Venomous Training.

[gsarchie]

If you want to own gorgeous deadly creatures that demand a level of respect in ownership that doesn't exist in any other type of creature... learn more, take all the knowledge and advice in the thread and file it away and pick more questions to ask!

You couldn't have summed up my reasons for wanting to own a Crotalus horridus someday any better, and this is exactly what I've tred to explain to my wife every time she asks why I would want one. I would love to have an Agkistorodon contortix someday as well.

To the OP - I didn't get the feeling that anyone was trying to discourage you from keeping hots at all, just that they wanted to see you do it properly. The comment about knowing that you will die from the hobby someday was a huge flag for me and it is all about how you come across and present yourself. This forum is an extremely open minded place (doesn't apply to everyone, that's for sure, but to most people), and I have even posted on here about raising alligators to eventually butcher and eat, and I received nothing but positive feedback! Everything else aside, I strongly encourage you to strive keep HOTs if it is what you truly want and if it is for the reason that I quoted wolfy-hound saying. GO FOR IT!! More importantly, do it properly.

As to your aspirations in college - When I was in college I worked with some Crotalus horridus but they were wild animals that were radio-tagged and what we did was take GPS data of their location to track their movements from their den in the summer and establish home ranges for the species. The reason that I now want one to call my own is because never before had I been so close to an animal that was that deadly, that beautiful and that commanded that much respect from me; they did all three at the same time. You seem a lot like me in your enthusiasm for these animals. I would have loved to have gotten a degree in herpetology and thought about it many times, but if you can even find an undergrad program for herpetology I would avoid it - you will be making your skill set too narrow too soon in your career. I majored in ecology but volunteered in the herp lab, tagged along on the TR study that I mentioned above, and comptely took over a snake population survey on Fort Leavenworth my senior year at KU. This helped me get to know researchers that focused on herp research and would have had me an "in" had I stayed at KU and started a masters in herpetology. One of the guys that I knew well, in fact, ended up identifying a new species of arboreal, fruit eating monitor lizard in the Phillipines while he was working on his doctoral research. The field can be very rewarding and I encourage you to pursue it, but I will warn you that harldy anyone in the scientific community keeps herps as pets, they simply study them.

Best of luck and I hope the advice here has put you on the right road to keeping HOTs someday.