Venomous collection

[reptileexperts]

Wonderful update!

I really think the Rhino Viper. The color and pattern is special. How similar in behavior and venom type are they to the Gabby? They look related in many ways.

Quite the changeup from the retics.

Are you still working with retics, or is this current direction too demanding to deal with other species?

We miss you in the retic section, but it is understandable if you have to focus more on this more advanced level of snake keeping.

What is your easiest access to anti-venom if needed? I know you are rather intelligent and have researched all the potential hazards.

I'm just curious if you have it at home, or if you have to be transported. I don't know any "hot" keepers personally so I'm just wondering what the typical plan of action is.

Don't answer if you don't like that question.

Bottom line is you have a very unique group there, and a lot of folks here are eager to learn about them.

Excellent post.

Rhino Vipers are bred to gaboons to produce gabino in captivity and the wild. So they are fairly close genetically. However, their husbandry is quite different. Gaboons can handle warmer environments up to 85-88 without much of an issue, they can be kept around 60% humidity, and generally do well in display enclosures. Rhinos, need to be kept around 70% humidity and need to stay at or below 80 degrees in temp. Gaboons can eat a decent sized meal weekly, rhinos require less food and have a slower metabolism due to temperatures. Most rhinos don't live past a year in captivity, then many of those survivors don't live past 2. They seem to handle variations in conditions at a young age much better than into adulthood. On top of this, different locale of rhinos do differently in different enclosures. Uganda need to be left completely alone for 5-7 days at a time in a tub. Keeping them in a vision or AP display setup will generally lead to their death from stress, even opening their tub daily can lead to death from stress as it did with a good friends. Ghana are the most common and most robust to being in display caging. But they need to grow up in a tub first in order to be strong. Gaboons can go in a display from birth and be happy.

We still have a handful of retics, our big dwarf purple, dwarf white phase het stripe male, super dwarf male and female tigers, golden child HOGS male and Phantom Sunfire Het. Stripe female. It's a lot of work, and I won't be moving any deeper into retics, but we still have plans to produce cows in the future to hopefully see at least a partly return on investment into that project.

Our snakes either have locale antivenin available, no antivenin made for them, or a common polyvalent stocked readily at the zoo about an hour half from here (which is where the expert toxicologist for snake bite is located anyway). I would like to get SAIMR on hand and keep 5 vials always available, but with short shelf life for the cost of it, it's hard to justify when the zoo stocks ample of it since they maintain a collection with many of the snakes listed under the polyvalent. There is a group about 2 hours from here starting an antivenin bank where keepers can join and help pay to keep supplies on hand to guarentee your species are covered. The only specific antivenin I have not been able to confirm if it's local is for the squams since there is no antivenin for this species specifically, but echis is reported to be effective. We have all medical protocols for our species so if worst case happened, we would begin transport to Ben Taub in Houston with protocol in hand and let our toxicologist know we're in route while he preps the AV (he's friends with most local hot keepers on Facebook and post when he goes out drinking or vacation so folks know to avoid risky animals during this time lol).


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