# A few exotic venomous species



## TomCharlton (Nov 15, 2010)

Hi everyone,

Im new to the forum so thought i would start with a thread showing some of my animals.

Im a venomous keeper from the UK, soon to be heading out to Australia for a year to travel and herp (hence why i joined Aussiepythons), so hopefully im keeping some exotic species that may be of interest to you guys. Heres some of my collection:

First up, my pair of Pakistan Russells vipers

Female







Male







Adult male Malaysian king cobra, Ophiophagus hannah






CB10 Chinese king cobra, Ophiophagus hannah






One of 12 PNG taipans i hatched out this year






Feas viper, Azemiops feae






A snake i moved on earlier this year, my female black mamba, Dendroaspis polylepis






Cheers,

Tom


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## waruikazi (Nov 15, 2010)

Nice! Russels viper... they kill a few thousand every year don't they?


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## SamNabz (Nov 15, 2010)

Hi and welcome to APS.

Nice pics you got there mate, especially love that Feas Viper, very nice.

Thanks for sharing.


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## REPTILIAN-KMAN (Nov 15, 2010)

u have a great collection there


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## scorps (Nov 15, 2010)

waruikazi said:


> Nice! Russels viper... they kill a few thousand every year don't they?



Not as much as the black Mamba's if my memmory serves me right, 


Awesome collection mate.


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## Tsubakai (Nov 15, 2010)

Great first post on the forum!


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## AllThingsReptile (Nov 15, 2010)

welcome to aps, i love the chinese king cobra and feas viper, both have amazing patterns


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## thals (Nov 15, 2010)

Beautiful collection you have there!


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## richoman_3 (Nov 15, 2010)

amazing collection mate !

i really like the black mambas


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## snakeluvver (Nov 15, 2010)

woah the cobras are amazing


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## adderboy (Nov 15, 2010)

Very, very nice. Thanks for posting. Just a couple of questions - 1) how secure are you for antivenom for all these diverse species in the event on being envenomated? Are these kept at medical institutions nearby? I keep vens here, all death adders, and so being locals our hospitals have genus-specific antivenom available, but you're in a different situation. and 2) what do you feed your king cobras? I understand they can be difficult to get onto rodents.

Cheers,
S


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## TomCharlton (Nov 15, 2010)

waruikazi said:


> Nice! Russels viper... they kill a few thousand every year don't they?


 
Russells vipers are one of the major causes of snake bite in India, Pakistan and Sri lanka, and due to their habits of living in close proximity to humans (and especially in the rice paddies where workers go about their day with no shoes on) they do bite a huge number of people, many of which are fatal. 



scorps said:


> Not as much as the black Mamba's if my memmory serves me right,
> 
> 
> Awesome collection mate.


 
Although black mambas venom is far more toxic that Russells vipers, which means a bite is much more likely to be fatal, they are responsible for far fewer bites so i dont beleive they kill anywhere near the number of people as Russells vipers.



adderboy said:


> Very, very nice. Thanks for posting. Just a couple of questions - 1) how secure are you for antivenom for all these diverse species in the event on being envenomated? Are these kept at medical institutions nearby? I keep vens here, all death adders, and so being locals our hospitals have genus-specific antivenom available, but you're in a different situation. and 2) what do you feed your king cobras? I understand they can be difficult to get onto rodents.
> 
> Cheers,
> S


 
Hello,

We are very luckily in the UK that we have 2 medical institutions based here, the main one being Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, that keep antivenom for a huge number of exotic species. This antivenom is provided free of charge as part of our National Healthcare Service. Antivenom is far too expensive, and venomous keepers too few, to justify keeping antivenom at every hospital in the UK, apart from for our native adder, Vipera berus. We can get antivenom flown to the local hospital by helicopter within 45 mins of bite (although, from bites in the past, i know that it has often taken much longer). 

As for the king cobras, the large male is taking defrosted rats no problems. He came in as a fresh wild-caught snake from Malaysia, and it only took me 3 weeks to convert him to rats. The little Chinese king cobra is still only eating snakes, i feed it a defrosted corn snake every 3 days. I will wait until it hits the 3 foot mark before i try to convert it.

cheers,

Tom


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## snakelady-viper (Nov 15, 2010)

Welcome Tom love your Feas and the king is awesome. David and graeme had a great time today hope to see you soon down under


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## the jungle guy (Nov 15, 2010)

WOW thats unreal awesome collection some reall stunners


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## TomCharlton (Nov 15, 2010)

snakelady-viper said:


> Welcome Tom love your Feas and the king is awesome. David and graeme had a great time today hope to see you soon down under




Hey Judith, Daves just put some photos up on Facebook, looks like they are having a great time! We will be out to Australia in June i reckon, hopefully ill be able to catch up with you at some point along the way.

cheers,

Tom


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## adderboy (Nov 16, 2010)

Thanks for the info, Tom. Interesting arrangements in the UK. We have very little exotic antivenom here, and of course we're not pemritted to keep any exotics at all, venomous or otherwise. 

Once again, thanks for the post and pics.


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## pythrulz (Nov 16, 2010)

Welcome great photos like the cobras


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## PhilK (Nov 16, 2010)

Bloody amazing! Those taipans are nice.. but so is everything else!

Goes to show that newspaper as a substrate is certainly lacking in appeal.


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## gilmore (Nov 16, 2010)

Very nice pictures to say the least.The last pic of the Mamba makes an awesome desktop backgroundcheers.


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