"Teen steps into snake nest; bitten 6 times"

[Crotalids]

Slight misunderstanding.

It's not because they're learning how to envenomate their prey, they are fully capable of doing that from day one. It's the fact they're so small..They are food to birds etc when they're little, so a young venomous snake is going to inject as much venom as it possibly can into someone/something that it thinks is trying to eat/harm it.

This is a defensive bite, an adult rattler has more control over the amount of venom it injects than a baby that's a couple of days old. But an adult is less likely to use it's full yield against someone pissing it off, as venom is expensive for them to make - they need it to incapacitate prey. For a baby, it's a matter of saving itself, and they will nail you with everything they've got.

But the notion that a baby rattler is more dangerous is not really correct. I would rather get bitten by a one day old baby atrox, than getting bitten by a big 5ft adult. The latter has a far greater chance of killing me.