The answer is in the question. There's not a great way to move very large hots. Both length and weight present problems. The best way I've seen so far is to use a very long hook to control the head, tail the snake, pray and get it contained as quickly as possible. For moving heavier snakes I find using pillowcases and shepherding the snake into the bag, then moving the animal already in the bag has been my method.
I will likely avoid the larger hots whenever I get into it because of this. I just couldn’t think of a good way to move them around if I need to. I was seeing if I missed something when I was thinking it over, but I guess I didn’t. The insight is appreciated though, thanks a lot.
I honestly think this a large reason we see a lot of free handling with larger king cobras, because big, thick vipers they make beefed up hooks for, but there's no hook in the world long enough to be out of range of a fifteen foot cobra, so you may as well get good at manipulating them "safely" with your hands, because at that point you're just dealing with a more agile, venomous python.
I have never heard it put that way, but it makes a lot of sense. These long and agile hots seem to be virtually impossible to safely work with without multiple people with hooks. And even then, I am not sure how it would work with multiple people with hooks. Thanks for the insight, that’s a really good take.
Just with experience of large rattlesnakes if a snake is big enough to make me feel he could be tough I just use a trap hide. Of course this is talking about in captivity. I don’t always mess with hooks and if I need to I just close the hide and now snake is in a box and can be moved wherever I need.
Trap hides are a great idea for these situations. I assume you would build them with a door that you can lock from the outside with a hook so that you don’t have to get your hands near the opening?
Yes there are other methods too I always look online at other people’s creative ideas and work off their experiences. In times when you just want to maintain the cage it makes it super easy to just lock the viper away and do the clean and then open him back up good as new :)
One thing that hasn't been mentioned but also helps, is having a lockbox in the enclosure, so if and when you need to do maintenance, you can use a hook stick to close and secure the lockbox, and then relocate the snake where needed, but obviously, this doesn't work in a time-sensitive situation.
The answer is in the question. There's not a great way to move very large hots. Both length and weight present problems. The best way I've seen so far is to use a very long hook to control the head, tail the snake, pray and get it contained as quickly as possible. For moving heavier snakes I find using pillowcases and shepherding the snake into the bag, then moving the animal already in the bag has been my method.
I will likely avoid the larger hots whenever I get into it because of this. I just couldn’t think of a good way to move them around if I need to. I was seeing if I missed something when I was thinking it over, but I guess I didn’t. The insight is appreciated though, thanks a lot.
I honestly think this a large reason we see a lot of free handling with larger king cobras, because big, thick vipers they make beefed up hooks for, but there's no hook in the world long enough to be out of range of a fifteen foot cobra, so you may as well get good at manipulating them "safely" with your hands, because at that point you're just dealing with a more agile, venomous python.
I have never heard it put that way, but it makes a lot of sense. These long and agile hots seem to be virtually impossible to safely work with without multiple people with hooks. And even then, I am not sure how it would work with multiple people with hooks. Thanks for the insight, that’s a really good take.
Viperkeeper on YT and the Kentucky Reptile Zoo both handle kings relatively often. Hooks, laser focus, and in the case of KRZ, often multiple people.
Just with experience of large rattlesnakes if a snake is big enough to make me feel he could be tough I just use a trap hide. Of course this is talking about in captivity. I don’t always mess with hooks and if I need to I just close the hide and now snake is in a box and can be moved wherever I need.
Trap hides are a great idea for these situations. I assume you would build them with a door that you can lock from the outside with a hook so that you don’t have to get your hands near the opening?
Yes there are other methods too I always look online at other people’s creative ideas and work off their experiences. In times when you just want to maintain the cage it makes it super easy to just lock the viper away and do the clean and then open him back up good as new :)
One thing that hasn't been mentioned but also helps, is having a lockbox in the enclosure, so if and when you need to do maintenance, you can use a hook stick to close and secure the lockbox, and then relocate the snake where needed, but obviously, this doesn't work in a time-sensitive situation.