Chile Forum

Nathalie A. wrote:g~j: Although I'm personally not a big fan of insects and spiders (snakes, lizards and turtles are cute, though) I'm smitten by your love for them. I must admit they are beautiful creatures and also very fascinating, but for some odd reason they make me uncomfortable... Anyway, I love your camera.

g~j are glad we have another herpetologist among us...
so here is a former pet - samanatha
she lived in our garden for a while

like all our pets, she was very hungry
geckos were her favorite
although she would eat a small frog or two, if offered

samantha was only very slightly poisonous...
if she was calm, she would tolerate a bit of play
but she might bite, if you pissed her off

greg~judy wrote:
samantha was only very slightly poisonous...

This is probably a good time to remind would-be visitors to Chile that all the snakes native to continental Chile are venomous, but because the fangs are mounted in the rear of the mouth of these snakes, the bites are only rarely fatal. Unless you are bitten on the finger, which gives those fangs a better chance. Nevertheless, they are Our Friends, because they eat the little mousies that carry the hanta virus.

Species shown here is Philodryas chamissonis

this is why i allow them to sleep in the shed all day.....they work at night, and they bring me gifts three or four times per week..... sometimes all in one piece, sometimes not:

g~j : She's so beautiful! We don't have that colorful snakes here in Sweden. Very pretty!

Patagoniax : Yes, snakes are still beloved creatures on this planet.

Cali_chile48 : My cats also loves hunting. The older one, Siri, hunts mouses on some occasions, but we don't have that many of those in our neighborhood. Her son, Sonny, though, hunts down big birds that he then brings home. This can be rather annoying, especially when we brings them into the kitchen and they aren't dead yet, so they fly outside again. Lucky them I guess.

Other times he's lazy as hell. This is a picture of him sleeping on my bed an afternoon...

patagoniax wrote:

greg~judy wrote:
samantha was only very slightly poisonous...

This is probably a good time to remind would-be visitors to Chile that all the snakes native to continental Chile are venomous, but because the fangs are mounted in the rear of the mouth of these snakes, the bites are only rarely fatal. Unless you are bitten on the finger, which gives those fangs a better chance. Nevertheless, they are Our Friends, because they eat the little mousies that carry the hanta virus.

to expand p~x's suggestion...
yes, rear-fanged snakes are nowhere near as dangerous, nor as venomous...
[as the pit vipers and true vipers - with those big front fangs that inject venom]
however...those rear-fanged friends can and do bite - IF you piss them off

IF they happen to latch on to a part of your anatomy
and IF they tend to keep chewing on said part...
they can actually secrete a fair amount of venom into the wound created.

now this could be a little problematical - although doubtfully life-threatening?
so - the trick, when bitten by the rear-fanger - that keeps on chewing...
is to persuade the snake to "let go" --- ASAP

now - that said...
future lessons in venom avoidance out there in allchileland will deal with...
*those few very nasty lurking spiders
*plus those nasty scuttling scorpions
*and those nasty creeping centipedes

but, to be true to the thread topic
some very few weird people actually have (or had) these critters as "pets"
beauty is, indeed, in the eye of the beholder

Snakes are quite beautiful, tho I tend to prefer pythons, since they curl about one so lovingly. Does anyone know if there are salamanders in Chile? I have a real fondness for them as well.

Err, I hope I don't get in trouble by hijacking this thread to actually post a picture of a pet.

Here is our pup in Santiago. We are considering changing her name to Rockstar, as this dog gets crazy amounts of attention, even in the land of ubiquitous dogs. I guess they don't get many of these here, although the Chilean Terrier is supposed to be pretty much descended from the Fox Terrier. Many people here seem to think she is a Chihuahua. She does speak Spanish, so that seems to be helping her talk with the other dogs. She is picking up some chilenismos as well, so that should help her out. People look at us funny when we pick up the poop with the plastic bags and throw it away, but all we can do is try to be good ambassadors.

Cheers,
pl

Cute little creature, looks like mine, same colors and ears but mine is a mutt. A true Heinz 57.

picalena wrote:Err, I hope I don't get in trouble by hijacking this thread to actually post a picture of a pet.

no trouble at all p~l...
allanimals have equal rights on allchile!
just to show you there are no hard feelings, we'll post our kittie pix

we currently nurture this little guy - his name is xiao su
xiao = little in chinese --- su = happy in pali
and he is indeed - "little happy"

ok, ok... enough perritos y gatitos --- back to allanimals
here is another fauna~friend who lives in our yard...
of course, we nurture him too !
his name is "lucky leroy"
leroy is lucky because we just saved him from being xiao su's hors d'œuvre
hopefully he will continue to remain lucky for a while longer?
because xiao su is getting to be very good at leaping and lunching on lizards!

Kizzy McDougle:

The last dog posted wants to be somewhere else. On the other hand, my puddy tats are perfectly happy to be where they are

As long as they're fed, ... if not, the occasional fingertip is more than welcome