My dog is my hero.....SNAKE!

[ScaredOfShadows]

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You are as ecclectic in your pets as I am! I love brazillian rainbow boas - I used to own one - beautiful beautiful snakes.

Though I'm a lover of ball pythons - but boa constrictors are just as great -

I used to own redtails myself.

However - not big on colubrids though - i had more luck with the wild ones than the 'breeder bred' ones - lol. Meanest snake I ever owned was a corn snake - and man did she hate me. Tamest corn/rat was a wild caught rat snake that had been injured by the neighbors - and i nursed him back to health - and re-released him on my friend's farm (I was 11 at the time)

Whats your fave?

 

[treldib]

Quote:
You are as ecclectic in your pets as I am! I love brazillian rainbow boas - I used to own one - beautiful beautiful snakes.

Though I'm a lover of ball pythons - but boa constrictors are just as great -

I used to own redtails myself.

However - not big on colubrids though - i had more luck with the wild ones than the 'breeder bred' ones - lol. Meanest snake I ever owned was a corn snake - and man did she hate me. Tamest corn/rat was a wild caught rat snake that had been injured by the neighbors - and i nursed him back to health - and re-released him on my friend's farm (I was 11 at the time)

Whats your fave?

My new favorite forumner!

My fave is my Hog Island Boa, its a dwarf species and one of the smallest species of the genus Boa Constrictor

So pretty too(this isnt my snake)

The Brazillians are just as amazing...but not as calm and laid back lol

All my Colubrids (for most BYC'ers: the "long skinny snakes" like Rat Snakes, King Snakes, Bull Snakes, Pine Snakes etc. aka basically all Non-Venemous North American Snakes) have been very calm and have never even attempted to bite.
My friend has a few redtails...wonderful snakes but a bit too big for me lol.

Here is one (very pretty)

I hope this has change some people's minds about snakes

 

[chickbird]

Quote:
You are as ecclectic in your pets as I am! I love brazillian rainbow boas - I used to own one - beautiful beautiful snakes.

Though I'm a lover of ball pythons - but boa constrictors are just as great -

I used to own redtails myself.

However - not big on colubrids though - i had more luck with the wild ones than the 'breeder bred' ones - lol. Meanest snake I ever owned was a corn snake - and man did she hate me. Tamest corn/rat was a wild caught rat snake that had been injured by the neighbors - and i nursed him back to health - and re-released him on my friend's farm (I was 11 at the time)

Whats your fave?

My new favorite forumner!

My fave is my Hog Island Boa, its a dwarf species and one of the smallest species of the genus Boa Constrictor

So pretty too(this isnt my snake)

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/62296_islandboas_07_f.jpg

The Brazillians are just as amazing...but not as calm and laid back lol

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/62296_gallery_2986_2_1098210810.jpg


All my Colubrids (for most BYC'ers: the "long skinny snakes" like Rat Snakes, King Snakes, Bull Snakes, Pine Snakes etc. aka basically all Non-Venemous North American Snakes) have been very calm and have never even attempted to bite.
My friend has a few redtails...wonderful snakes but a bit too big for me lol.

Here is one (very pretty)

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/62296_3245piq02_fb002btr_cpweb.jpg


I hope this has change some people's minds about snakes

i think it is a shame that the u.s. allows the sale of pythons and boas, people are buying these snakes and when they tire of them or they get too big, they are releasing them to multiply and have an adverse effect of the eco system as is now occurring in florida. they are not just staying in the everglades but are in the areas populated by humans, eating dogs/cats and other. when they get big enough they can eat a child. in our area we had a couple who had a boa that had got quite large, they would let this snake out in the house, the lady who happened to be pregnant was in bed sleeping when the snake got into the bed with her and began to constrict her , her husband tried to get the snake off, but could not get him off and had to call 911, the snake had to be killed to remove him. these snakes are not meant to be pets, they need to stay in their area of origin and not be introduced in the u.s.

 

[Tala]

My dog is my hero as well, because she alerts me to the two legged snakes.

I tell ya, it's the two-legged ones that you really got to worry about. The no-legged ones will generally try to avoid you.
I HIGHLY recommend that you find a herp resource for your area and learn a little about the good snakes.

You will probably find it very reassuring and rewarding to actually know a bit about them.

 

[treldib]

And thus starts the whole S373 debate...

I believe they should not be outlawed but instead be much better controlled. The government has taken away enough of our rights...and the right to own pets is not one I am willing to give up. Responsible Pet ownership is key. In the state of Florida a $200 permit is now required to buy any of the "Big 5"(Reticulated Python, Burmese Python, African Rock Python, Green Anaconda, and the Colombian Red Tail Boa) and any member of the "Big 5" that is over 3' requires a microchip so if it does happen to end up in the 'Glades it's owner can be found. The sale of Reptiles in the United States is a multi-million dollar industry and hundreds of thousands of jobs and livelihoods could be lost if it ceased to exist. This is where organizations like USARK (United States Association of Reptile Keepers), PIJAC (Pet Industry Join Advisory Council), and Herpetology Clubs nation-wide come into play. They are all trying to preserve our rights to keep the pets we love. By not selling any of the "Big 5" for rediculously low prices, starting permit and microchip programs like those in Florida, and educating people about snakes, we can avoid these desperate measures made by the government. Keep in mind that there are 27 species of Python...only 3 pose a threat to humans. There are 28 species of Boa and only 2 (I think only 1) pose a threat to humans.

 

[treldib]

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[TanithT]

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Absolutely untrue. Crotalids and colubrids are so far apart cladistically that you might as well try to mate a chicken and a parrot. Can't do it, and if you somehow managed the trick artificially, the absolute best you'd ever get would be deformed offspring that would never come to term, let alone survive. The gene pairs don't pair because they don't match up; they're too different. This is urban legend bull-doody, and anyone who believes it knows no science.

Hobbyists have been working on hybridized snakes for many years, with some success *within closely related genera only*. Even begin to try breeding snakes that are not *very* closely related, and you get nothing. Actually you get dead snakes if you're silly enough to try. Sometimes you get some seriously messed-up offspring that live long enough to make you go "OMGWTF was that" before they drop dead. You can't even cross a rattlesnake with a copperhead (trust me, it's been tried repeatedly) and get live offspring, not that stay alive anyhow. And those are fairly close critters, taxonomically speaking. Go outside the family Viperidae and you won't just fail to get live offspring, you'll fail to fertilize any ova at all.

I own a cottonmouth X copperhead hybrid and an Eastern massassauga X Western diamondback hybrid, and they're amazing animals, rare and valuable and sought after specimens. They aren't that easy to produce, so they tend to go for big bucks when people do produce them. Agkistrodon piscovorus X Agkistrodon contortrix is a same genus different species hybrid, and the Sistrurus catenatus X Crotalus atrox comprise two genera that are so closely related that many taxonomists argue that Sistrurus effectively *is* Crotalus, eg, there is actually only a single rattlesnake genus. The take-home lesson here is that these particular snake breeds are not that far apart, but producing live hybrid offspring out of them is still bloody difficult, something of a Holy Grail for collectors. These guys are not cheap when they can be had at all, and it's rare they can be had.

As much as I (and many other collectors with bigger wallets than me) would like to own an even more exotic hybrid, say a Crotalus X Agkistrodon, *no breeder can produce them regardless of the economic incentive*. Anyone who tried and succeeded would be rich, so it's been tried many times many ways. Can't be done. Don't I wish, but no, not happening.

And breeding a viper to a colubrid? A rattlesnake to a rat snake? Good luck with that, now go try to mate your goat with your chicken and see what comes of it. It might be lovely to get a bird with four drumsticks, but I can't imagine any farmer being silly enough to try it, because it doesn't work. You'd laugh at someone who did think it would work, which is why I am looking cross-eyed at this statement that rat snakes and rattlesnakes breed. Don't and can't. Please don't spread this kind of nonsense; it's silly.

Also, when I encounter a Pantherophis (nee Elaphe; taxonomists had at the genus recently and changed things around for the American rat snakes) in the wild, I lift the thing gently up in both hands and wear it as a necklace while I figure out somewhere better to put it. They're very gentle; children keep them as pets, and fairly often that's where one of my nuisance rat snake removals will end up. As a child's pet. It takes me about five minutes to gentle one. I recognize that they can't be left around chicken coops (they're called chicken snakes for a reason), but there are good homes for fine specimens where they are wanted and will be appreciated most sincerely. For that matter there's a market for the venomous ones also where they will do some good for human medical research. If you know anyone who has diabetes, breast cancer or heart surgery, you have reptile venoms to thank for the drugs commonly used to speed their recovery. Copperhead venom in particular is one of the best hopes for a breast cancer patient; the drug contortrostatin (from Agkistrodon contortrix, our common copperhead) is responsible. Don't waste them if you can help it, please.

Step by step tutorials on humane snake removal and containment can be found on my website, http://www.snakegetters.com

 

[TanithT]

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Never tasted Daboia venom, though I've worked with a number of specimens. Cute snakes, easy to work on a hook, a little food aggressive and can be a bit naughty if unaccustomed to handling. I have occasionally been hit in the nose and mouth with venom during milking or veterinary procedures by various other species. It is bitter and sour. I try to avoid this type of exposure as it predisposes to anaphylaxis on an actual bite. Drinking venom will do nothing for you except a) taste awful, b) increase your chances of fatal anaphylaxis if you are bitten, and c) possibly cause some unpleasant local and systemic effects if you have any lesions in your mouth or digestive tract.

Self injection to boost immunity on the other hand is something a number of keepers do practice, but there's some potential pitfalls with it, so it's not something I've personally done.

Because one of the long term consequences of Daboia envenomation is partial destruction of the pituitary gland and loss of male secondary sex characteristics, at every facility I've worked at, I've been the one doing all the hands-on with them as the men are scared spitless. Not that a bite for me would be fun either; it's a pretty catastrophic medical event. But for a guy, it's life destroying. None of the guys in herpetology or tox research much like working with Russell's vipers for this reason. I can't say I mind, as it's no different for me than working a Bothrops or some other comparable viper with a nasty hemolytic and cytotoxic punch to the venom.

 

[treldib]

So I see there are a few dedicated herpers in the BYC

 

[MarieNC]

I'm not afraid of snakes but I don't like the venomous kind near my chickens, so two copperheads have lost their lives so far this year. There was a rat snake in the yard awhile ago but I just chased it into the woods. My husband is terrified of snakes so I am the designated snake killer if a venomous one shows up. I hate, hate, hate to have to do it, but I gotta protect my girls. The dogs are excellent at pointing out snakes to me.