I've waited years for this

[Will0W783]

Thank for the warning, but I keep many WDB and have for over the past 30 years. It was also the only HOT snake that I ever was bitten by, back in 1999. So I know the results of a bite from one. Although the bite was a result of my careless action of skipping a safety procedure and being in a rush, when I was trying to assist feed the snake.

Glad you're prepared...I thought from the first post that this was your first hot. I've never been tagged yet by any of my venomous snakes (knock on wood), and I really hope that I can keep it that way, but I know that every day is a risk. If you don't mind my asking, could you tell us a bit about your bite experience? I'm always interested in the clinical aspects of hot bites.

[etc]

Aaron, now that we are clearer on the fact that we are at complete disregard for one to another, again I will ask you - what does my dislike for morphs have anything to do with you?

It is rather interesting to see you all of sudden advocating for censorship due to inconvenience. Here’s a solution for you: grow thicker skin. For someone who practices insolence you sure lack the capacity in meeting your own needs.

Quite frankly, given the precursor to OP’s comment regarding morphs and the sharp contrasts between your words, your signature, and your set of behavior around these parts all make this quite suitable for public consumption.

[Aaron_S]

Originally Posted by etc

Aaron, now that we are clearer on the fact that we are at complete disregard for one to another, again I will ask you - what does my dislike for morphs have anything to do with you?

It is rather interesting to see you all of sudden advocating for censorship due to inconvenience. Here’s a solution for you: grow thicker skin. For someone who practices insolence you sure lack the capacity in meeting your own needs.

Quite frankly, given the precursor to OP’s comment regarding morphs and the sharp contrasts between your words, your signature, and your set of behavior around these parts all make this quite suitable for public consumption.

Not in this thread.

Also, how about we talk about your hobby then shall we? The keeping of venomous snakes? Did I make a mistake in presuming that's what you do? Where do you live in Canada? I will also presume you probably are doing so illegally.

I have thick enough skin. Trust me. I just want to better understand why people have a hate for that part of the hobby so much as to take jabs at it whenever they can. I don't care to keep frogs but I don't take shots at those that do by demeaning the animal/s they prefer to keep.

[etc]

The keeping of venomous reptiles is not sanctioned in my municipality. Try telling your accusations to Karel Fortyn (RIP). Your attempt at ad hominem is a typical logical fallacy utilized by those who are trying to grasp at straws from unfavourable positions.

If you don’t know what can’t hurt you, you are practically invulnerable. Don’t let your mind wander though, it’s clearly unfamiliar territory.

[Will0W783]

Aaron, I dont' think etc keeps hots. He's not the OP. I personally see nothing wrong with morphs or venomous. I have an albino Burmese python, a supertiger retic, and selectively bred carpet pythons. My venomous snakes are not morphs, but that is mostly because the species I enjoy (arboreal vipers) don't really have morphs, unless you count the natural color variety in eyelash vipers.

Everyone likes different things. I think some of the ball python morphs are stunning! I personally wouldn't pay thousands of dollars, but then I don't have thousands of dollars to spend on anything, let alone one snake...lol. I also think venomous snakes are stunning and unique and a pleasure for me to own.


etc, there was no reason to attack Aaron's ball python morphs. He produces some great animals...yes his attitude can be hard to swallow at times, and not everyone likes morphs, but no reason to put them down on a forum. Aaron, there's also no reason to attack venomous snake keepers. We are just as passionate about our hots as you are about your balls. Please guys, keep the fighting to pms.

[Aaron_S]

Originally Posted by etc

The keeping of venomous reptiles is not sanctioned in my municipality. Try telling your accusations to Karel Fortyn (RIP). Your attempt at ad hominem is a typical logical fallacy utilized by those who are trying to grasp at straws from unfavourable positions.

If you don’t know what can’t hurt you, you are practically invulnerable. Don’t let your mind wander though, it’s clearly unfamiliar territory.

As I said if you want to continue this you can PM me.

Or go to this thread since it's about mutations.

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/membe...ural-camo.html

You try to push it back on to me and make me look out to be incompetent but I don't buy it. I don't need to grasp at straws here as it's plain to see you are with your vocabulary. When you have a real response you know how to get a hold of me.

When you decide to be a respectable member of the community and put it, at large, ahead of your selfish needs, I'll consider you. Keeping illegal animals shouldn't be done. At least my 'thunder' morph isn't hurting anybody.

[Aaron_S]

Originally Posted by Will0W783

Aaron, I dont' think etc keeps hots. He's not the OP. I personally see nothing wrong with morphs or venomous. I have an albino Burmese python, a supertiger retic, and selectively bred carpet pythons. My venomous snakes are not morphs, but that is mostly because the species I enjoy (arboreal vipers) don't really have morphs, unless you count the natural color variety in eyelash vipers.

Everyone likes different things. I think some of the ball python morphs are stunning! I personally wouldn't pay thousands of dollars, but then I don't have thousands of dollars to spend on anything, let alone one snake...lol. I also think venomous snakes are stunning and unique and a pleasure for me to own.

Also the keeping of venomous snakes by ETC was admitted to in another thread I'm pretty sure. Now to find it.


etc, there was no reason to attack Aaron's ball python morphs. He produces some great animals...yes his attitude can be hard to swallow at times, and not everyone likes morphs, but no reason to put them down on a forum. Aaron, there's also no reason to attack venomous snake keepers. We are just as passionate about our hots as you are about your balls. Please guys, keep the fighting to pms.

Kim, I do not doubt the passion in a venomous snake keeper. I don't say that the animal itself is a mutant or a bane to the hobby. I do believe, however, that the keeping of them can be. I do my best to not go spouting this opinion in threads where someone is simply showing a good looking venomous snake, as I can appreciate it for it's beauty.

[etc]

Originally Posted by Aaron_S

As I said if you want to continue this you can PM me.

Or go to this thread since it's about mutations.

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/membe...ural-camo.html

You try to push it back on to me and make me look out to be incompetent but I don't buy it. I don't need to grasp at straws here as it's plain to see you are with your vocabulary. When you have a real response you know how to get a hold of me.

When you decide to be a respectable member of the community and put it, at large, ahead of your selfish needs, I'll consider you. Keeping illegal animals shouldn't be done. At least my 'thunder' morph isn't hurting anybody.

What am I pushing it back onto you? What did I insinuate that you were incompetent at? Take a little walk around the park, look at the birdies nest and reinstall some zest in yourself - for you are getting paranoid.

I have no reason to be respectful to you and I intend to keep it that way. It's funny how you announce the anticipation of your approval as if anything would depend on it. You have clearly mistaken me for someone who gives a **** about your perspective, and it's probably for the best that you practice similar arms-length principle.

As Kimberly is someone I consider a friend, I will politely listen to her request and move on. Remember Aaron, 'mutant' or 'bane to the hobby' were your words, not mine. I have simply expressed my dislike for morphs and pointed out a correlation to your love for ball python morphs when I was quoted in response. It seems as though as I owe someone an apology or an admittance of wrongdoing, but that's not going to happen.

[Aaron_S]

Originally Posted by etc

What am I pushing it back onto you? What did I insinuate that you were incompetent at? Take a little walk around the park, look at the birdies nest and reinstall some zest in yourself - for you are getting paranoid.

I have no reason to be respectful to you and I intend to keep it that way. It's funny how you announce the anticipation of your approval as if anything would depend on it. You have clearly mistaken me for someone who gives a **** about your perspective, and it's probably for the best that you practice similar arms-length principle.

The feeling is simply mutual.

[SSSSnakes]

Originally Posted by Will0W783

Glad you're prepared...I thought from the first post that this was your first hot. I've never been tagged yet by any of my venomous snakes (knock on wood), and I really hope that I can keep it that way, but I know that every day is a risk. If you don't mind my asking, could you tell us a bit about your bite experience? I'm always interested in the clinical aspects of hot bites.

Since someone requested it, here is my snake bite story. I don’t brag about being bitten, because I see it as a mistake on my part and not something to be proud of.

It started out that I got into venomous keeping to make my snake shows more interesting. After dealing with the DEC for the licenses and meeting all the rules for keeping the snakes, I thought that if I could handle the fastest and meanest non-venomous snakes I would have no problem with the venomous ones. So I bought the nastiest fastest snakes and handled them all the time. I guess that is why today I love aggressive snakes. I found a few handlers that dealt with venomous and had them teach me how to handle them. Then I studied about the venom and it’s effect and what to do if I was to be bitten. I taught everyone that was around me when I handled the snake what to do as well.

I got so many venomous snakes that when I went to the zoo, I had more and a better selection than they did. I started doing a venom research project with the local college for their zoology department. So I was milking snake for venom all the time. I had purchased all the safety equipment and was very good at it. They would even send over students to help work with me. Free help cleaning tanks.

Now here is where the story get good. I was moving into a new house and listening to the radio, when I heard a story about how two men in PA were going from bar to bar with a cobra snake and one of them was bitten in their pickup truck, while the other one went into the bar to drink. The one in the truck died. The DJ ask why would anyone want to keep snakes. I stopped moving and went down to the radio station and talked to the DJ about snakes. He put me on the radio and I defended the keeping of snakes. The next thing I knew, we were a hit. The radio station had me and the DJ on every Saturday morning. The show was called Redneck and the Snakeman.

Redneck and I got to be good friends. Redneck went to Texas for a vacation. While there a friend of his had a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake in a 55 gal drum waiting for it to die. You see rattlesnakes are very common and considered disposable. The friend asked Redneck do you want it, as a joke, but Redneck said sure I have a friend that would love it. So they put it in a 5 gal. bucket, taped a car air cleaner lid on top and put it in the trunk of his car and drove from Texas to NY with it.

Being the snake was wild caught it refused to eat on it own. I could never let a snake starve so I use to tube feed it. I would take a restraining tube and put the snake in it, then I would take a syringe with a tube on the end and feed the snake food that was like baby food. One day I was in a hurry, I got the snake into the restraining and was trying to get the tube into the snakes mouth, but the snake was not cooperating. So I got a bright idea to remove the snake from the restraining tube and hold it behind it’s head. I fed the snake, but as soon as I removed the tube from the snakes mouth, he knew I did not have him close enough behind the head and he turned his head enough to sink his fangs into my finger. WOW, what instant PAIN. Now I know why they call it a HOT bite, it feels like a third degree burn. I yelled that I was bit but I did not lose my head. I held on to the snake until I was able to put him back into his enclosure. After I put him back, my son was right there with the suction kit applying it to the bite area. I thought that I was going to be macho and shake it off, (this from a person who cut off his finger with a table saw and put it back on his self), so I went and watched TV for 4 hours before the venom started to make me sick in my stomach and I was throwing up. I had my son call my wife at work and she came home and took me to the hospital. They air lifted me to another hospital in the city where there was a venom expert. After arriving at the second hospital they took very good care of me. I became a school project for some students that were taking classes from the venom expert. I was in the hospital for a week. The intense pain lasted for a week and an annoying pain lasted for about a month. I refused any pain killers, because I wanted to remember my mistake and I did not want to get hooked on morphine.

I was grateful that God sparred my life, because I could have died. I never short cut safety procedures any more. I learn fast. I never blamed the snake, because it was my fault. But being bit made me even more popular on the radio. Funny the way things work out. Although the price tag for the whole thing was $50,000. $8000 for the helicopter ride. At that rate I could have taken a limo to the hospital in style.

[Will0W783]

Wow, Jerry, that sounds like quite the frightening experience! Honestly, most of the bite stories I've heard and discussed with my hot-keeping friends occurred in much the same way- someone was holding a viper behind the head, and didn't have it tight enough, or the snake rotated a fang, or it bit when they were putting it down....it can happen so quickly. I personally never restrain a viper behind the head without Venom Defender gloves, and even then, I will use a restraining tube if at all possible. I am continually working with a much more experienced keeper to hone my handling skills and reflexes, and I hope and pray that I never have to experience a bite. Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm sure it's not easy to talk about a bite, but I'm a scientist, so I'm always asking questions and cataloging what I hear and reading bite accounts and looking at pictures. I try to understand the cellular actions of the venom of different species; I feel myself that knowing exactly what a snake's venom can do to me keeps me more cautious and alert when I have to handle.

[Roadtrash]

I have to ask. Did the WDB ever start eating properly? I guess after the bite feeding was a little nerve racking for a while.

[brylecc1989]

Awesome snake Jerry

[SSSSnakes]

Originally Posted by Roadtrash

I have to ask. Did the WDB ever start eating properly? I guess after the bite feeding was a little nerve racking for a while.

The snake never ate on it's own. And yes my hands shook the for a while when dealing with the venomous after the bite. But you have to face your fears and deal with it. But the bite always come back to my mind when ever I'm about to do something stupid again.

[Ragnar]

Whoa nice hot!