My rattlers

[redtails]

Here's a couple sidewinders I used to keep.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a3/AZBurms/Sidewinders/Sidewinders003.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a3/AZBurms/Sidewinders/Sidewinders004.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a3/AZBurms/Sidewinders/Sidewinders.jpg

I also had an atrox that was a long term captive, if not cb. It was about 3.5' long and had 12 rattles.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a3/AZBurms/000_2550.jpg

I also had a baby blacktail. The cutest and calmest rattlesnake ever!
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a3/AZBurms/000_2548.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a3/AZBurms/000_2545.jpg

[DaemoNox]

Nice snakes, but seems like a lot of bad luck...

[redtails]

Sure was. I'm sticking to the rock pythons, burms, and retics for now as I'm a lot better with them.

[dannyc]

Dude you need to get another hobby. You've lost more than I have and I've never lost one, Yet.

[taz19772005]

nice snakes have you gave up on the ratters?

[redtails]

Dude you need to get another hobby. You've lost more than I have and I've never lost one, Yet.
Dude, you need to be nice before karma comes round and kicks your a$$. Good for you that you haven't lost anything precious to ya. Stuff happens, sidewinders are very picky feeders as babies and I learned that the hard way. Just because you burn dinner a couple times doesn't mean you stop eating man, same with this. I've had snakes over half of my life and I'm not gonna stop now cuz a couple died.

To the other, I dunno if I've given up completely yet, but for now yes. I do live in the desert so it's not that hard to get another if I want one.

[gonesnakee]

Not too sure what you are talking about in reguards to maggots. Its not too hard to guarrantee fresh prey thats not full of maggots, the smell of it alone would be a dead giveaway. Can't see how maggots if ingested could even live let alone eat the specimen? Like I said not too sure what you exactly mean? Sound like avoidable BS to me. Sounds like you have some serious husbandry issues etc. Any rocks in an enclosure should always be setting securely on the bottom of the tank & then substrate placed in around them. Sounds like the rock was setting on the substrate not on the bottom as it should have been. Also a "spikey bush" was responsible for the death of another snake? NO you allowing it to be there were responsible for its death, same goes for the rock incident. Freehandling HOTS is a bad idea also, I guess you almost had to kill your friend to find that out, hopefully it was a lesson learned? Looks & sounds to me that you are one of those that is only in to the HOTS & large Boids because of personal status, but hey thats just my opinion. I am definitely interested in hearing more about these maggot deaths as I for one can't even remotely fanthom what you are talking about? You do know that maggots will only eat DEAD FLESH right? So if the specimens were ate by maggots they were already dead & rotting before that would ever happen. You need to have a serious look at how & why you are keeping these animals & possibly reconsider a few things before you yourself become a statistic. Just my 2 cents, maggots killing snakes ROFLMAO! Mark

[Boakid]

If you had of done your research you would have known they were picky feeders and not got them.

[redtails]

Another great person...

They weren't maggots in the traditional white, fly larvae type. They were big and grey and slimy and yes they did eat right through him alive. He was kinda sluggish for a couple days after eating, but sometimes it happened. I fed the chick prekilled and not frozen as I should've done to reduce pests and bacteria, but hey lesson learned.

The rock was buried on the bottom of the cage with about 3-4" of sand as you can see in the pic, well maybe you can't see the 3" of sand up it but trust me.

And the retic was a careless mishap. I was smoking outside with my snake in the grass. She was just chilling there in the middle for about 5 minutes and the phone rang. I checked on her and then ran inside to grab it and come right out, but by that time she had crawled up to this bush and started up it. She crawled around inside it for a good 20 minutes before I got the idea to cut some branches off and deter her out onto my hand. I soaked her in antiseptic, and bandaged her up with gauze and neosporin to no avail.

I've been into big snakes as long as I've known about snakes. My first crush was a burm and until recently I haven't been able to keep one as my mom didn't like the idea. The rattlesnake thing is cuz I live in the desert and it's the only snake around here practically besides gophers and coachwips. I've been playing with em all my life and am pretty safe around them. I have occasionally freehandled them, but always safely. My friend was showing it to some people outside a concert across the street from where we were staying and one of the people scared it out of his hands. He grabbed it on the way down, but it reached back and got his finger.

[taz19772005]

I would have to go with mark on this one to me it sounds like you do not know what you are talking about and my be you should give up this hobbie and get in something you know a little more about or learn more about this one be for you kill/murder more snakes.I you don't know how to take care of them then don't have them.Just my two cents Cory

[DaemoNox]

I feel saying you murdered these animals goes a little too far, but you have to admit its more then the normal amount of accidental deaths, it does say something. None of those snakes are anything that the word 'careless' should be involved with. Just knowing that history I'd be cautious of putting any animal in your care, but thats just knowing that history; the biggest thing that counts is whether the lesson was learned. I'm sure if you look at it from our side only knowing so much you would be alarmed too.

Your venomous practices are especially alarming; what the hell was your friend doing showing off one at a concert, he was just asking to get bit.

[redtails]

I always do research on anything I venture into, over 30hrs total on the sidewinders and there's not much info on the net. I did know they were picky eaters, but I still decided to try. My friend breeds them and most of his(75%) eat ok, but there are some.

Taz, I've been keeping snake most likely longer than you have and have read well over 200 books and 1500 internet pages on them. Next time try and get a couple pennies that aren't dull before you toss em in bro. It's not like you're perfect and never had a bad time in your life..

It was more than the normal bad luck in many areas of my life then. They all died within a short time of each other, I ended up homeless for a little while, and also had a short trip to jail all within maybe 2 months of each other. I have a place to stay now, a nice job with a couple others lined up in the future, and my luck is getting better. Most of the snakes I've kept especially pythons did fine in my care and My current ones are no exception. I've had my baby male for almost 4 months now and he's grown over a foot and a half and is calmer and easier to handle than ever before.

[DaemoNox]

But, I believe the biggest thing everyone wants to know is if you came out a little wiser. Luck is give or take, what truely matters is your own actions and how you handle whats thrown at you.

[redtails]

I believe so, everything is a learning lesson if you look at it the right way. I know now to only feed frozen for many health reasons, with a couple rare instances of picky eaters only eating live. I don't handle hots anymore and probably won't for some time now. I also know that there are many people out there that like to get heated up on the controversial issues of keeping hots and pets passing away, which is why I edited my posts to make them a little friendlier and not invite arguments/threats.

[crucified]

And the retic was a careless mishap. I was smoking outside with my snake in the grass. She was just chilling there in the middle for about 5 minutes and the phone rang. I checked on her and then ran inside to grab it and come right out, but by that time she had crawled up to this bush and started up it. She crawled around inside it for a good 20 minutes before I got the idea to cut some branches off and deter her out onto my hand. I soaked her in antiseptic, and bandaged her up with gauze and neosporin to no avail.

I've been playing with em all my life and am pretty safe around them. I have occasionally freehandled them, but always safely.



should you be leaving a retic or any snake at that alone outside even if it is to just run for the phone?


as well as the free handling.. there is no safely freehandling.. regardless how calm the snake is.. it's still dangerous... snakes act out of instinct... even the most professional may have accidents...

[Alien_Regalis]

Wow.

Id really like you to elaborate on the maggots. I've never heard of this. Others have said it and I feel I need to as well, there is no safe way to freehand hots. I've kept hots for years and have never so much as touched a single one of them for any reason. Doing so is completely irresponsible and puts not only you and the people around you at risk, but our whole Herpetoculture hobby at risk.

[gonesnakee]

Apparently I gave you far too much credit in my first post as you are indeed the exact opposite of what a responsible herper should be. I assummed it was about personal status before & you have confirmed it. Lets all let our friends take our HOTS to the concert with them to show to the masses & lets all let our large Boids free roam our backyards unattended. 2 words CONTROLLED & CONTAINED the big 2 rules in reguards to any herps SPECIALLY HOTS & LARGE BOIDS!!! My future statistic comment obviosuly is very realistic apparrently. Did your jail time have anything to do with "Reckless Endangerment" or "Criminal Negligence" by any chance? Couple of legal terms you may want to check into along with "Manslaughter" while you are at it. You are no where near responsible IMHO & that of anyone else here or any herp forum. What a joke, seriously Mark

[taz19772005]

once again i agree with mark why would you let your buddy take a hot out in front of a lot of people?

[taz19772005]

I have never keep hots and i know not to do that

[crucified]

Wow.

Id really like you to elaborate on the maggots. I've never heard of this. Others have said it and I feel I need to as well, there is no safe way to freehand hots. I've kept hots for years and have never so much as touched a single one of them for any reason. Doing so is completely irresponsible and puts not only you and the people around you at risk, but our whole Herpetoculture hobby at risk.



Amen jeff... you said it as well... and i know you have the experience.. we've talked about hots many many times..

[Andy_G]

OK...I have had bad luck...I have had a snake die of leukemia, a few die because they wouldn't eat for me no matter what I did...one that was related to the snake that had leukemia died due to an unknown CNS problem when no signs were shown 8 hours before it died...you just drop rocks on them and leave em outside...be more responsible...it bugs me when people refer to that kind of bull as bad luck...and why the hell would you EVER free handle??? I've worked a bit with hots...not that much...but I know enough not to screw around with something totally and completely unpredictable that can kill me in the snap of a finger...don't even introduce karma into your every day vernacular until you think about what the hell you are doing...

[redtails]

Wow.

Id really like you to elaborate on the maggots. I've never heard of this. Others have said it and I feel I need to as well, there is no safe way to freehand hots. I've kept hots for years and have never so much as touched a single one of them for any reason. Doing so is completely irresponsible and puts not only you and the people around you at risk, but our whole Herpetoculture hobby at risk.


I can't really go into much detail about this as I don't know that much. I had a friend who raised quail and chickens & I got a chick from him and tried that with my snake because it was free to me. About 4 days later when I checked on my snake there was a little bit of skin and blood and a lot of nasty grey maggot/worm looking things all over. I immediately took the tub and tossed it far away and cleaned my other cages just incase. My ball python who was right next to this one died a couple days later of the same thing.

Hots are as I can plainly see a very controversial topic. I know freehandling is dumb and irresponsable, but it's over with and I don't plan on doing it for a very long time if at all.

As for the phone thing, oh well I made a mistake as I've stated. I didn't imagine that a lethargic snake that didn't move once in 5 or more minutes would get up and crawl to the most dangerous part of my yard in the 20 seconds left unattended, but it happened and she's off to a better place if one exists. Anyways, here's Tiny, may she RIP:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a3/AZBurms/sunp0005-1.jpg

[Andy_G]

I know freehandling is dumb and irresponsable, but it's over with and I don't plan on doing it for a very long time if at all.


The fact that you are even considering free handling something down the road is extremely irresponsible... :medtoothy

[redtails]

I meant keeping them in general. Sorry for the confusion.

[jparker1167]

im not sure what the whole story is here but everyone has reps die it just happens cant really say he should get out of reps cause some die. and for the free handling thats just asking for trouble i keep hots and never will free handle any no reason too.

[redtails]

Sorry you came late, I had to edit some stuff cuz of the feedback. Basically a photo of me holding a diamondback behind it's head and body and how I lost some of my snakes.

[jparker1167]

why was you holding it behind the head there should be no reason to unless your treating it for something, not just to show off

[drec91]

u guys need to stop being so defensive and state your idea in a civil way instead of expsressing your anger through your writing. peace

[gonesnakee]

You drec91 must understand that you don't have a clue what was edited out of the orginal posts. You missed most all of this old threads orginal content. When folks are total idiots & go around taking HUGE risks we don't post to blow sunshine up their butts LOL Cheers Mark

[Boots]

you don't have a clue what was edited out of the orginal posts.

I have to agree with you as to the editing of posts after they have been posted. This is why it is best if members do not edit their posts after someone has replied.

Jason