Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm 15 and I have plenty of reptile experience leo gecko- 5yrs anoles 3yrs breed them also and have watched a vielied chameleon and a corn snake for 2 months. What I'm trying to say is I want a snake (I liked the corn alot.)I was wondering could anybody recommend a easy to care for snake (want something other than a corn or a ball) 5ft maximum that doesn't need much handling. And not to expensive. And finally could you suggest a good breeder :/

gg

The black milk is a great snake (I have a pair) but they do get over 5 feet generally.

I would suggest a Baird's Ratsnake. They are gorgeous, docile and easy to keep and they aren't all that common in the hobby yet. Unfortunately, pictures don't seem to capture their beauty - they are really a WOW snake in person. Check the ratsnake forum for more info and pics.

Here's a pic of my locality adult pair -

What makes them so amazing is their skin color between the steely gray scales -


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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

The pictures of the snakes were shot outside on the lid of a 33 gallon garbange can. The leaf litter was found in my backyard and since I live less that 60 miles from bairdii range, I figured the live oak catkins in my yard would work just as well as the oak catkins from the areas closer to where they originate.

The whole snake shots were shot with a Konica Minolta 7D, but any digital camera could have captured these shots. The lighting was natural light with a little bit of fill flash held off camera with a large diffuser on the flash (tissue paper over the flash would work for this effect).

The scale shots were taken with a Tamorn 90mm macro lens and about 25mm of extension tubes attached. To be honest, the macro lens by itself could have done the job. Again I used a KM 7D camera with a 3600HSD flash and a Stofen Omni-bounce diffuser.

You could achieve the same effect with any sort of camera that will focus that close and by putting a piece of white tissue paper over the flash as a diffuser. Any decent digital camera that focuses close could recreate this image as long as you could diffuse the lighting and focus close enough.

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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

How would a racer or a coachwhip sound. I've heard they can be quite aggressive almost as if the cobras of the non venomous world. I think they are beautiful snakes looking at pictures in the racer-coachwhip forum I can fit the accomidations of a 5-7 ft snake. Can anybody reccomend a good breeder and how much they cost.

Some of the coachwhips are gorgeous snakes and make decent captives if you meet their needs - room and food. They need to eat more often than other snakes as they are more active.

They can become reasonably tame with some patience.

Finding cb coachwhips is pretty tough.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas