New snakes (first hots )

[skin78]

Finally I got my fisrt hots today.. It is a couple Trimeresurus albolabris. Young animals and the female is not shed right. But she will lose the old skin next time. Both animals are a bit stressed now so pics will come later.

Cheers Niek

[TheRedDragon]

Congratulations on your new additions and good luck with them and your first time as a hot keeper. :) I can't wait to see those pics, they're truely beautiful animals. :) Are yours quite a stunning green?

[skin78]

well the male is nice green the female must shed first to let her true collour out :) But I will take pics in a few days so please be patient :D

[Gregg M]

Not to sound like an a$$ or anything, but...... I guess you did not take retained sheds and how to deal with them, into consideration when you desided to get your first hot...... It just makes me wonder what else you did not think about before getting a hot......... It isnt like a non ven where you can just pick it up and remove the unshed skin......... You should never leave retained sheds on a snake especialy when it is an animal that needs high humidity........ There is a pretty good chance of it getting fungus and nasty bacteria under unshed skin........ There are a couple of tricks to get retained sheds off of a snake........ The first one is to role up a bunch of damp paper towels and put them in a pillow case....... Put the snake in the pillow case with the damp paper towels for an hour or two....... You can also put some tape on the end of a snake hook or foresepts whith it rolled up so the sticky side is facing out to remove unshed patches...... This works well for removing retained eye caps as well....... You must be careful not to use industial strength tape espescialy around the eye........ A good quality scotch tape works well......... Good luck.......

[skin78]

Hi greg,

thanx for the info . When I got home with them I gave them both a bath. At the moment I am staying at a friends house who has also venomous snakes and he is helping me with everything. He lets me do my own animals myself but stays in the room and gives me advice and stuff like that. When the snake was in the water the old skin was comming lose . I didn't want to take it of last night because they already were a bit stressed so I will take it of in a day or 2. I think I will give her a bath again and after that will try to take it of with forceps with tape . I will keep you posted :)

[snakeskin]

Hi Greg :)

Not to worry, Skin78 is staying at my place for a few months and the snakes are in good hands with him.

We have talked about getting hots for over a few years now and yesterday he finally got them. :)

The deal was that is we didn't trust the health of the animals there would be no deal at all.

But then we arrived at the sellers'house... :( This guy tried to feed fish and large mealworms to these animals because they were not eating pinkies that good.

He also had Echis carinatus (5 of them) but din't know the exact species name..:confused:

I've looked the snakes over and we decieded to give it a go (paid the guy and got the h*ll out of there)


Cheers,

Peter

[Gregg M]

Cool..... I didnt want to come off like a jerk or anything...... Those are good starter hots I guess....... Bites are not particularly dangerous but just dont get bitten....... Personally I would have gone with a ground dwelling viper of some sort....... Something alittle easier to care for and that does not have spacific needs like the ones you picked out....... A copperhead comes to mind........ I am sure it cant be herd to get your hands on some European adders, right????? But hey, good luck with them..... Hope they turn into little eatin machines for you........ I am sure you can understand why I said what I said in my first post....... If you have any questions at all just PM me and I should have an answer for you...... If I dont have one I will find one......LOL

[skin78]

Hi Greg,

I didn't mind your post..Personally I think it is a good thing that you did post that reply because you never know who you are deling with :) Personally I don't think a copperhead is a good beginners snake cause they are a bit "agressive" in my opinion. The reason that most of the people here reconmend them is that there is enough antivenom over there for this species.. Here in Holland there is not that much antivenom... It is a forbidden medication over here :S.. There is some antivenom here in Holland at the harbor hospital and some keepers have some antivenom of different species but it is a bit hard to get it here...

You can get some european vipers over here.. unfortunatly no Vipera berus cause it is a endangered species here in Holland while in Germany it is very common and breeder sell enough juveniles ... But Vipera aspis for instens is "easy " to get ..


I hope they will eat indeed,. just tried to give them dead prey items.. They both bit and I left the pinky in the cage and left the room so I hope they will eat but otherwise I will try with life prey Sunday.

Cheers Niek

[snakeskin]

The female just ate a dead pinky :) Skin78 just returned from the quarantaine room :)

[Bartman]

congrats...and its good you didnt buy these before you did some good research or had a friend with some good advice to give you

[skin78]

yeah as Peter already said she just ate for me.. now the male was biting the pinky alot of times so maybe he will eat later this evening.. :)

Keeping my fingers crossed :)