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RE: envenomnation?
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by snakeguy101 on July 18, 2007
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they only inject a small amount of venom to get the job done. for instance, a large eastern diamond back rattlesnake is not going to expend its entire supply of venom to kill a field mouse when it would only take a couple of drops to do the trick. Venom takes a while for a snake to produce and it is vital to them catching a meal so they use it sparingly. as far as how they control the amount of venom expended, all I know is that hatchlings cannot. they will either give a dry bite (use no venom) or expend their whole supply in one bite or anything in between where as an adult snake will only use a small amount of venom(which can still do a great deal of harm).
~Chris~
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RE: envenomnation?
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by LarryDFishel on July 18, 2007
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The venom glads are surrounded by muscles that are apparently under cinscious control of the snake. Contracting those muscles squeezes venom out of the gland, though the duct and the fang. How hard and how long they squeeze those muscles determines how much venom is injected.
There may be more to it that I don't know about, but I suspect that's the bulk of it.
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