Florida Cottonmouth — Fact Sheet

Agkistrodon conanti · Florida Cottonmouth

Full care guide

Provisional active-season targets; read the guide for evidence, seasonal restrictions and breeding uncertainties.

📋 Quick reference

🌿 Enclosure and decoration

Provide at least 160 × 80 × 70 cm for one adult and allow the snake to stretch fully. Check door gaps, vents and cable holes against the smallest animal housed. Fix rocks directly to the enclosure base so excavation cannot undermine them; retain clear sightlines to shift doors. Avoid sharp gravel, aromatic wood and unstable piles. Remove waste after securing the snake.

🌡️ Heating and temperature

• Basking spot: 30-32 °C
• Warm zone: 24-28 °C
• Cool zone: 21-24 °C
• Night: 19-23 °C

💧 Humidity and water

Provide a stable freshwater basin large enough for the snake to immerse voluntarily, with broad, easy exits and no inaccessible gaps underneath. Keep sufficient dry land for full extension, separate warm and cool hides, and a completely dry resting surface. Swimming or soaking must remain a choice; never force the animal into water.

Drain or remove the basin only after isolating the snake in a locked shift compartment. Fit escape-proof drains and guarded equipment. Replace fouled water promptly, inspect daily and clean the basin routinely; filtration does not replace hygiene. Maintain ventilated air around 50-70% relative humidity rather than soaking the entire substrate. Repeated immersion may indicate mites or unsuitable land temperatures and needs assessment.

🐁 Feeding

Wild cottonmouths eat many vertebrates and occasionally carrion. For a managed collection, use a documented diet of appropriately sized thawed whole rodents, with other whole prey only under a reviewed nutrition plan. Do not use wild-caught fish or assume all fish are nutritionally interchangeable. Juveniles generally need smaller meals about every 7-10 days.

An initial adult feeding interval is 14-21 days; adjust portions and timing to weight trend and condition. Deliver food through the collection’s protected feeding system. Avoid live rodents and substrate-coated food; dehydration, low temperatures and oversized meals increase regurgitation and impaction concerns. Whole prey normally needs no routine calcium or vitamin dusting. Do not improvise supplementation or force-feeding.

⚖️ Legal status

No CITES or specific EU wildlife-trade annex listing was found. Florida requires a permit to possess venomous reptiles, with experience and facility requirements; being native is not an exemption. Other US states and the destination country have separate capture, transport and possession rules.

The Bern Convention is not a relevant native-range protection framework for this American species; this does not remove national wildlife or dangerous-animal restrictions.

Legal review: 17 September 2026. National capture, possession, registration, breeding, sale and transport rules may be stricter. Verify permits before transfer and keep invoices, breeder identity, parentage and import records. Trade status does not itself authorize keeping a venomous snake.

☠️ Venom

Bites can cause significant pain, swelling, tissue injury and clotting abnormalities; systemic illness is possible. US antivenoms such as ANAVIP have an FDA indication for North American pit-viper envenomation, but hospital clinicians decide treatment. Their US availability and indication do not guarantee immediate supply in Europe. Severity varies; a small wound does not rule out serious or delayed envenoming.

Treat every bite as an emergency, including an apparently dry bite. Move away, call emergency services, keep the person still, remove rings and support the limb without compression. Do not cut, suck, ice or tourniquet the wound, and do not catch the snake. Follow poison-centre instructions. Agree a receiving hospital and antivenom access before acquisition; treatment belongs in hospital.

🩺 Common problems

• Overheating: repeated escape attempts or unusual exposed resting require immediate measurement of the cool retreat.
• Dysecdysis and dehydration: review drinking access and the moist refuge; repeated problems need veterinary assessment.
• Respiratory infection or stomatitis: wheezing, bubbles or oral discharge require prompt professional care.
• Dermatitis, impaction, obesity and parasites: dirty wet bedding, substrate ingestion, excessive feeding or persistent weight loss need correction and diagnosis. Do not use automatic deworming or home restraint.