Another Controversial Question

[jparker1167]

if someone is considering keeping venomous they should already have years of experience keeping no venomous snakes already. when someone starts keeping non venomous and they say they want a good beginner snake they get answers like corn snakes, ball pythons, spotted pythons and others.  those are considered beginner snakes because they are easy to care for and most are good eaters except the ball pythons lol.  i don't see a problem with saying beginner hot,  if they have never had a hot before they are a beginner.

there are hots that would be better to start with then others  copperheads, pygmy rattlers some others and there are hots you would not want to start with like cobras mambas taipans.  of course keeping a non venomous snake and a venomous one are very different but you still have to consider a few things when you get the snake.  how easy they are to keep, how they are to handle and the venom.    cobras are pretty easy to keep but handling them can be difficult.

starting with a mentor is the best way but that is not always possible for everyone. i didn't have one. but my friend who i got hots from would tell me what not to get at the time. when i was over his house and he would be cleaning cages i would see him move cobras and stuff now and then so i just watched how to do it.   i just think saying beginner hot is that big of a deal. its just another way of asking what snake would be the best to start with, and if a mentor is not available there are many snakes you would want to stay away from.

[snakebite33308]

one thing to consider if u are looking for something to work with in hots is temperment, i would go with the north american pit vipers if i wanted a true hot.  and the second i'm going to add is look at the availability of antivenom, if laws allow it, keep something native to the area so if u get bit, they will have the antivenom

[reptileworld]

very nice picks  there are ok to look after a good snake to start with if you are looking to get a Venomou there are more friendly than alot of Venomous  snakes and there will play died before biting so that is a good thing as well. there is a ccare sheet on my site if you are looking for one.

have a nice day 

[azninja]

I see this thread is quite old but, I just started with hots. I found a baby western diamondback, it ate within the first day. It is a very easy snake to keep, from watching him strike at feeder mice you get an idea of just how far they can strike. It's said that a rattlesnake can strike 2/3 it's body length, but from watching the way they strike, it's more like their entire body and it happens very fast.             

[john.w.lawson]

I see this thread is quite old but, I just started with hots. I found a baby western diamondback, it ate within the first day. It is a very easy snake to keep, from watching him strike at feeder mice you get an idea of just how far they can strike. It's said that a rattlesnake can strike 2/3 it's body length, but from watching the way they strike, it's more like their entire body and it happens very fast.             

Yea, this thread is kinda old. You make a good point. Younger rattlers, up to around 2 feet, tend to fling their whole body at whatever they are striking at, so the two-thirds is out the window. That does not mean that an older, bigger snake will not do the same thing. It is just more common in younger snakes. As far as keeping Cobras go, there is nothing easy about it. They are very territorial. They are hard to manage on a hook. Even with tongs they can be quite difficult to manage. They are extremely moody. In my experiences, once you have them on the ground they are easier to predict, but you have to get them out of the cage and on the ground first. I had a black and white spitter and a Monicle (sp?) and kept them in neo-cages and they were a bitch. Once you slid the door open, they were either out on you or ready to fight from the inside.

[Geegmasta]

Yeah this thread is old!  Hahah.  I was reading through it again.  For those species of hognosed snake I want to point out that they are NOT related and shouldn't be coined together as interrelated.  The eastern and western hognosed snakes we have here are colubrids (rear fanged albeit, but no actual venom glands) and all of the others mentioned are pit vipers, which is a completely different family of snake, Viperidae.  They only thing they share in common is the common name "hognosed" due to appearance.  I just don't want any confusion involved with that.

Other than that I think it's all agreed if one was to get a "beginners" hot, what kind of species it would be around...hognose, copperhead etc.  Of course, when you have the proper experience