Bite from a hot

[anthonym]

Someone posted on here about their new cobra. A video of him trying to tag a mouse was also shown. After watching a video, a related video came up of the same cobra, except it was a baby crawling around this kids' hand while he was showing people his snake on youtube. Did anybody see that video?

I thought hots are hotter when they are babies? Was that an okay idea?

Pretty sure I know what video you're talking about. It was a venomoid (removed venom glands). Is it ok to handle like that? No. Regardless of being a venomoid or not.

As for babies being "hotter", that is is a commonly spread myth. The venom is the same potency. And when you consider venom yields of juveniles compared to adult yields, no they aren't more venomous. Can they still kill you? yes.

One of the things that could perpetuate this myth is the fact that adult snakes are capable of rationing their venom. Ie, not delivering a full yield in a single bite. Where as babies lack control over the release, and will blow their whole load. But as stated above, their yields are much smaller. I do however question how true this is though, as I would like to see something to back this up about venom release control in juveniles.