My Rattlesnake Collection

This large male Canebrake Rattlesnake was the favorite of my collection; my pride and joy. He entertained many friends and visiting pastors and evangelists that came to my apartment to watch him strike, envenom, and eat rats.

As my fascination with native reptiles waxed, I knew I would one day be adding a rattlesnake to my collection. But trying to ease into the realm of venomous reptiles, also know by collectors at ‘hot herps’, I decided to begin with baby steps by obtaining some less deadly serpents.  
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On our drive back from Tucson in 1994, we stopped in Lubbock, Texas and I bought a trio of Trans-pecos Copperheads from a collector there. One guy in the car, our friend Kerry, wasn’t too thrilled with sharing the next 12 hours in the backseat with them! I don’t think he slept at all and kept his eyes fixed on their plastic shoeboxes. 

​My first rattlesnake was added to my collection by swapping one of the Trans-pecos Copperheads for a young Canebrake Rattlesnake with a friend that worked at the local nature center. This Canebrake became my favorite snake; my pride and joy. He would never refuse food and frequently got the mice the other snakes didn’t eat. He grew quickly and was four feet long and as big around as my arm when I finally gave him away to a friend. 

My smaller female Canebrake Rattlesnake. I wasn't successful in breeding the pair.

​Over the few years of keeping venomous reptiles, the rattlesnakes were my favorite. My goal was to have at least one of every North American species of rattlesnake. I came pretty close, but eventually sold off the collection around 1999 before reaching my goal. All in all, I had 18 venomous snakes in my apartment. 

I did make one sad mistake. In my desperation to have an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake, I bought three wild-caught adults from a "zoo" down in Florida. I tried everything to get them to eat, but they just would not feed in captivity. I watched them waste away and eventually die. Looking back, I wish I had driven back down to Florida to release them. 

Even with all that handling, cleaning and feeding, I only had one close call, and that is a story of its own: the Mojave Green Rattlesnake! ​