Halloween Trick or Treat?

[anji1971]

Well it just so happens that I like fine Belgian chocolate, so ..........does anyone have a spare rattler around for me to bond with?????????

[RZL36]

Would you by chance know if you can keep hots in Canada? Or is it specific to province?

[anji1971]

I haven't the foggiest, but if I can get up the ambition, I'll (gulp) research it, and let you know. Somehow, I highly doubt it's allowed. I know here in Windsor, any exotic pet is not allowed, even corns and kings, not that people all follow that I'm sure....

[Bay_area]

Very nice atrox, Jerry. Do you specialize in Rattlers? They seem to crop up in your posts quite often. My personal favourite, and one I have kept long-term is adamanteus (hence the screen name). I have kept several others, but the Eastern is 'the daddy'!

I have alot of snakes, but I must say, I have always enjoyed rattlers. From the time I was in the 5th grade(mid '70's) I spent alot of time out looking for snakes @ the creek. My mother was okay with me catching herps & bringing them home, except rattlers. She told me I was not allowed to mess with them. I found a baby that summer & kept it in the loft above the garage. It grew fast & after a few sheds it had enough rattles on it to make a buzz. My mother was doing the laundry one day when she heard something making noise above where she was sorting out the laundry. She climbed up the ladder & my little secret was out! When I got home, she whipped me with a "hot wheels" track & made me let it go. Anyhow, I have always been fasinated with rattlers.
Hope you enjoy the story & thanks to all the nice comments.

BTW, I do love Easterns! I had one back when my collection was not quite legal & even considered moving @ one time just to keep it. The wife wouldn't go for it

[adamanteus]

she whipped me with a "hot wheels" track & made me let it go.

Haha! Brilliant!! Mothers seem to instinctively know what will hurt!
I kept two Easterns for a few years, they were lovely.

[RZL36]

James, what were you feeding your easterns? Were they getting rabbits? There is nothing like seeing that.

I feed f/t, but if I kept anything front fanged I would have to give it live treats every now and again. The miracle of venom, you know. It just blows my mind how powerful that stuff is.

I had a rear fanged Asian vine snake that took about an hour to kill an anole. Very boring stuff.

[adamanteus]

I always used rats, but real big ones! I never used live food, but as I would warm the rat to body temperature the Rattler would often think it was live and strike anyway. Very impressive to witness close to!

[RZL36]

I could imagine how impressive it must be. You must've been using some very large rats. Did they hook well? Very interested in individual crotalus temperaments.

[adamanteus]

My Easterns were actually very calm, steady snakes, most of the time. Easy to hook in and out of the viv (except that they are pretty heavy on the end of a hook!). But once they caught scent of food they changed completely! They could move surprisingly quickly and the strike was lightning fast!

An interesting and peculiar little thing..... they hated the smell of 'CK one' (the aftershave), it would set them off coiling and buzzing, you could here them down at the bottom of the garden!

Miss them. There is a (pretty crappy) photo of one of them on a thread somewhere...or check my gallery.

[adamanteus]

Actually, it was in my 'private' album, so I'll re-post it.



Sorry it's such poor quality.