Brown Tree Snake

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ether

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As you know ime fairly new to reptile keeping, but i was wondering thinking about getting a Brown Tree Snake. I realise that they are venamous but nor considered dangerous. If they do bite you will you fall ill?
Couldnt anyone who has them or has had them answer a few questions-
1) Are they bad feeders?
2) What are there cage requirements?
3) Would you reccomend them for relativly inexperienced keepers?

You can answer just one question if you like..

Regards Alex
 
Ether. Boiga iregularis (brown tree snake) is colubrid. That means that snake have rear fangs. If you are biten by this snake, you do not get injected venom. To be intoxicated, snake would have to chew on you pashionately for certain leng of time, and that is ulikely to happen. They are concidered not dengerous to humen.

They are good feeders as far as I know. I had one for some time and he eat with not problem.

They are not best handlers. They are quick and usually bad temperament snakes.

If I am wrong in some of my ansfers, please feel free to correct me here. Many members on this site have much more experience then me.
 
Alex, Brown Trees are easy to keep and easy to feed. They normally eat mice with no hesitation. However they are known for
their bad tempers. Most bite at a drop of the hat. As Slatey said, they are rear fanged and venomous. Envenomations are not common, but do occur if they get a a good hold. Symptons can be localised swelling, intense pain and nausea. Many years ago a large BTS bite a roo at the old ARP. Within an hour the roo was dead. :shock: Makes you wonder just how toxic they can be, doesn't it. :(
 
I think Bigguy that they are great as first venomous snake but I would not chose them as first snake pet.
 
Thanx for the info guys! Would i be stupid to get one as my 4th snake?
 
Alex, its totally up to you. You now know a little more about them and its your own decission to make.
 
Cool, do you breed them at all bigguy?
 
intresting stuff they do sound like a good first venomous snake im not looking at the moment but ill keep it in mind does anybody know of any human deaths caused by a bite off one of these snakes
 
This is one of those cases where Bigguy says something and someone promptly documents an exception. :oops: The ONE BTS I have had experence with, at last years pet expo, was very calm and I handled it for over an hour. But while I was willing to cope an unlikely bite I didn't let children near it.
 
1) Are they bad feeders?
2) What are there cage requirements?
3) Would you reccomend them for relativly inexperienced keepers?

1) They vary, I've seen shockers and also really good ones. It's not uncommon for them to be really difficult to get onto mice, but the usually assist feed relatively well.

2) Pretty standard for a medium sized arboreal snake. They like to climb but some people keep them without any climbing branches and they are still happy, healthy and breed. In my experience they have seemed to need high humidity for sloughing.

3) Not really, but it's up to you.

They usually don't manage to envenomate you, but it can happen. I've been envenomated by a newly hatched one, before its first feed (which I found quite suprising), syptoms were mild local itching and burning. I assume larger individuals could give you a slightly nastier reaction, but I don't really know much about it. I vaguely remember reading about their venom properties giving them very different effects to different animals, I believe they are not very nasty at all to placental mammals (which humans are part of) but much more deadly to marsupials (I'm not 100% sure on this, don't quote me on it). This may explain the kangaroo death bigguy mentioned. I've never heard of a human being significantly affected, but this certainly doesn't mean it hasn't happened.

Their temperaments vary hugely. I've seen many wild animals which have been completely tame and also some captive bred animals which have been quite nasty. It's not at all uncommon for them to be very good handlers, but it's also not uncommon for them to be unhandlable.
 
I was at a herp show at one of the animal parks north of Cairns a few years ago, and the handler brought out a BTS that had been caught in somebody's kitchen the day before. The snake bit him during the show, he cursed but it didn't seem to worry him, but some of the spectators screamed ran away, as if it was 9/11 all over again! I've caught a few at night in central Queensland. Beautiful snakes, and I'm looking at getting one when I return to Australia - a great animal when you want to practice not getting bitten, as a build-up to elapids. That's my plan anyway. I've caught elapids too, but that's different from keeping them.
 
In my opinion, a really nasty carpet, water python etc is as good a snake to practise not getting bitten with as something mildly venomous. Perhaps even a very tame python is better as it trains you to stay careful even though there is no consequence from a bite or chance of it. Many brown tree snakes are really tame, I've found that I'll take risks with them that I would not take with an elapid. I'll happily freehandle many brown trees and I can do it without getting bitten as long as I'm careful, so I don't see how they are good training for highly venomous snakes - they'd train you to take some risks. Perhaps it works for some people and I'm just weird.
 
True enough, Sdaji. The key is the practice, what species you practice with isn't the real issue, so long as it can't kill you. There's learning practice as you learn the skills (which is where I think a brown tree could be good, and as I said they are beautiful snakes, esp. the banded ones) and then when you've got the skills there's safe practices, which is what you do every time you handle seriously venomous snakes.
 
How much would one set u back? i need to practice my handling skills and if i was to buy one...
 
ok, my bts used to be very calm and a relaxed snake until oneday while sitting at the computer with the bts curled around my neck he decided he would like to chew on my hand. Seeing as i had the music up pretty high i wasnt taking any notice and didnt really bother looking straight away. So he pretty much gave me a full hand of venom after about 10 seconds of chewing. not much really happened. It hurt a fair bit, local itchiness, small bit of swelling, redness and irritation of the bite over the next week or so. Since then he doesnt really like me anymore (or anyone for that matter). I dont know wat triggered it but watever it was has stayed. He is a really good feeder on mice but gets easily distracted. Some people would think different but i dont think they r a good first snake, especially if u have to try and convince ur parents that snakes arent bad.
 
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