have anyone of you poison snakes?

[Markus18]

my lively poisonous is a copperhead (agkistrodon contortrix)!
maybe in a few years when i have more experience with snakes i buy a couple of those nice snakes!
whats with you guys?have anyone of you a poison snake?
markus

[Snaky]

At the moment it's to much of a hassle in Belgium. You need a permit to hold them and it's rather a challenge in the city where I live. And they are thinking to update the law, to make it even more difficult... So I don't think I'll ever have them.

I must admit, most of the time I'm not that interested in poisonous snakes, there are plenty of other one's

[Stefan-A]

As far as I can tell, there no hassle here in Finland. There are a lot of really beautiful venomous snakes, especially vipers, but I can't really say I'd want one. But I'm not opposed to people owning them either.

Is this the wrong place to bring up the issue of garter snakes' alleged venomousness?

[abcat1993]

I think we already talked about that. If not then I saw it on kingsnake.com (before I joined this site of course)

[Elliot]

That would be kind of a neat discussion, when my ribbon bites it does get itchy and red, and he can almost draw blood lol

[abcat1993]

I almost wish my snake would bite; it'd be more interesting than it constantly running away and musking the crap out of me.

[Cazador]

I once owned a copperhead for about 30 minutes. I grew up in Missouri where they are fairly common. When I was about six or seven years old, I caught one and put it in a bucket. When I showed it to my mom and dad, my mom stripped me naked, right in front of my dad's friends (who I thought were really cool) in order to check me for snake bites. Since I always caught snakes by pinning their heads to the ground and holding them right behind the head, I hadn't been bitten, but my mom ended up cutting it to pieces anyway.

If you're considering getting a venomous snake, be sure to call the hospital first and see if they have copperhead antivenom in stock. I imagine that it's pretty rare in Germany. Cheers,
Rick

[ssssnakeluvr]

I have owned a number of rattlesnakes over the years, until I moved to Utah...very strict here!!!!

[Cazador]

What are your thoughts, Don (and others with experience keeping venomous snakes), about managing the risks of an accidental bite to yourself, your friends, or children vs. the rewards of owning one? Are they more exciting to watch?

[ssssnakeluvr]

Well, now that I have kids I don't keep venomous. There are definitely some beautiful venomous snakes out there!!!! If I were to keep them (and lived in another state) I would definitely have padlocked cages! My oldest daughter loves to help out with the snakes. Garters are just as much fun and a whole lot less dangerous! I have worked with all sorts of reptiles over the years and have always had garters in my collection, now that's mainly what I work with. Accidental bites will happen, I don't care how careful youare, you can get bitten. I was bitten by a 2 month old eastern massassauga...it was entirely my fault. I was handling it doing a class (many years ago, andwith no venomous experience at that time) and turned the baby snake over. I received a dry bite on my right index finger, only one fang sank in me. I was lucky, it could have been worse. The hospital I went to didn't know what to do, other than nickname me snakecharmer and give me a prescription for antibitoics because I was bitten bya wild animal.