• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Davids Video Thread

"I believe the children are the future... teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty the possess inside.... give them a sense of pride, to make it easier... let the children's laughter... remind us how we used to be.... I remember long ago! not to stand in anyone's shadow! If I fail... if I succeed... they can't take away my dig-mo-teeeeeee."
 
I've watched David's vids before and i'm not entirely impressed. But still, he's trying and he wants to get attention and be praised of how wonderful of a snake keeper he is. I've been silent and have been watching how people have been trying to tell David the proper way and giving him advice, but you, David, have been shooting down these ideas like you were right all along.

I'm not trying to start a fight, mainly because I don't like to argue. I just want to say, as a teen to a another teen, please review your videos and make sure you're facts are 100% right on. People ask me information about my snake, and if I dont know the answer I would direct them to a site like this, because people have owned snakes and the likes way longer than I have. They probably even have owned a snake longer than I have even lived. I'm not trying to be negative or anything, but you're handling of the snakes are rough, and if you're not careful you could injure them.

If it were me, I would stop making the videos period, take them all down and log out of your youtube account and just read and learn. Then when you're 100% sure of the facts that you are giving, then I would make a video. Start studying of what you love to do, but dont forget your life while you're at it. You could be a genius, but you'd be so anti-social you couldn't even be able to give information correctly because you'd be so jumbled up. Enjoy life and go to parties and random things. Last night I invited four or five friends over to my house and they argued of who is right about a question about snake-keeping. I jumped in and told them the proper answer, (it was some question about how big the cage should be) It was fun, and we stayed up late, we enjoyed ourselves and learned some more of eachother.

Just be who you are and stop trying to impress everyone in the world, be laid back and relax, (but don't fall behind!)

Good Luck, i'm going to sleep in til' 11:00! (yay Presidents Day)
 
Please keep in mind that anyone can display adverse reactions to a bite of any magnitude, be it Cornsnake, Herald's Snake, Hognose, Monitor, etc. All one needs to display is a hypersensitivity to the animals saliva or seemingly "harmless" venom, and the bite becomes catastrophic.

And do not ever speak lightly about a deadly bite. I was bitten on the ankle by a Sidewinder when I was 11, and I nearly lost my leg. Thanks to quick reactions, extremely knowledgeable physicians, surgery after surgery and multiple skin grafts (even lab-grown live tissue grafts) you can barely see the scars. However, that is an event that humbled me for a lifetime, as I could've easily lost my life.

Don't assume that just because the venom is mild that you won't experience a bad reaction. Mildly toxic or not, all venomous creatures have to potential to kill and should be treated respectively as such.
 
Last edited:
And EVERYONE has bad reactions to copperhead bites! Unless you get a lucky dry one (and they aren't known for dry bites) you are in a serious medical situation. Granted, the fasciotomy is (yeah, I'm goin' there) NEVER warranted, but the amazing photos of the guy's arm Tyflier posted is closer to the norm than a corn's bite. Please, please, never refer to a copperhead bite as trivial again. Ever.
 
elrojo said:
And EVERYONE has bad reactions to copperhead bites! Unless you get a lucky dry one (and they aren't known for dry bites) you are in a serious medical situation. Granted, the fasciotomy is (yeah, I'm goin' there) NEVER warranted, but the amazing photos of the guy's arm Tyflier posted is closer to the norm than a corn's bite. Please, please, never refer to a copperhead bite as trivial again. Ever.
Click to expand...

I didn't post those pictures, Tricksterpup did.

But I agree...fasciotomies tend to cause more damage than they prevent. More people lose movement and develope massive amounts of scarring due to the fasciotomy than the bite itself. In most cases, a bite from a North American Pit Viper doesn't require one, though...I imagine there are times when it could be more warranted...

BTW...if I remember correctly, those pictures were of a Northern Pacific bite. Recently, I have heard rumours to the effect that the toxin in the species C.oreganus, of which the Northern Pacific is one subspecies, is MUCH more toxic and severe than originally believed. The bite of the Northern and Southern Pacifics is ranked right up there with the Mojave, based on more recent research. I imagine that would include the Great Basin rattler, too, since it is an oreganus subspecies...

Just a little FYI on those photos...
 
snakemaster24 said:
DYK I quit the vids for a while most likely for ever
Click to expand...

Given the average "forever" timespan for a 15 year old, all I have to say is, GOOD. "Quick to listen, slow to speak" for sure. Enjoy learning and being part of this community. I've made 'internet friends' here, it isn't hard as long as you act...normal.

Elusive, I'm glad you're on this site. It's so good to see a teen with a good head on their shoulders (it seems to be a rare thing around here), I clicked your dragons for you.
:eatpointe
 
I didn't click on any of the videos, because I don't care. What's "funny" (funny ha-ha, not funny strange) is that the kid was asked to start his own thread with his horrible videos in order to not "pollute" the Did You Know thread . . . He did, and now 4 pages later. :)

I defended the kid once, I'm not doing it here to say the least, but peeps . . . it's like anything else. YOU chose to come into this thread, and then click on his videos, and then respond to his videos and his immaturity. :shrugs: He did follow his first direction from the DYK thread. He's glorifying in the attention, negative it may be. It's like a dog that keeps pissing on the carpet. Negative attention is better than no attention. He's "that" dog. ;)

D80
 
tyflier;793177 said:
Oh, and since you didn't respond via YouTube...black ratsnakes are NOT arboreal...
Click to expand...

elrojo said:
I have seen them at least 20 feet high in trees presumably trying to rob bird's nests, perhaps that is where this comes from. But nothing about their body structure is especially adapted for climbing, and it's rare to spot them in trees or shrubbery. Granted, I am looking under overturned logs, plywood and tin more than in the sky for them, but having kept them captive for many years, the behavior just isn't arboreal.
Click to expand...

snakemaster24 said:
I ment semi aboreal....
Click to expand...

tyflier said:
They aren't semi-arboreal, either.
Click to expand...

Not to stir up an arguement....but.....semi-arboreal may be an apt term for ADULT black rat snakes. There are several instances of arboreal tendencies in this species for feeding and basking. My own limited telemetry research (n=2) also indicated a preference of adult black rat snakes staying in trees for extended periods of time. Granted, semi-arboreal would be a loosely used term for certain behaviors of the black rat snake but nevertheless, the adults do venture into tress for feeding, basking and retreats. I do believe, however, juveniles are mostly terrestrial as are gravid females. Here are some other articles discussing the potential for adults to be semi-arboreal.


Habitat Features of Black Rat Snake Hibernacula in Ontario
Kent A. Prior, Patrick J. Weatherhead
Journal of Herpetology, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Jun., 1996), pp. 211-218
(although the above article discusses winter hibernacula, it also mentions the tendancy for the black rats to climb in trees post spring emergence)

Natural History of the Black Rat Snake (Elaphe o. obsoleta) in Kansas Henry S. Fitch Copeia, Vol. 1963, No. 4 (Dec. 31, 1963), pp. 649-658

Predation of a Black Rat Snake on Yellow-Shafted Flicker Nestlings
Jerome A. Jackson The Wilson Bulletin, Vol. 82, No. 3 (Sep., 1970), pp. 329-330

Predation on Red-Bellied Woodpecker Nestlings by a Black Rat Snake
David W. Stickel The Auk, Vol. 79, No. 1 (Jan., 1962), pp. 118-119




Now...all this being said, whether the snakemaster gained his knowledge of black ratsnake behavior from such articles, that is still to be ascertained.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top