Choosing the path to Elapids

[AdamR]

Im sure this has been bought up before but here goes. Eventually i would like to get into elapids, in particular red bellies, colletts and possible down the line some other species. I have never owned a snake yet and unfortunatley had little experience with them. Towards the end of this year i am lookin to purchase my first.

My question is where would you start? I have read some people recommend pythons, some recommend snappy columbrids, so recommend going all out. The first two options are to me the most suitable. I really like the tree snakes and whip snakes. I would love to get both at some stage. I am not too interested in pythons but would be looking towards the smaller ones like macs, childreni and so forth.

So in my position what would you do?

Adam

 

[TrueBlue]

whip snakes are not colubrids they are elapids.

 

[NinaPeas]

Can you buy a ven. snake if you haven't owned others before??

 

[Gilleni]

I would just keep trying to find others who have them and try getting to spend a bit of time around them..

Get a little hands on Exp..

 

[scotchbo]

i heard have you have minimum of 2 years handling experience before you can get the license for them

 

[AdamR]

You can get some venomous snakes with no experience. There are some in catagory 1 licence. Unless i am mistaken.
And thank you for the correction on whip snakes.

Adam

Ps. I would love some hands on experience, both with kept snakes and wild so if anyone is interested in a tag along for herp adventures (when tis warmer) or to help me gain some experience it would be greatly apprieciated.

 

[Greebo]

There are some 'mildly' venemous snakes on class 1 but not many. It will be 2 years before you can get a Red belly black snake.

 

[waruikazi]

IMO get something small (no bigger than 3ft) and something that is really snappy, doesn't really matter what it is, alhtough a colubrid would probably be best. Go two years without ever touching it with your barehands (so you can get used to using a hook) and without getting tagged and then re-assess wether you still should, not want, but should get an elapid.

ANyway just my opinion.

 

[aussiesnakelover]

i agree with you waruikazi

 

[MannyM]

Personally, I can't see why anyone would want a Venomous snake, but that's just me.

 

[NinaPeas]

Because they are just awesome! They are no different from a python if you know how to handle them.

 

[Kersten]

Personally, I can't see why anyone would want a Venomous snake, but that's just me.

It's all about your personal preference. There's people out there that feel the same way about snakes in general :lol:

 

[Kersten]

They are no different from a python if you know how to handle them.

That's a joke, right?

 

[NinaPeas]

If you don't know how to handle a python, you will get bitten. If you don't know how to handle a ven, you will get bitten.

(obviously with worse consequences!)

 

[Kris]

That's a gross oversimplification.

 

[NinaPeas]

I know it is, jsut dont try and read too much into it

 

[Kris]

Lol it's not about reading too much into it. I'ts the exact fact that people reading it would take it at face value and think "oh right, if I'm careful not to get bitten I can handle my elapids the same way I do my pythons" that is the problem. I handle my elapids in a completely different way to my pythons. It's a totally different mindset. If a person with a snappy stimsons thinks that they handle that pretty well and they should be able to manage an eastern brown as effectively they'll end up dead or close enough to it.

AdamR, if you're serious about wanting elapids (and I'm not saying you aren't), learn as much as you can from people who actually own/breed these animals. IMO it's not just reading books and off the net that you get the best knowledge about elapids. Always keep in your mind that these are animals which can kill you. Keepers usually get into trouble when they become complacent. Snappy pythons may be a good way to learn how to physically dodge a bite, but they're slow when compared to any elapid (eg eastern browns can strike 6 times in the space of 2 seconds). I'm not sure about the laws in NSW, here we need 2 elapid keepers to sign off before we can get the extension on our recreational permits to keep elapids. And any keeper worth a damn will want to be VERY sure you could handle it before signing off for you. So effectively, you can't get the license without the experience. There may also be a time constraint in your state too. As someone suggested before, you may actually need a full 2 years experience.

 

[AdamR]

Just to clarify. Rushing into elapids is not something I am looking at doing. It is a long term goal. Something im more than happy to take many years before it is realised. My question is only asking what you would do as your first step and later if anyone can help me gain experience.

Just thought id clarify. I am in no rush.

Adam

 

[Kris]

Then what I said before stands. My first step was to contact people who kept them and go about getting experience with them and their animals.

 

[Trademarknick]

AdamR
Read this http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/PDFs/reptile_licensing_outline.pdf
it will tell you exactly what is what.