Venomous snakes

[Knoxthepython]

What would be the best Venomous snake to begin with? Any Names will do thanks

 

[mmafan555]

Black Mamba, Terciopelo and King Cobra

 

[Bluetongue1]

That depends on whether you want to start with a small venomous snake or a large venomous snake.
Small venomous snakes are almost all exclusively lizard feeders and are difficult to feed in captivity. They are best left to the highly experienced keeper.
There are two large venomous snakes that I would recommend as highly suited to inexperienced ven keepers – the rear fanged and mildly venomous Brown Tree Snake (Boiga irregularis) and the potentially lethal Red Bellied Blacksnake (Pseudechis porphyriacus). There is one death attributed to the bite of a RBB and that was a child who suffered an abnormal reaction to the venom. Brown Trees will give you plenty of practice at handling a larger snake that automatically goes into strike mode. However, being arboreal they are not typical of the large venomous elapids, whereas the RBB is. Red Bellies are the most placid of the large elapids, seldom ever known to bite and even less frequently to envenomate their handler. A bite should be taken seriously and medical assistance sought ASAP. While a bite can make you quite sick it is very unlikely to be life threatening – a desireable attribute whilst you are learning.
Your standard RBB and the ‘Night Tiger” and “Candy Stripe” forms of the BTS are all fabulous looking animals.

Blue

 

[Knoxthepython]

Cheers!
This helped really well thank you!

 

[longqi]

Night tigers are cool
Probably next I would put Crowned snakes and Marsh gorgeous looking beasties that wont kill you

Then of course there is this one
The most beautiful reptile of any type I have ever set eyes on
But probably not for a beginner

 

[Firepac]

RBB or Colletts

 

[-Peter]

Brown tree snake.

 

[saximus]

Get a taipan. Apparently they aren't that dangerous after all

Seriously though, I've heard adders are a great first ven because they don't do much and can't move that fast. Just gotta keep your fingers away from the strike zone

 

[Waterrat]

What do most keepers feed their Brown tree snakes? I had a lot of wild ones brought into the zoo, whilst they readily took day-old chicks, they were notoriously difficult to convert to mice. Would that be a problem for a beginner?

Get a taipan. Apparently they aren't that dangerous after all

Seriously though, I've heard adders are a great first ven because they don't do much and can't move that fast. Just gotta keep your fingers away from the strike zone

They don't move that fast but they're one of the fastest striking species and if you get nailed, you're in trouble.

 

[bally]

as firepac said RBB Colletts even spotted blacks

 

[Elapidae1]

Someone elses!

 

[-Peter]

What do most keepers feed their Brown tree snakes? I had a lot of wild ones brought into the zoo, whilst they readily took day-old chicks, they were notoriously difficult to convert to mice. Would that be a problem for a beginner?

I have had quite a few come through and never had a problem getting them to feed on mice. It could be that mice make up a large proportion of their natural diet in Sydney. Failing that quail are readily available packed and frozen.

 

[moosenoose]

RBB or Colletts

I've found both of these pretty forgiving. Neither of which you'd want to get bitten by. The Colletts will give you plenty of warning, which can be a little difficult to work out as generally they love huffing and puffing at you anyway - it helps keep you on your toes :lol: I just think mine is bluffing the entire time ...just wait for it lol

Whilst I'm not throwing up tigers as a good idea for a novice, they calm down brilliantly in captivity (errrr...well, most seem to at least :lol

 

[Kurama]

Saximus I am sure you would be surprised how fast death adders can actually move.

As for first ven a brown tree snake would be suitable.

 

[longqi]

Marsh snakes hardly ever get mentioned in these threads
But they tame down easily
Venom seems to be extremely mild??
Convert onto raw chicken pieces fairly easily so long as it is moving
Will still have a bit of a go so are great practice before going upmarket??

Totally agree that death adders are called that for a reason
very hard to get a good grip on and hit pretty fast

 

[$NaKe PiMp]

Pseudechis porphyriacus

 

[HypnoticSlither]

i like vems too ... as a bigginer myself. my first vem im getting will be a Red bellied Black. They are more placid in personality then the rest.

 

[moosenoose]

I never had to touch the adder I had. Whilst they are nice to have in a collection, they don't teach you much. I sold it through sheer boredom :lol: I'm also extremely surprised at how fast they can move when they want to. But generally they are lazy lumps who just lie around in the hope you don't see them :lol:

 

[$NaKe PiMp]

haha yea thats adders,but they do surpise,peter describes them though as the Koala of the ven snake world

 

[Snakeluvver2]

I had a bad run in with Koalas as a child.
Who knew they didn't like to be picked up and had claws.