Baby Snakes are MORE DEADLY Than Adults?!? | Venom Diaries

Ajouté : 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]It's common for them to go "Oh, good yield."

[00:00:04]If you come to Australia, it doesn't mean you're going to die from a cyclone.

[00:00:08]Did you even know what a cyclone is?

[00:00:09]Yeah. You didn't. No, you didn't. I've been living here for ages.

[00:00:12]>> [laughter] >> Hey everyone, welcome back to Venom Diaries. Today is an exciting one. We are going to be busting all the myths you guys want busted and any and questions you want answered. There's lots. You dropped lots of comments for us in one of the recent videos, so we're going to get straight into it with "Can you tell if a snake is venomous by the shape of its head?" No. All right, so all the different groups of snakes all around the world they've all got different shaped heads and you cannot tell if it's venomous or not. So, some of them look almost identical. So, that is an old myth, an old wives' tale. So, definitely don't do that, okay? Now, while I'm answering questions, I'm going to be milking brown snakes, so follow me.

[00:00:52]We are going to come down here and start with Guys, remember Sinker? The snake I took to the vet that had a fishing sinker stuck in his throat. He's just shed his skin. I actually haven't milked this fella for almost a month.

[00:01:07]And he's He's looking pretty fiery.

[00:01:10]So, I was a bit nervous um for this bloke after that surgery cuz it was It was a major surgery for for a snake. And um but he pulled through it no worries and then he actually didn't feed for about 3 weeks after it. We got the stitches removed and now he's pumping.

[00:01:31]Um and he definitely found his attitude again. And um he's kept me on my toes since that, but that was probably I don't know, maybe 6 months ago or so now.

[00:01:42]Um and he's looking great, but we literally like Dr. Robin opened up the side of his neck straight down here and you can't even tell now.

[00:01:55]How crazy they heal up so well.

[00:01:58]And he's Look at his condition. Like he's an absolute unit.

[00:02:01]So, we'll get him on here, bit of venom, and anyone new to the channel, we actually pipette the brown snakes with these little plastic pipettes because their yields are so small. He's literally a 6-ft brown snake, and that's all he gave me.

[00:02:19]All right. So, by doing this, I minimize in all That was better.

[00:02:25]That's all That's heat's better. That's odd.

[00:02:28]Isn't that funny how you can heat They can control different amounts of venom coming from the different fangs. Isn't that wild? So, yeah. There's probably maybe 12 to 15 mg of venom there. And you imagine one tiny little drop of that can kill 90 people. That is going to lead us into the next question. If I've milked him, can he He's still envenomate me if he bites me now? Yes. All right.

[00:02:49]So, that little bit of venom there is probably about 10% of what he's got in the venom glands. Yeah, you can see they're they're full up. All right. So, he gives enough to ruin your day, and there's plenty more still to go. It's like the library. You can just keep producing it. But for him to replace what he's lost in that milking, um it will take him about a week or so with the right temps and a bit of food. All right. Isn't that cool?

[00:03:14]Back in there, mate.

[00:03:18]All righty. Next question. This one comes from YouTube from William. Thank you, William. Do we lower the temperatures in the enclosures before we milk them? No. All right. I like them hot. Well, there's a few reasons behind it, all right? I don't want to cool them unnecessarily. Um you know, when you look at welfare, it's not very nice to do that. We will cool some snakes um naturally for like breeding. Um but I'm guessing what William means is do we turn the temps right off so there's no temps and they get really, really cool and they're sluggish? No, we don't do that. There are other places around the world that do that. Um I don't do it personally. I do know that when they cool them, generally they don't get as much venom. Like that brown snake just came out of a enclosure that's like the warmest spot is 33°. So, he's and you've seen him. He's ready to go and he's and he gave me a fair bit of venom. So, yeah, I don't do it for that reason. All right, there's no need. I'm very confident in my handling as well. So, I'm not worried about um, handling them them hot. Like we we get all our snakes out for many reasons from milking to enclosure maintenance or whatever.

[00:04:26]Um, and we always we get him out hot like this bloke is right now.

[00:04:33]This is a big brown snake.

[00:04:37]He's playing hide and seek.

[00:04:40]Woo!

[00:04:41]All right.

[00:04:43]He Nice silver brown snake this one. Losing him.

[00:04:50]All right. So, I'll get him restrained and I'll get him onto the next question.

[00:04:55]This bloke's like has come up past me face a couple of times. So, he just like literally explodes out of nowhere.

[00:05:05]So, I'm just like I'm cautious with all my snakes, but I'm super cautious with this bloke.

[00:05:11]All right, cuz he's big. He's got a really big head too for a brown snake.

[00:05:14]All right. So, let's go, mate. Straight up here. Now, next question is, do we use Oh, good yield straight up. Look at that, half of a pipette. That's massive. That's a day winner.

[00:05:27]Whoa! So, he's literally almost filled that pipette.

[00:05:31]Why do we use different pipettes and vials with each snake? It's just a hygiene thing. So, not that any of my snakes are sick or have disease, but if they did, it'd be like generally reptiles transfer feel like saliva, like that.

[00:05:50]So, that's why I don't do it. So, you'll see me switch out. So, I move my pipettes and then I get more pipettes out. I've actually got to trim up a few more and I'll show you our venom ball drawer.

[00:06:01]Woo!

[00:06:03]There's over 100 venom balls right there.

[00:06:05]So, yeah, we just rotate through and after each snake, after we milk each snake and we process the venom out of the the little vials and pipettes, we just clean them in a special soap.

[00:06:19]I've got two questions now. I'm going to blend them together because they're both very similar. So, um Michaela from Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers, actually the brown snake she said here come from Most of them come from Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers.

[00:06:30]Um Stuart McKenzie, thank you.

[00:06:32]Uh but yeah, Michaela and another fella have put in uh some comments or questions, sorry, about snakes breeding and like different species breeding together. It can happen. So, like you look at carpet pythons in Australia, right? So, like right here in the Central Coast, we've got diamond pythons. They are members of the carpet python family. They integrate naturally with coastal carpet pythons, right? But, they're from the same genus, so it's nothing weird. But, then you look at like some breeders breeding like rhino vipers and Gaboon vipers together, all right? So, they're different species and they're but they're very similar genetically, so they breed them and they they get a a hybrid type species there.

[00:07:11]So, there are a few species around the world, but but what Michaela is talking about, she said she gets asked all the time carpet pythons and eastern browns breeding, you know, producing these really dangerous snakes. That does not happen. It literally can't happen, all right?

[00:07:26]>> [laughter] >> It's a big false old wives' tale. Boom with that one.

[00:07:32]But, there are other species that will naturally do it, like I said, like diamond pythons and coastal carpet pythons. And then people seem to be trying, um but they're venomous snake and venomous snake, not python and venomous snake, if that makes sense.

[00:07:46]Okay, so we were just filming this episode and there was a question from Michaela in there about the brown snake in our backyard recently. And while we were filming that, I looked out and I was like I reckon it was that person that actually walked past and so we just wrapped up the episode and jumped out quickly and then I was like, "Hey, anyway, we've got Yianni and Michaela. So she's come down from Sunshine Coast and catches um to visit the park.

[00:08:10]Um what else are you doing here? Uh so I came down for my niece's birthday, but obviously being a Newcastle girl growing up, I was here. Like I pretty much grew up here. Oh, so you're from Newcastle?

[00:08:20]Yeah. How long you been gone?

[00:08:22]And now you're up in Sunshine? Sunshine Coast.

[00:08:24]>> Yeah, yeah I am. Nice and sunny. A little bit warmer than it is down here today. It's getting chilly. Yes, it cooled off. How long have you been snake catching? It's going on like 7 years this year that I've been catching by myself, but I've been doing it for like 12 years. Yeah. So 12 or 13 years, yeah.

[00:08:38]That's awesome. And did you get bitten by a brown snake?

[00:08:42]Yeah, yeah. I think I've heard about this story or something. Yeah, end of last year um I was You need no details. We need to hear about this. So um And you're alive. Yes, thankfully.

[00:08:52]Thanks to the wonderful facilities here.

[00:08:55]Um so yeah, I was walking out in the backyard heading over to my neighbor's.

[00:08:58]This is up north? Yeah, up north. So um in Moreton Bay area. So yeah.

[00:09:02]Yeah, I was heading out there, walked out my back gate, did a bit of an idiot move, just chucked off old tops and clothes over, bare feet, walked out my backyard, stood on something. In the dark? No, no, full daylight. Full daylight. Um yeah, I was a little bit distracted, wasn't paying attention to where I was walking.

[00:09:21]Did it bite you?

[00:09:22]Um so yeah, I was walking and I stood on something on my left foot, felt something under it. Now, I just felt a hit and it almost felt like I'd snapped a stick and then it just flicked up and tapped me and I looked down and as I lift my foot it's like 5-ft tiger snake just slithers away. That's a great sign.

[00:09:41]Oh, sorry. Yeah.

[00:09:42]>> [laughter] >> Um yeah, this 5-ft brown snake just like slithers away and I look down and I just see the two puncture marks and the blood and I Okay, and I This sounds a little bit morbid, but I just kind of laughed because I'm like, "You're kidding. The one time that I get bitten by a venomous snake, well, a highly venomous one, is when I'm not even looking." Then I I'll be I removed myself from the danger. Took a few steps, which I would not recommend to anyone at home.

[00:10:10]And yeah, I walked around the side and sat down, called my dad and I'm like, "Hey, you need to bring a bandage." And he's like, "Why?" And I'm like, "I just stood on a tiger snake, brown snake."

[00:10:20]And yeah, so ambulance was there within 5 minutes. Dad and I had the bandage on within like a minute, goodbye. But yeah, I had started developing symptoms within like 5 minutes.

[00:10:30]>> What were they? Uh so, I had this horrendous taste in my mouth. It was almost really metallic. Like yeah, oh, it's shocking. [laughter] Yeah.

[00:10:37]>> foul. Um I started like I was profusely diaphoretic, which is like sweating. My blood pressure was super low. I had a bad thumping headache. I started vomiting, had some abdominal pain. And the pain in my leg, um like it started off as localized burning at the bite site and then it actually started to travel up and I could feel it go straight through each lymph node and like the swelling of the joints. Hops me in recess hospital, did bloods, managing that like an hour later they came back and were like, "Hey, um just got off the phone with the toxicologist, we need to give you antivenom." And obviously I'm very lucky. I did not have the same reaction that you spoke about. I I did come up in hives and I had the hot flashes.

[00:11:18]>> Yeah.

[00:11:18]But yeah, I was in there for like 36 hours and I got really sick afterwards with um Severe sickness? Yeah, the venom induced coagulopathy I got. So, my blood would not clot for like 8 weeks after. I was having multiple nosebleeds a day.

[00:11:33]Um I had like my kidneys were failing.

[00:11:35]So obviously that was excreted through my urine.

[00:11:38]And yeah, my sense of smell and my sense of taste are still dodgy now and it's what like just over 3 months later? Yeah. So yeah.

[00:11:50]>> [laughter] >> And you know what? Every single bite is different. You talk to the doctors that treat multiple snake bites that everyone reacts different. So it's it's crazy and symptoms can last for a couple of weeks to months years.

[00:12:03]Um but I'll show I'll show you a brown snake thing like what Michael was talking about there like this one like a a little stick hit now.

[00:12:10]Like that's one of six-foot brown snake.

[00:12:15]That's insane. Like It's not like and only half of that is going to be coming out of the gun on it.

[00:12:22]So like it's I'm not going to pinch myself.

[00:12:26]I'm off to the department today, please.

[00:12:30]You can see this one is a small like probably my smallest brown snake.

[00:12:34]Still got the bands on it cuz a lot of brown snakes are banded when they're young.

[00:12:38]Um so I've got it under the pin and pad.

[00:12:41]Now this is going to lead me into talking about young snakes.

[00:12:48]One of the questions um are baby snakes more dangerous than mom and dad. And I've heard I've heard this a lot again most of my life.

[00:13:02]Um you know, the babies don't know how to control putting out venom and all all that sort of stuff, but it's not the case at all.

[00:13:10]I would say personally Oh, good yield. Look at that from a little snake. From what I've seen with young snakes is they're not as confident as the grown-ups cuz they're not as big.

[00:13:22]So they act more threatening, more crazy.

[00:13:26]And I think that's where people get from that they're more dangerous. All right, cuz they don't know how to control their venom all right. But, it's not like they they know how to control their venom and venom is pretty well exactly the same as mom and dad's from day one. And um, all venomous snakes are venomous from literally the day they're born. All right. But, yeah, that's just an old wives' tale. So, another question from YouTube is someone was told by their parents that tiger snakes can bite multiple times.

[00:13:54]Literally everything a snake can do that. They just go boom boom boom boom boom boom. Boom boom. And in fact, there are species like coastal taipans that once they become threatened and they're in that defensive posture, it's common for them to go boom boom like at least two bites. I've seen tiger snakes here um, like strike at me like that like like literally like a machine gun like this. Um, and I've had brown snakes do that as well. So, literally any snake is capable of doing it. I've been holding pythons and they've bitten me like a dozen times. Um, but they're harmless pythons so you know, like I hold them like a like a diamond python. I remember when I was younger I was holding this diamond python pulling it out of um, someone's roof and I was trying to get out of the roof and get onto a a ladder and it bit me like I think it bit me like 11 times.

[00:14:36]It's hurt once on the face and over me arms and me chest. But, yeah, all snakes are capable of delivering multiple bites and with venomous snakes they can deliver multiple envenomations. Okay?

[00:14:50]Um, yeah, it's just how they are.

[00:14:53]You're looking very jumpy today.

[00:14:58]All right, so the next question um, we actually had a lot of people ask this and it is hold on just let me get this.

[00:15:08]Fella restrained.

[00:15:11]Hello, mate. Up here.

[00:15:13]Um, the next one is if you've got red bellies around, does it mean you're not going to have brown snakes? Now, this is an old wives' tale. I've been hearing this my entire life.

[00:15:25]Oh, good yield. Whoa.

[00:15:28]For a not very big snake, look at that.

[00:15:30]Half a pet one thing.

[00:15:34]Gee, I get a bit excited when I get a big venom yield. So, Oh, what?

[00:15:40]You can never pick it, eh? Like, this snake isn't even big and he's just thrown out 3/4 of a pet.

[00:15:46]What a weapon.

[00:15:48]So, yeah.

[00:15:49]Red-bellies will eat brown snakes.

[00:15:52]But, brown snakes will eat red-bellies.

[00:15:54]All right? So, >> [laughter] >> cuz these eastern browns, um they small mammals and reptiles. All right? So, and they'll eat frogs and they're opportunistic. So, it's depends on who's the biggest snake there on the day.

[00:16:08]Okay? So, yeah, red-bellies will eat brown snakes, but it doesn't mean there's not brown snakes hanging around.

[00:16:11]And brown snakes eat red-bellies. So, yeah, it's just an old wives' tale. All right? Cuz I still hear I hear people tell me that in the park literally every single weekend. I'll be walking through, "Oh, I've got red-bellies, so I've got no brown snakes. Oh, I've got lots of red-bellies around the dam and um you know, it's been great having them cuz we've got no brown snakes." You're probably just in an area where there's no brown snakes.

[00:16:30]All right? They don't always overlap.

[00:16:33]Hey.

[00:16:34]Um now, I've got someone I want to introduce you to. We've got a new member, marketing.

[00:16:41]Gemma. [snorts] Yeah. Gemma, YouTube YouTube, Gemma.

[00:16:44]Yes, hello. Now, you probably heard the accent. She's a Kiwi. All right? Now, generally Kiwis are pretty scared of snakes, but not Gemma.

[00:16:52]All right? So, just give me Is that a snake earring?

[00:16:55]Yes. Ooh, she's even got a snake earring.

[00:16:57]>> Yeah, two. Two? There you go. I'm still in the club. If there's any Kiwis on here that are nervous around snakes, let us know in the comments. The majority of Kiwis I've met in the 40 years of Bill Bailey have been petrified.

[00:17:09]>> Petrified, absolutely. Like it's the biggest fear. And like I know there's no snakes naturally occurring in New Zealand, but is there anything else is there like Do you guys just hear rumors from like places like Australia and just think, "Oh man, there's snakes cruising down Sydney Harbour and they're just attacking people?"

[00:17:23]>> Pretty much, yeah. Like, they're just absolutely petrified. When they come to visit, they're like, you know, very, very concerned. You've lived in Australia almost 20 years now. So, your relatives come over and they visit and they're just like freaking out.

[00:17:35]>> yeah, 100% and they can't believe that I love them so much. Like, they are just like, "Are you serious? Just be careful." It goes to show though, like, if you're brought up like that and it's programmed into our generally you're going to be like, "I was brought up like that." It's surprising I was brought up, you know, down in good snakes and dead snakes, blah blah blah blah. The grandparents were very big on that.

[00:17:54]There is hope, New Zealand. All right.

[00:17:56]Honestly, come over to the dark side.

[00:18:00]>> [laughter] >> So, if you if you come to Australia, it doesn't mean you're going to die from a snake bite. All right. They're not out chasing people down the main street.

[00:18:09]They're not trying to hunt Kiwis. It's not how they roll. Okay, so. Anyway, Gemma is a member of the marketing team.

[00:18:14]She's doing a fantastic job. About 6 weeks now?

[00:18:16]>> Yeah, coming up. Loving it? Love it, love it. Best job on the planet. Boom, hear that? Okay, next question is there's people commenting saying they want to go out to the wild and catch wild snakes and take them home as pets.

[00:18:29]Can't do it. All right, so there's rules and regulations in Australia, licensing.

[00:18:33]If you want to keep You can keep snakes at home. You just have to get a reptile license and you There's different levels, right? So, you can literally jump online, get your reptile license and you can keep something very basic like a small python or even like a diamond python or whatever. hot python.

[00:18:45]And then if you want to step into like venomous snakes, you have to do venomous snake handling courses and and so on.

[00:18:51]You can get like taipans and stuff eventually. Pretty crazy. You can literally keep inland taipans at home legally in Australia. But yeah, there's licensing involved. I go out and collect snakes, right, for the program. We don't collect many these days. We generally breed most of our stuff. So, if I go and collect, it's it's not huge numbers. This year we've got collection permits for um you know, like tiger snakes and king browns and taipans, but it's not huge numbers, all right? And our permits, doesn't matter the state or territory we're collecting from, they're very strict, okay? I try and breed most of my stuff, but it's also really good genetically to get in snakes for our new genetics and from areas that produce good milkers, like this snake right here. So, this is one of those snakes from the Sunshine Coast.

[00:19:43]Most of our eastern browns are from the Sunshine Coast. This fella actually came in with an injury, so he he had the tip of his tail.

[00:19:51]Um we're not sure how he lost it. Might have been bitten off by something. It might have been clipped by a car or shovel. We've got no idea, but it healed up into that stump.

[00:20:00]And these snakes that are collected by them are in areas where it's too hard to actually release them safely uh safely because there is so many houses and roads and stuff nearby. And we don't collect them all. They they still relocate. And we do this fella's known as Mr. Stumpy.

[00:20:22]We're hopping around my leg.

[00:20:24]All right. So, last question. And this one, I've had this a lot over my career.

[00:20:30]People say this to me. And um we had a few questions um under a video recently about it. And it is stat It's more of a statement, I guess, and it's snakes are dangerous and useless.

[00:20:42]Which isn't the case at all. Yes, some snakes can be dangerous, but they're definitely not useless.

[00:20:47]Everything in the environment's got its role in an ecosystem, right? And with a lot of snakes, they're these controlling numbers, whether it's of rodents or frogs or birds or bird eggs or whatever.

[00:20:59]So, they all play a role, all right? Um and we see the impact in areas where snakes were harming back in like the early 19th century and frog numbers explode and when when when like if you look at frogs for example, if they explode in numbers and there's nothing there hunting them, then they sort of overpopulate themselves and they end up starving off in areas cuz there's no food cuz there's too many frogs. That's just one example, but they all have their own role in the ecosystem. And also, a lot of baby snakes are food for a lot of other animals. All right, so if a mama snake lays a clutch of eggs and there's let's say there's 24 babies in it, most of those babies will get eaten by predators. So, they're a food source in the animal kingdom, right?

[00:21:45]Kookaburras smash baby um snakes.

[00:21:48]Other snakes eat baby snakes. Monitor lizards smash baby snakes. So, yeah, they've definitely got their role and they're important. Yes, they can be dangerous, but they're extremely important in the ecosystems that they're found.

[00:22:05]All right, guys. I hope you liked that episode. Hope I answered some questions.

[00:22:09]We'll do another one down the track, so if you have more, drop them in the comments, um YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, wherever, and um we'll do another episode just like this down the track. Um but for now, that is going to be it. You know the deal. Like, share, subscribe, and I'll see you all for the next episode.