One thing though that is most important.
KNOW YOUR STATE and COUNTY Laws reguarding the keeping of Venomous species
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Glad you enjoyed the post hun.
Many people do like the look of a certain species an in teh end the goal should be to keep the species that you are most intrested in, but to many jump head long in ontop of that species rather then taking their time an working their way up to it an getting exprence.
Many tell you, just as I will that its best to work with a non venomous species that is verry fast, agressive, an that is not generlay easy to work with (hooking etc.) Idealy you want a species that is close to teh same body type as the hot you wish to work with.
An example would be if you would like to keep Cottonmouth, then keep a few species of Water snake, like the banded watersnake they tend to have anice thick body, an a foul temper.
A great snake to get used to working copperheads, an other slender vipers is a Black Racer - yes they tame down quickly, but they are still verry fast an will let you know when they are displeased.
Using a verry agressive non venomous snake also helps you in reading a snakes body language, helps you learn how to tell when a strike is comming, an sharpens your relfexes alil.
Something I tell everyone is this that wants to keep ahot.
Get yourself the most agressive non venomous snake you can, an keep it for a year. In that years time BE HONEST keep some stcky notes at the cage. Every time you get bitten, write 30,000$ DEAD an the date on a sticky note an stick it on the cage. Each time you are bitten your year starts over at that date. like for instance you starte dkeeping a racer on July 1st 2008 an on January 3rd 2009 you get bitten, no longer do you have those months to count toward your goal but instead you start all over again from jan 3rd untill you can keep for a year from that date without being bitten. Once you have managed to keep for a years time without being bitten then you can start considering moving into the hot hobby an testing the water with one of the more less deadly species.
You mentioned gloves, well so lets talk clothing for working hots
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lets talk about footware. Don't be an idiot like me an do things barefoot (BAD celeste! Do as I say not as I do yall! lol) I get overheated easily lol so I tend to work barefoot this can be disasterous though. But When I do stop cutting corners, an wear shoes I wear boots. Boots are your best bet in the event that your snake deides it does not wish to coperate with you an hits the floor. Theit not 100% garenteed (less you wear snake proof) but alot times the thick material of agood pare of boots can mean the diffrence between an envenomation an well not being envenomated.
we all like to wear shorts but thei rnot the best thing when working ahot snake. Idealy you wanna be wearing jeans, but if your new an your alil on the precuationary sid eyou cna get apair of the snake proof waders an slip them on over your pants
or shorts if your feelin lazy
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when it comes to long sleeves or short sleeves, eh all depends on what your working. but a short aint realy goan provide you much protection froms oemthingw ith decent sized fangs. The same goes for the gloves. Now i'm not talkin about run of the mill work gloves but rather the gloves made for handeling reptiles. for handeling a rear fanged snake gloves, an a long sleeve shirt may help ya out. But even Al Cortz (ViperKeeper on youtube) has said he has seen some species bite threw them. So their not a sure thing.
No mater what precautions you take though, I would never say anything is 100% garenteed. A false sence of security is a bad thing an thats what tends to get alota keepers nailed.
