True or False?

[MontyPython]

I was watching Animal Planet the other day and there was some kid show at a zoo, the host was asking questions about animals to the people in the audience, one of the questions he asked was, "True or false, Poisonous snakes lose their venom" I said it was false, however, the host said it was true. Is he right? If so, maybe people could get one of those instead of a 'moid??

Brian

[BWSmith]

100% false. First of all Snakes are venomous, plants and frogs are poisonous ;) I suppose you could say that they lose some venom after each envenomation. But a hot snake will always be hot.

[MontyPython]

That is what i thought... I am so smart I am so smart S-M-R-T, I mean S-M-A-R-T

=)

[fatboy]

I am gonna have to agree with BW on this one.

[sparkon16]

The question is so vague that it is even hard to understand what the person means by this!

shaggy

[reptiledude21]

are you sure you heard the show right?

[MontyPython]

Yes, i am sure i heard the show right!

[cobraman]

I know that after many many (years of) extractions, some of the cobras I milk tend to put out a smaller yield, but they are always venomous.

[SCReptiles]

I don’t know of a circumstance where a snake lost its venomous properties thru normal means. But, I recall an Egyptian Cobra back in the 1980’s that was infected by a terrible case of mouth rot. The venom glades were affected and to the best of my knowledge did not regenerate. I lost track of the lady who had the snake, but the last time I spoke with her, the snake had recovered but was unable to produce venom.

[fatboy]

That's a rare case though.

[reticguy]

To approach this question from a nature standpoint (survival of the fittest)... for a venomous snake to lose its venom over time doesn't make sense at all. If this were the case, venomous snakes would need to develop the urge/ability to constrict prey as they age. I can see a reduction in volume of venom production, but not an outright loss of production.

Nathan