My Venomous Snakes

[BPSnakeLady]

Oh my gosh, now THAT is an absolutely GORGEOUS cobra! I have a question, my niece had a de-fanged cobra(i believe it was a cobra, I'll have to double check) is that a common thing folks do with the venomous snakes?
Anyways, beautiful snakes you have, thanks for sharing!

[Najakeeper]

Oh my gosh, now THAT is an absolutely GORGEOUS cobra! I have a question, my niece had a de-fanged cobra(i believe it was a cobra, I'll have to double check) is that a common thing folks do with the venomous snakes?
Anyways, beautiful snakes you have, thanks for sharing!

Hello,

You cannot 'defang' a cobra. I mean you can, but it is a brutal procedure and if the snake survives the trauma, it will produce new fangs and will be ready to evenomate pretty soon.

On the other hand, you can surgically remove a venomous snakes venom glands and ducts, and if done properly by a vet (a lot of vets will find this unethical and won't do it) then you will have an altered snake, which won't be able to evenomate anything anymore. It is not very common but it is out there. The procedure is found unethical and shunned by most snake keepers, as an animal should not go under life threatening surgery for someone to be able to keep it as a pet.

However, to tell you the truth, my first cobra (over 10 years ago) was a venomoid. The poor animal had a very scarred, disfigured head as he did not have implants for the removed glands hence his cheeks sunk in. Still, he survived until he was 10 or so and died due to an unrelated illness.

[BPSnakeLady]

Ok, my stepson was the one who told me about my niece's snake(I never saw it, just heard stories about them getting the snake to bite them and finding it humorous **rollseyes**), I must have gotten the species wrong, it just sounded... Wrong to do to a snake.

Thank you for replying you have some beautiful animals there.

Another question, I was watching one of the feeding vids and you mention that there was no anti venom for the snakes you were feeding (the black & yellow cobras), do you keep anti venom on hand with the other species you work with? I'm just curious.

[Najakeeper]

I must have gotten the species wrong, it just sounded... Wrong to do to a snake.

It can still be a cobra but not defanged. It probably had a venomoid surgery as I described above.

Another question, I was watching one of the feeding vids and you mention that there was no anti venom for the snakes you were feeding (the black & yellow cobras), do you keep anti venom on hand with the other species you work with? I'm just curious.

We have a joint antivenom bank in Switzerland where we pay into. It is quite expensive to keep antivenom for all the snakes we keep individually but having one bank makes it quite cheap, about $150 per year. So far no one has been bitten to test how efficient it is but I foresee no issues.

In case of Samar Cobras, there is no antivenom so a bite may result to artificial breathing in an icu unit. I try to not to take chances with them.

Thanks for watching the videos.

[BPSnakeLady]

Fascinating!
I know very little about venomous snakes outside what I've seen on tv, I've found this thread to be very educational. Thank you for answering my questions and keep sharing!

[Najakeeper]

Fascinating!
I know very little about venomous snakes outside what I've seen on tv, I've found this thread to be very educational. Thank you for answering my questions and keep sharing!

No problem. Feel free to ask anything you like.

[Najakeeper]

The Samars are up from a month long pre-breeding brumation and they are hungry! They ate two small rats each and asked for more.


Here is a video:

[Najakeeper]

Sad video this week... Unfortunately, my A.hawkei female gave birth to 15 additional unfertilized eggs plus a perfectly developed yet dead baby... Oh well...





Here is a video explaining the situation with an interesting ending:

[slithering_BP]

Well that's sad sorry to hear

[Najakeeper]

Well that's sad sorry to hear

Yeah... I hope it works better next time...

Here is a long feeding video of the hawkei female. She is taking down rats to get back to her previous weight:





And here are a couple pictures of the Acanthophis laevis pair from Aseki, PNG: