'm sorry I sounded that way. I'm not looking to get hots any time soon, in fact I was going to try and get Hognoses soon to start breeding, but I have a couple obstacles to overcome first. Instead I just wanna hear about it, learn about it.
 
In a perfect world, I could believe everything I read online, but since many questions like this are posed by far-younger forum members (or those with questionable motives and poor judgement), I have no wish to be a bad influence, even if it's unintentional. I was serious when I suggested getting your own legal experience by working in a zoo.

In the meantime, there is nothing to stop you from pretending that a racer is really a mamba (etc), planning and practicing all care accordingly. The most important thing in
keeping hots is to always be fully "present"; you plan every move & never work them when you are tired, distracted, not feeling well, or under the influence of any drug or alcohol (legal or not).
 
There's also a WORLD of difference between "can" and "should".

Young males get most of the venom-bites in this country, because so many are trying to prove something by keeping & handling hots. When those impulses kick in, try to imagine your social life with only one hand, or missing a foot...that's assuming you survive, of course. You are not tougher than venom.
 
Believe me, I know a little bit about what venom can do to people. The hottest snake I intend to work with any time soon is Hognoses, and a Zoo is what I am looking at for a job till I can make snake breeding a career. I understand your concerns, and they are indeed well placed. I believe the age group you're thinking of is about 18-20 something right? I'm on the upper limit of that scale so, yeah, I guess I'd fall into that. No I'm not immune to even hognose venom, so I always take every precaution handling snakes I don't know.
 
I truly wish you well in your endeavors, Daniel. We need more good people working
with all kinds of snakes and educating the public, changing their fear to appreciation.
I think I read someplace that for every person harmed by a venomous bite, some
350 others were medically helped by venom, now used extensively in medical research
& the development of new drug therapies. It often helps to put things in perspective.

As far as what age group I was referring to, it depends more on maturity than a
specific number, so the typical range goes from teens to late-20's. Most of us feel
quite invincible in those years, but young men are more hormone & culturally-inspired
to make costly mistakes...it's the same reason that "Uncle Sam" wants to get their
hands on you in those years...before you "think too much" about self-preservation.
 
I lost my invincibility mindset when I almost fell off a cliff some 5 years ago or so hahaha. I'll keep working on what I love, I agree, getting people to not irrationally fear snakes is very important.
 
And by the way, as far as snake-breeding as a career..."don't quit your day job"!
It's not an easy replacement for a full-time job...in fact, it's more like farming, in
that animals that you are counting on can & do get sick & die, or fail to reproduce.

And usually by the time you invest in something rare & manage to raise it, others
already have & the prices have dropped...or the latest fad has changed. it really
takes a great deal of luck plus hard work to make much money at snake-breeding.

One piece of advice as far as working with hots (or any animals) is to avoid using
force. I devised my own 'shift-cages' that snakes willingly entered (or with minimal nudging) and the result is far less risk to the keeper & far less stress to the snake,
a "win-win". (BTW, you couldn't pay me enough to milk them for venom!)
 
Oh no, I already intended to do such. Get a day job and have that be primary source of income till breeding can take off. I try to think forward, thankfully the specifics of what I'm looking at going into aren't too prevalent today, hoping they don't.
 
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