Anyone keep Crotalus atrox?

[schmiggle]

I actually meant about enclosures, though that wasn't clear. The information about venom is undoubtedly interesting though.

 

[dragonfire1577]

I Don't keep venomous snakes so this is going off what hot snake keeping friends have told me and what i've read but I think you should start with Agkistrodon contortrix and move up from there. The species has much less nasty venom that usually doesn't require CroFab and they supposedly dry bite and bluff a lot more than Crotalus. This would give you some hot snake experience, specifically with a pit viper and much lower chance to die. Also a good mentor is really important from what I understand, nothing can prepare you as well as a skilled mentor can making that the most important thing to have before getting into hit snakes. You may also want a really defensive water snake they are wicked fast and pretty defensive although probably move differently than a hot snake would at least help prepare a little.

 

[The Snark]

Crossed the river into thick sage brush. Couldn't see the ground for it. Hear a rattler. Rattler buzz seems omni-directional. It can be very difficult to tell which direction. I'm looking one way, my horse the other. We switch, like a comedy routine. Then it dawns on us both. The horse reaches the conclusion I did and gathers as I gave it an ultra max kick with both heels. It went airborne, a standing leap of around 10-12 feet. The rattler was under us.

 

[MetallicArachnid]

Crossed the river into thick sage brush. Couldn't see the ground for it. Hear a rattler. Rattler buzz seems omni-directional. It can be very difficult to tell which direction. I'm looking one way, my horse the other. We switch, like a comedy routine. Then it dawns on us both. The horse reaches the conclusion I did and gathers as I gave it an ultra max kick with both heels. It went airborne, a standing leap of around 10-12 feet. The rattler was under us.

I stepped on one during an early season dove hunt about 8 years ago, thank god that I had steel toed boots on and it hit my toes or else it could have ended really badly.

 

[The Snark]

I stepped on one during an early season dove hunt about 8 years ago, thank god that I had steel toed boots on and it hit my toes or else it could have ended really badly.

Right. Watch for complacency. I was wearing high topped engineer boots. The rattler a juvenile about 18 inches long. One fang hit the boot, one hit my shin.

 

[MetallicArachnid]

Right. Watch for complacency. I was wearing high topped engineer boots. The rattler a juvenile about 18 inches long. One fang hit the boot, one hit my shin.

Yeah they can definitely hurt you and the boots definitely aren't protection, in my case it was the fact that the snake was only about 12 inches long and equally slender and both fangs hit directly on the steel due to it's size, any bigger or any further up my foot and I would have been hit by at least one fang.

 

[Najakeeper]

For enclosures, keep it simple with venomous snakes. A water dish, some sort of non-dusty, absorbent substrate and a hide box is enough. For babies, you can keep them in small enclosures but for an adult atrox, I would give him/her space. Rule of thumb in Switzerland is the length of the enclosure should match the snake's length so 4ft to 5ft for an adult atrox should be enough.

You can also complicate things and add decoration etc. but that's more work for keeping the enclosure clean and less are for you to safely move.

 

[GatorWrestler303]

A friend got bit by a King a few months ago he almost died but came through ok minus the tip of his finger. My buddy who runs a venom farm keeps the majority of his on those wood pellets and only has a few rocks. At our place we run a dirt bottom and some rocks stacked about halfway up cage so they can bask at different spots. Viper Keeper does have some great videos but I agree he takes some crazy chances. Highly recommend always using a snake hook.

 

[GatorWrestler303]

Biggest EDB I've ever been around and pretty mellow.

 

[schmiggle]

Gatorwrestler, that snake is gorgeous!

 

[GatorWrestler303]

My buddy made a video you can see lots of his cages. Let me know if it doesn't work.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10100358821228259