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Re: Starting off hot
I'll start off with saying this: I've never liked the concept of "starter" snakes. I feel that if you put the effort in, research thoroughly, and get some hands-on experience (if possible), you can make any snake your first snake. Obviously, the hands-on experience part is more important with hots, because the consequences of getting tagged are a lot worse than a nonvenomous snake. So again, I really feel like the best way to go about this is to make friends with some people who keep hots and see if you can get some experience with their snakes. I think copperheads are an easy venomous snake to deal with. At the same time, a copperhead isn't going to prepare you for working with cobras, if you catch my drift. There's just so much diversity among venomous snakes that it's hard to group all venomous snakes into one category and say "well if I can work with this species, then I should be able to work with that species."
The reasons I recommended copperheads are: (1) they are relatively common in the hobby and easy to obtain, (2) while they are venomous and getting bit would certainly be a bad experience, it's a lot better than many other hots, (3) they are relatively laid back, and (4) they usually are pretty easy to keep in captivity.
As far as selling the venom...I'll let other members chime in. However, I believe it's not as easy as just milking it and selling it.
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