Psycho Aspidelaps, LOL

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Venomous Snake Forum ]

Posted by MsTT on November 26, 2002 at 18:52:16:

In Reply to: Re: False information, or opinions? posted by Jeremy G on November 26, 2002 at 08:02:48:

: For me, hooking and tailing is the absolute only way to handle them(besides useing a trap box of cource)because of their spazy antics but time and time again when I go into to hook them, they wiill be sitting in slug style, acting completly placid and then outa nowhere a black or coon looking head comes flying in your general direction, mouth open!.

LOL, you described the spazzy little buggers to a T. Beautiful snake you have there by the way! I don't care to tail Aspidelaps because they are too small, too strong and too snappy. I prefer to conveniently dump them directly from their cage (after removing waterbowl and hide box with tongs) into a deep bucket that they can't spaz out of. Very convenient and quite safe.

:Also, a newbi keeper, who dosent have a trapbox, is not going to have the experince to properly judge were the snake is on the hook and weather it has the leverage to come back up at your hand or not. When I hook and tail em, it is definately risky buisness and I find myself trying my hardest to keep them off balance to avoide them comeing back up (more so with the lubricus ssp but the scutatus do it too). I have perfected my technique over the past few yrs and find myself very comfortable with it but it isnt something a newbi will know. BTW, I know the ideal way to handle them without a trapbox is the 2 hook method but I have found it to be useless on them. They are way to squirmy and fall off almost instantly!.

Sorry, a newbie keeper without a trapbox is an idiot. For that matter a non newbie keeper without a trapbox is missing a potentially useful and convenient tool that can reduce your risks and also your annoyance level when dealing with psycho-yappy little snakes. I agree that tailing an Aspidelaps is quite a risky business and I wouldn't care to do it. I manage them very very well by simply pouring the wee buggers from container to container. This is a quick, easy, convenient and safe protocol.

:Basicly, i still think Aspidelaps may be too advanced for the newbi keeper. They are horrible on a hook and unless said person has a trap box made, they will definately experince problems handleing the little buggers.

I agree that newbie keepers should not be hooking OR tailing Aspidelaps, but there's no reason anybody really needs to be doing that to Aspidelaps since their small size makes them easy to manage with scoops, boxes and buckets. I certainly don't bother to hook mine; it's about as frustrating as trying to eat greased spaghetti with a spoon. LOL

: A.c.mokasen on the other hand seems to be a much better choice, IMHO. Though i do admit, contortrix ssp can be very nasty at times, mokasen seems the least likely to do so. I have kept and caught many pure mokasen and all were rather placid and laid back, allowing themselfs to be hooked with the slightest of ease. Its seem you have to go into intergrade range, were the crazy contortrix contortrix genes are present to experince the fabled "crackhead copperheads":-) Atleast in my experince.

I dunno, I have a huge and placid Southern and have met some pure Northerns that I would describe as being almost as difficult as an Aspidelaps to hook and twice as bad tempered. I think it has a lot to do with individual disposition. I know that cottonmouths seem to have some ability to learn; a cotton caught gently generally makes a good captive, but a cotton caught roughly by an inexperienced person using Pilstrom style tongs (ow ow ow) may remain permanently defensive and violent. I don't know if this really represents a learned behavior and I don't know if it could be extrapolated to copperheads, but it's something to think about.

Regards,

Follow Ups: