Episode #1089: Feeding the Cape Coral Cobra

Keeping venomous reptiles is a relentless hobby that requires proper training and a lot of experience. A simple mistake can be the difference between life and death. Remember that the most poisonous snake in the world is the one that just bit you. There are no venomous snakes with training wheels just for the sake of it. If you see that Viper Keeper handles snakes a certain way, it doesn't mean you should try it too. Hey, buddy, you just got out. I have a gift for you, don't make me touch your tail. Hello, come out, I'm Mr. Coral Cobra, buddy, come on.

I have some food for you come on he has to size it up to make sure you grab it correctly because these chicks have penises which is not uncommon in today's world and you need to get the penis position right for it to go down. Hatch mhm he's gotten quite thin because he hasn't been eating well regularly and he's also quite old yeah he's very old uh I think he's been with me and he came as an adult in 2008 or n so he's very quiet even. although he can be temperamental like any snake and as Lori mentioned and she is absolutely right, the snakes this weekend are in a strange mood, probably due to the weather, you know, there was a winter storm last night, luckily we only had a little .

Some rain, it didn't really happen the way the meteorologist predicted because meteorologists and politicians are pretty much the same, you just can't believe what they tell you, so according to our rain gauge we only got a half inch, they predicted a inch and a half Lori yes it was in a severe storm and it was in the 50's overnight which is really good because now we are going to pay for it it's supposed to be really cold here this week well if you let me help . I can change it to the center line where you can actually do some feed, there you have it, you have it set correctly.

I really wanted to fuel him with energy this week. I fed him, uh, on Monday night, but uh, I. I've been so busy at work, uh, um, you know, I just didn't remember to thaw a couple of quail chicks, uh, uh, to give them to you at night. He used to eat rat roses, but he hasn't eaten rat roses in quite a while. in quail chicks now that's what we give them that way he'll eat so what I'll do is I'll start with the second one and I'll leave a third just to give him a little something extra. his throat if you want uh just to make sure I think I've mentioned

coral

cobra

venom quite a bit, from cytotoxic to really neurotoxic uh um, I once got caught by a woman doing something dumb. um, both fangs, uh, on my index finger, um, no neurotoxic symptoms, but my fingers were swollen and very painful for about a week.

Looks like you know ET with the big big finger of hers uh, uh, while someone else here in Pennsylvania had uh. same genus and species of

coral

CRA lubricus lubricus uh spaps is the genus um had full-blown neurotoxic symptoms snakes Venoms vary widely in their distributional distribution even between uh species and the venom can be different even as little as a snake of the same species found 30 miles away from the other snake, speaking of snakes, come on, are you going to figure it out or are you just going to slither to the side? Oh, okay, here we go, he decided that he was properly aligned to deal with that penis and us.

I'll let him have that for lunch and what I'll do is leave a third one on top of his lid there, if he wants it he can eat it, if not, um, he can leave it and I'll discard it. In the morning, there are other species of uh asaps cor Coral culas asaps infus scotus has actually been implicated in deaths in South Africa, so they have a potential for lethality, uh, there's no real effect of the antivenom, although there was a paper. I recently said that the South African all-rounder is the least effective partially, the idea is just not to get bitten, you know, these are not really a factor in the bite statistics in South Africa, most bites are by uh.

cape

cobas vipers uh probably a good number of snout

cobra

s uh spitting for sure um those are the ones that bite the most uh uh inhabitants of South Africa um so Coral Cobra is not so much, you have to go look for them oh also stiletto snakes uh atas aspis um those They're tough customers those that give you a very painful bite with some lasting results uh uh they'll rot your fingers or whatever they hit you with uh with their uh fangs that stick out from the back of their jaws um, I've saved them um, I decided I didn't want to keep them uh because they were very difficult to work with.

Are you looking for something else? Well, aren't they the ones who have no safe way to hold them? That's right. uh, good that you mentioned that, um, you can't hold them and hold them like you would, Mr. Coral, here, um, oh, well, there you go, because their fangs are permanently bent and protruding from the back of their jaw. , they are actually quite long for their head, they have a body type like the Angolan garter snakes, which are AIDS, so the fang sticks out of the back of the jaw, just go ahead and Google the snake Stiletto and you'll see some examples, so if you try to grab them by the back of the head even after immobilizing them, you'll get caught by their fang uh, most notably, uh, you know, I've seen people get bitten, uh, in Actually, they bit a good friend, um, they have. a snake called the purple glow snake which is a close relative but non-venomous that mimics the behavior of a stiletto snake so I got some purple glow snakes and they scared me because they act like stiletto snakes and I didn't know exactly what they were , but I held them with gloves to protect myself and, wait, man, and after a while I examined them closely, they had no fangs and once they realized that they were imitating the Leto snake it wasn't scaring me, uh, they stopped that behavior and they didn't do it again because, hey, this guy isn't afraid of me, what the hell is going on here?

So, yeah, it's a pretty interesting species, uh, uh. someone Dr. Sha Bush treated on the west coast Are you done yet? You're cleaning your face. Are you done or do you want one more? Uh-oh, you're going to get one more, good for you, boy. Sean Bush, actually. I treated this person who we both know was bagging a Stiletto snake to send to their mutual friend Brian Fry to get venom samples and in the process of bagging it it got tagged on his thumb, I think, or his index finger, no. I don't remember exactly, but since there was no effective antidote available, nothing was proven to do more than treat the pain and provide supportive therapy, and a few weeks later a surgeon had to amputate the tip of his thumb because it became necrotic and was basically dead and needed to be removed, so stiletto snakes won't kill you, they'll just make you wish you had, so let's let it eat.

I'm really glad he filled the Throat with it, maybe we can put some of us in it, so now we'll move on to

feeding

Smus.