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false water cobras
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by Disciple on May 18, 2004
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ive always thought false water cobras looked like an interesting captive. has anyone here had any expierience with them? also from what ive read the venom they pack is a mild one.
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RE: false water cobras
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by GREGLONGHURST on May 18, 2004
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I kept them for thirteen years, breeding them successfully. The venom injection capability is not that great, however, the venom is comparable to that of the western diamondback rattlesnake. I found that young snakes were more likely to bite than adults. They seem to mellow out as they get older, however, disposition can vary between individuals. They are not particularly difficult to maintain, are nice looking snakes, & get to very respectable size.
~~Greg~~
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RE: false water cobras
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by BGF on May 19, 2004
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> the venom is comparable to that of the western diamondback rattlesnake.
Which means that it needs to inject a large amount in order to be able to cause (typically) more than lots of pain and swelling at the bite site. In contrast, we have a paper that will be out soon showing that the toxicity of Colubrinae venoms (Boiga, Telescopus, Trimorphodon) are on par with that of extremely potent elapids. Cool ;-)
Cheers
Bryan
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RE: false water cobras
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by Disciple on May 19, 2004
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thats very interesting, this may be one of this old myths but ive heard black widows venom is comparable to that of diamondbacks. has anyone here read solid info about the venom of black widows?
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RE: false water cobras
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by BGF on May 19, 2004
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Latrodectus species (black widows, Australian redback spiders etc.) have much much more toxic venom than a rattlesnake and more toxic than just about any snake out there in fact. Most invertebrates have on a simple millligram for milligram basis, more potent venom. However, this is a bit of a case of comparing apples and oranges since the toxins are typically much smaller. Many more molecules of a 3 kDa toxin are needed to add up to a milligram than something like the masssive factor V - factor X complex found in taipan and brown snake venoms, which is a 200 kDa monster. So, 66 times more of the smaller toxins would be contained than the larger toxins, giving the appearance of the venom which contains the smaller toxins as being more toxic than the venom containing the larger toxins. This is somewhat a non-sequiter in the particular case of Latrodectus species since the primary toxin is a big bugger (around 150 kDA). This is contrast to the cone snail venoms, which are packed full of 2-3 kDa toxins.
Cheers
Bryan
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