The animals have been waiting.

Now that I have finally sorted out a problem with my blogs I can post again.

This blog is in dire need of a few new posts to liven things up so I shall begin that soon.

I hope you all have a very wonderful holiday and please remember to treat our furry and scaly friends too. I give my mice and gerbils extra special nuts and they seem to love the extra bit of attention. Ginger the cat gets his can of tuna which he loves. Sierra my ball python doesn't get an extra mouse but if she is close to dinner day, I do feed her.

Whatever pets you have, give them a treat or an extra cuddle since it's Christmas for them too.

I shall return with a post soon.

Global antidote for snakebite

Scientists in Melbourne Australia gathered to discuss Global Snake Bite Initiative which will help prevent and treat snake bite. Read the story on Science Daily.

According to the article the number of snake bite victims is staggering and most occur in the poorest countries, many of the victims being children and young adults.

I have long known that the number of bite victims of the Russel's Viper is quite high.

I suspect it is possible that the bite numbers would be higher for that species if more data could be obtained from the outer villages and farms, areas sometimes not included on city reports.

The Russel's viper is only one of the snakes that causes serious injury and death. Check out the important information in the link above on Science Daily site.

Being a responsible snake owner

Something I want to talk about came up for me yesterday morning when Pete and I took Sierra to Colorado State University Veterinarian Hospital to check about a slight lump we saw on her two days ago. The Vet checked her but found nothing.

I don't know whether to be happy or nervous wondering what it may have been. Regardless, I will be watching her to see if it happens again. Of course IBD is an ever present worry...

Anyway, one of the assistants actually had a great idea – she suggested taking a picture of the area if the lump comes up again. That I can certainly do. Anything to help my little buddy.

While we were talking with the Vet Pete mentioned something I hadn't thought about in a couple of years.

We had taken Sierra in to see the Vet in Dallas for her checkup and someone had brought another snake in that had been left alone in a box with a rat that was a potential meal.

What ended up happening was the poor snake was just torn to bits. It was so sad to see such a beautiful snake torn up so badly. I knew it had to be in great pain with all the serious wounds.

I cried – and even my husband talking about it today reminded me of how badly the poor snake was torn up and I cried today too. I tired to shush him but he didn't realize I would remember how badly the snake was injured so he kept telling them about it. I tried not to cry, to think of something else but it just didn't work.

People... it really does not take that much time for a hungry snake to eat a meal. Always stay with your snake until after it begins eating its meal. If you have to go to work, then wait until you get home and then feed it. Put your pet first. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR SNAKE ALONE WITH A POTENTIAL MEAL. Doing so can and has cost many a beautiful snake it's life.

I simply cannot say that often enough. If you truly love your snake and value them as the gorgeous, necessary animals they are, NEVER NEVER LEAVE THEM ALONE WITH A POTENTIAL MEAL. A rat or other prey animal will fight for their life just like anything else will and as is most often the case the snake has no where to retreat for safety.

That very sad incident ended with the snake being put to sleep by two extremely upset professional Veterinarians that both cried when they saw the state of the poor thing. Needless to say they were both very angry as well. Everyone that saw it was upset. However, I did manage to keep my mouth closed until Pete and I left.

It is a very irresponsible person that would let something like that happen to their snake simply because they did not take the time to stay with their pet while it eats.

Take care of your snake. Treat them with the love and respect they deserve. And please remember what I say in regard to venomous snakes – don't keep them and don't handle them.

Love them, protect them, read, study and learn about them then pass that knowledge on to others so we can conserve them.

Catching Up

It is catch up time for me with this blog. I haven't posted anything for sometime now so I figure it's time to get back on track. I think a lot of bloggers go through periods much the same in that you either can't think of a specific subject you want to write about or you feel that what you've been writing about is actually in some strange rut of sorts and seems quite boring.

Still I know there are people that know me that may be reading this thinking...”Kate? Bored with animal and reptile subjects? What's up with that?...” It's not actually the reptiles that I get bored of. It's other bits of life that get in the way of my association with animals and reptiles.

Most of the time when I see a snake I feel that same breathless excitement that hit me the first time I really saw how amazing they were. That feeling has stayed with me since. I don't know if all snake lovers feel that way but I certainly do.

If you read the following post and have anything relevant to add, tell me or show me, please feel free to email me at the address below and let me know. If you have something on another page or site that you would like me to add I can either copy it (with appropriate credits given of course) or simply put a guiding post up for others to follow.

In any case I would love to hear from you all.

Email me: k.ford@mindspring.com

Larimer County Search and Rescue

I will have some photos up here soon of some of the dogs owned by Larimer County Search and Rescue here in Colorado.

I hope to gather enough information about them to let people know how very important these dogs are in saving lives here in Colorado.

I'll keep you all posted.

Russell's Viper

This post is being written after I read an article about a 21 year old man named Cody Bartolini, young owner of mojavereptiles was caught attempting to sell venomous reptiles over state lines.

Time and time again I have written posts telling and in fact warning buyers/sellers to check local and state laws beforehand

While I myself love and adore the beautiful, fascinating and very necessary animals that snakes are, I am not a professional nor have I been properly trained by a professional herpetologist in the handling of venomous snakes to feel sufficiently confident to do so.

I do love all snakes but I'm not stupid. I do not have a death wish.

All that being said, I would like to begin my post about the Russell's Viper.

According to herpetologist Mark O'Shea there are two types of Russell's Vipers, the Indian Russell's and the Sri Lankan Russell's Viper.

Read Mark O'Shea's article "Blood Sweat & Snakebites" here.

Russell's Viper (Daboia or Vipera Russelli) regarded as comprising five subspecies, russelli, pulchella, siamensis, formensis & limitis,distributed discontinuously throughout 10 south Asian countries. (Warrell 1989)

Studies of Wüster et al. (1992) have rejected the validity of several of the subspecies and supported the concept of western (russelli) and eastern (siamensis) forms.

Previous quoted data from Venomous Snakes: Ecology, Evolution and snakebite by Roger S. Thorpe, Wolfgang Wüster and Anita Malhotra.

The data I quoted seems to support what O'Shea said on there being two major species of Indian and Sri Lankan Russell's Vipers.

The following material cited from:
Population systematics of Russell's viper: a multivariate study
WOLFGANG WÜSTER, SATOKO OTSUKA, ANITA MALHOTRA, ROGER S. THORPE Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 1992 47:1 97

A multivariate analysis of the population systematics of Russell's viper, based on scalation and colour pattern characters, reveals that the populations of this viper constitute two well-defined taxa: a western form, comprising all populations from the Indian subcontinent, and an eastern form, comprising all populations from east of the Bay of Bengal.

The two forms could be considered either as subspecies of one species, or as two separate species, depending on the species concept used. Within the western form, there is no clear pattern of geographic variation. Within the eastern form, the populations from the Lesser Sunda Islands are clearly divergent from the populations of mainland Asia and Java.

The conventionally recognized subspecies of Vipera russelli fail to portray this pattern of geographic variation. There is no clear relationship between the pattern of geographic variation in morphology and the pattern of geographic variation in the clinical effects of the venom in human bite victims: some populations with considerable differences in venom effects are equally distinct morphologically, whereas other populations with equally strong venom differences are morphologically very similar.

The distribution of Russell's viper can be attributed to Pleistocene changes in climate and sea level, coupled with the viper's ecological requirements, which appear to include a seasonally dry climate.

The next post will carry on with the differences in the two species.

Keeping Venomous Reptiles.

Due to the serious possible consequences of handling such venomous snakes I thought I would do a post on each snake listed from Cody Bartolini of MojaveReptiles impressive list of snakes.

My first post will be information about the Russell's Viper.

I will use information from a few books I have as well as information posted from Universities and notable reptile sites.

In the event that I post some bit of data that is either incorrect or that has been since updated please write and let me know so that I can correct it.

By no means do I totally discourage people from learning about snakes. I think everyone should learn enough to understand that snakes are not the horror show villains they have been made out to be. They are beautiful and necessary to the environment.

Without them we would soon be overrun with disease-ridden, destructive rodents.

Snakes are more afraid of us than we are of them. Usually if given the opportunity a snake will retreat to safety rather than attack.

If you see or encounter any snake, please think before you simply destroy an animal that is only trying to live.

Give it the chance to escape and it likely will.

Be careful where you get snakes!

According to an article posted on Venomous Reptiles.org, MojaveReptiles owner has gotten himself into some serious trouble trying to sell illegal snakes across state lines.

In most of my posts I tell my readers to check their local and state laws before buying/selling any venomous reptile. In most cases it is illegal to own venomous reptiles unless in a zoo or qualified center.

Personally, I wonder if Mr. Bartolini really understands what happens to the human body with the venom of many of the snakes listed in the article.

The African Boomslang is one of the deadliest snakes on earth and if I am not mistaken it has the most toxic venom in all of the African snakes.

I shivered thinking about some of the effects from bites of the snakes that a 21 year old owns and obviously has to handle or at the least, come in close contact with on a weekly basis.

Cody if you happen to come across this post take it from me, if you love snakes, learn about them first and do all you can to educate others about them and above all else, love, respect and protect them. I do. That being said if you continue to handle deadly snakes it isn't a question of 'if' you will be bitten but 'when' you will be bitten. It is highly likely that you could easily die from many of the snakes you owned.

People please think twice before handling venomous snakes of any kind. Let's leave that to the herpetologists and other properly trained professionals.

Read the story from VenomousReptiles.org below.

Las Vegas resident Cody Bartolini, 21, who went by the name “mojavereptiles” when advertising his snakes for sale on Internet Web sites, recently pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of attempted unlawful sale of wildlife.

Bartolini made the mistake of attempting to sell illegally possessed snakes across state lines.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s plea memorandum, Bartolini was living with 48 snakes of various species, including Tanzanian black mambas, green mambas, king cobras, forest cobras, tiapans, banded Egyptian cobras, Gaboon vipers, West African bush vipers, puff adders, boomslangs, as well as a caiman, Gila monster, and an alligator snapping turtle. The collection was worth almost $11,000.

"I should be dead" By Peter Jenkins

From Venomous Reptiles.org
read this incredible story of a snake bite survivor.

This graphic photo is the result of a bite from Crotalus Horridus, A Timber Rattlesnake.


Study, admire, love and protect these very necessary, beautiful and fascinating animals but please, give them a wide berth and don't ever handle any snake especially venomous ones! Let's leave that to professionals.