Canebrake Rattlesnake Tubing

We’re hands-off with our venomous snakes at the Museum. What you see in the photos below is “snake tubing”. Kent is holding the snake tube with the canebrake rattlesnake inside. The tube itself is a hard plastic, about 3 feet in length. The most important factor is the diameter of the tube. You want the diameter of the tube to be only slightly larger than the diameter of the snake. This prevents the snake from being able to turn around in the tube.

It’s a two person job the way we do it here at the Museum. Kent and I do it together. We start by putting the snake into a garbage can. My job is to then hook and encourage the snake into the tube. When the snake is far enough in the tube (when Kent and I both agree that the snake can not jut out backwards) Kent grabs the snake. It’s important that he grab the snake and the end of the tube where the snake is entering. This prevents the snake from being able to move forward or backwards.

At this point, we can now safely get a close up look at the snake, even touching his tail end need be. We have some small slits in the tube as well in case we need to do some poking around in areas closer to the head.

Canebrake and Kent

See a great video of the canebrake rattlesnake shedding.

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