Desert Horned Viper (Cerastes Cerastes)

[Reticsrule]

i have become very interested in venomous snakes lately especially the small vipers. one species that i really like is the desert horned viper and i was wondering if anyone here keeps them. i also have a few questions about them.

how toxic is their venom?
what size enclosure would an adult need?
how often do you feed them? (i read that you shouldnt feed them as often as other snakes so im not really sure)
Are they a good "starter" hot?
do you have to use sand for them or can you use newspaper as a substrate?
do they hook well? (i heard they dont, so once again im not sure)

sorry for all the questions but when i looked for information on google i barely found any.

thanks for all your help

[cantil]

Horned Vipers are fantastic specimens for display and make great snakes in any collection of venomous, that being said they aren't a good first hot for several reasons. First off they are almost entirely wild-caught and captive bred babies when available tend to be extremely delicate in the early going. Secondly, while not the most toxic snake around they are relatively dangerous and a bite can cause swelling, necrosis, acute pain, and can have cardiac and blood pressure related effects. In addition to which there is no readily available anti-venin around though saw-scale anti-venin does have some effect from what I've heard. In terms of care I've never found mine to be problematic. I keep them in ten gallon tanks (although a 15 or 20 would be better) on a mixture of sand and soil with a hide-spot and water dish(though this isn't entirely necessary). I give them a basking spot around 90-95 with the cool end around 80 and at night they drop down to 70ish. I feed them bi-weekly and spray them only when they're going through shed. In terms of handling them, I don't find them to be perticularly challenging and they will sit on a hook long enough for most purposes although like most venomous snakes it's not a great idea to test their patience with this process. I'm sure they could be kept on newspaper but, and this is just a personal opinion, if you're keeping hots you should do them the right by giving them a naturalistic environment, especially when it's as easy as it is with these. In addition half the fun of keeping them comes from watching the burrow into the sand or sit there half obscurred by it with only the horns and eyes protruding, a behaviour that newspaper precludes.

Hope this is useful,
Cheers.

[Reticsrule]

thanks for the reply. im only 14 so obviously i wont be getting into hots for a while but i couldnt find that much information on desert horned vipers so i thought id ask here. i dont know too many people that keep them so i wasnt sure if i would get a reply or not. youve been a lot of help though, thanks.

[IBsmokin]

I was going to mention I have two pairs of them, but since you are only 14 I wouldnt recomemnd you owning any poisonous snakes.
I would agree totally with the cantil made about the species, mine are wild caught and they were collected in egypt. I also have 2 pairs of pseudo cerastes persicus fieldi , 2 pairs of cerastes vipera, and 2 pairs of echis coloratus. All are doing great and eating bi-weekly.

[Reticsrule]

i was by no means going to get one, i just wanted to get some facts about them for the future. thanks for replying though