new to the community

[scott453]

Hello everyone new here and with a question that may get everyone stirred up. I am a very experienced keeper of the giants and have been so for many years. I have a 15 ft retic, 2 12 ft burmese, and some smaller, 2 red tails, and 2 amazon tree boas as well as 2 balls. I have had my retic for 9 years and the burmese for 7 and the balls so long I have forgotten, the tree boas are kind of new. I now find myself leaning towards owning a hot snake. I actually have quite a bit of experience catching Rattlers but only to release them. The last of my kids have left for college and I have the space, seperation, and security to handle housing them. My question stems to this. I have the knowledge and time to care for my larger snakes and would love to step up to a venomous. I don't want to overstep my bounds as in I started with ball pythons before I moved up to the Retic. What would be a good species to start with? I will say that I am partial to the Copperhead. Who would be a good breeder to deal with? Venomoid? Sounds like a bad idea from the start but I don't have enough info on the subject to judge it. Any help would be great.

[infernalis]

http://www.thamfriends.com/mat.jpg

[Freebody]

welcome to the forum :) sounds like your going about things the right way and wish you all the best of luck, Oh yeah we would love to see pics of yur collection, sounds like a real nice one, and for hot questions, percy is our hots guy here, he keeps them for us all to live vicariously through him LOL

[percey39]

Hello and welocme to the site. Cheers freebody for the kind words.
Firstly you have to be one of the first people to have done the research and asked the right questions before jumping in way over your head. Im not sure about your native species as im only allowed to keep australian species myself. I absolutely love your copperheads and from what i have heard they are a good beginner snake. As they dont grow too large, their venom isnt to nasty, they are not too fiery and dont strike that often and their husbandry is pretty easy. They also look fantastic!!
I am not too sure about your local laws with keeping hots either, but i know here i have to have a locked room, escape proof room, locked windows, locked enclosures, signs and warnings, first aid kit, no one else that lives with me can have access to that room with out me being there and i have had everyone first aid trained that lives with me.
Also before you purchase a hot do you have anyone you know or anyone around you that keeps hots? As a mentor is necessary in my eye's as you will need to learn how to hook a hot, they are so so so much faster than any python or colubridae and plenty of people become un stuck with this. Also its always good to get people to show you techniques in how to read the species you want ie their body langauge, signs of distress and the way they are moving ( or in some cases staying still )
Hot's are definetely not something to be taking lightly when you first start out as this is when you are still learning about them and are more likely to be tagged.
Also please please please do not get a venomoid as i find that very cruel for the snakes and if you do not consider yourself ready for a genuine hot then dont get one!! I hate that people get venomoid as species have venom for a reason.
With caging i have mine in front opening enclosures, but plenty of people have top opening as this will eliminate some of the risks of them flying out onto the floor and also help protect you when you open the enclosure as you are 2' above them.
I hope i have covered most things you wanted to know if not just shoot me a PM or post more questions.
Also i would love to see some pics of your burms and retics, as they are some of my favourite snakes!!

[marvelfreak]

Hello and welcome! Love to see pics of your snake. We do have a couple people on here that keep Hognose and Flasewater Cobras. These i believe are refang venomous snakes. They would have to chew on you a bit to injected their venom. One of these might be a good starter kind of a semi hot to get your feet wet. I would try to find a mentor like Percey say. Best of luck and let us know what you decided.:)