I agree with almost all of the comments I have received so far. What I was trying to do was determine a non-subjective way to form a top ten list. Anyone can throw together a top ten list, I was trying to exclude as many of my personal biases as possible.



Well I would have to disagree with lumping the "common ratsnakes" all in one category and ranked at 14. After all, the corn snake is a rat snake, and could be lumped in there as well. But since it isnt, what about the differences in personality of the other rat snakes?



I thought about separating out ssp in certain snakes (like obsoleta) but then I ended up with situation where the list was filled with several ssp of the same species of snake (for example, Black Ratsnake, Gray Ratsnake, Yellow Ratsnake, and Everglades Ratsnake would all fall in together somewhere occupying 4 spots (and a fifth somewhere lower for TX Ratsnakes).



The same problem would occur with Kingsnakes due to the ranges of adult size and a Pinesnake and a Gophersnake are quite different beasts.



And the list goes on. I would personally put the rat snakes ahead of the ball python just for the simple fact that they require less attention to detail concerning the enclosure humidity and temps.



I probably agree. When I added bairdi to the list, it came out ahead of BPs. Realize that I tried to construct this list in a non-subjective manner. I gave each snake a score for each character (generally ranging from 1 to 4) and then simply totalled up the points.



What about ball pythons being picky eaters once stressed out? Take a look at the amount of non-feeders posted on the ball python forum vs. the rat snake forum.



I gave BPs come out ahead of obsoleta ratsnakes mostly because I gave the ratsnakes a higher score (worse) on juvenile temperament, ease of handling adults (due to their larger size - I used to perspective of an unruly ratsnake vs an unruly BP), and cost of feeding adults (my adult Everglades ate more than my adult BPs).



In regard to BP problems, my experience has been that cbb BPs are easy to feed while wild caughts and farm bred are not. I actually tried to incorporate this factor by giving the BP a higher (worse) score for availability, implying that good ball pythons are harder to come by.



Gray banded king snake at #5. I would list this snake way down the list. It is not a good beginner snake and is not easy to care for at all. They are a very beautiful snake, that is for sure!! But not easy to care for.



I later rescored both L. alterna and mexicana to raise the score for difficulty of feeding babies. But once an alterna is eating mice, they are as easy to care for as any cornsnake in my experience, maybe easier (they don't die if their water bowls dry up while you are out of town for two weeks!).



Milksnakes at 27. Once again, a bunch of snakes lumped together. Agreed some are very hard to take care of. But there are others that are very easy to take care of.



Couldn't agree with you more. This was a real problem spot. I have kept Sinaloans, Mexicans, Scarlet Kings, Louisiana, New Mexican, Pueblan, and Black Milks. They are very different. Black Milks are great snakes and easy to keep, Scarlet Kings are very difficult and Pueblans are simply a pain in the a$$ personality-wise.



I thought about splitting them up into the big milks (4ft+) versus the small milks or maybe just grouping the easy ones (the Central and South American ssp, Mexican, Sinaloan, Nelsoni, etc) together and the rest separately. But then I started thinking I would have to do the same with getula, obsoleta, etc. The same could be said for certain populations of Rosyboas as well.



So I was left with the conclusion that milksnakes as a species aren't great pets while some populations/ssp are phenominal. I guess I better split them up.



I guess I did that with the carpet pythons already (by only including Jungles). Coastal Carpets are a totally different snake! I might lump Spotted and Children's Pythons as well.



BTW - here is my new ranking (without ssp splits). Species with an * are species I have kept myself for an extended period (more than a few weeks).



1. Rosy Boa*

2. Corn Snake*

3. Baird's Ratsnake*

4. Common Kingsnake*

5. Kenyan Sand Boa*

6. Checkered Gartersnake*

7. Gray-banded Kingsnake*

8. Mexican Kingsnakes*

9. Ball Python*

10. Russian Ratsnake

11. Common Ratsnake*

12. Western Hognosed Snake*

13. Dione's Ratsnake

14. Indian Sand Boa*

15. Common Gartersnake*

16. African Brown Housesnake*

17. Trans-Pecos Ratsnake*

18. Gopher/Pine/Bullsnakes*

19. Twin Spotted Ratsnake

20. Prairie Kingsnake*

21. Children's Python

22. Spotted Python*

23. Rubber Boa*

24. Arizona Mountain Kingsnake*

25. Rainbow Boa*

26. Rough Greensnake*

27. Boa Constrictor*

28. Beauty Snakes*

29. Borneo Blood Python*

30. Jungle Carpet Python

31. Milksnakes*

32. Indigo Snake*

33. Burmese Python*

34. Reticulated Python


-----
Chris Harrison



...he was beginning to realize he was the creature of a god that appreciated the discomfort of his worshippers - W. Somerset Maugham

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