Posted by:
Raven01
at Thu Mar 18 08:28:29 2004 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Raven01 ]
Some of it will depend on the size snake you want and what you feel comfortable with handling. Carpet pythons are great snakes, but you need to research them thoroughly before making a purchase. Some species of carpets don't exceed 6-7 feet while others can easily exceed 10 feet, so you need to make sure you know which ones you want before you purchase it. In regards to the length versus girth of carpets, even the ten footers can typically be handled by a single person...they don't obtain anywhere near the girth of say, a boa constrictor or burmese python of the same length. In fact, my two adult carpets (one pure jungle carpet & one jungle X coastal cross) are not too much thicker in girth than my corns. A couple of other options are Children's & Spotted pythons - both stay pretty small (3-4 foot range) and are easy to care for and gentle in temperament from what I've read. I'm a big fan of common boas (aka Colombian Redtails or Bci - boa constrictor imperator). Most Bci don't exceed 7 feet in length for males, up to 8 or even 9 feet for exceptionally large females. If you stick with the Central American varieties, or other insular Bci, most don't exceed 6-7 feet for either gender with many being much smaller. Also, as a general rule, male boas will stay smaller than females of the same species/subspecies. For a good article on the smaller boas, pick up a copy of the April Reptiles magazine - it has a great article on them in there. There's also the sand boas - great little boas and relatively easy to care for and they come in several different colors. And there's also the rosy boas - also staying relatively small and a range of color depending on local. Of course, there's tons of other colubrids too, but I'm not as familiar with those. 
Good luck in whoever you pick!
Raven
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RE: Just curious... - Raven01, Thu Mar 18 08:28:29 2004