Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I saw a black racer in a pet store the other day. It seemed healthy and alert, and it looks beautiful. However, I don't know a thing about racers, so I want to get the answers to a few questions before I decide to buy it. Hopefully you can help me out:

What size aquarium or cage should I use? He's about 3.5 feet long, and I'd like to get him one he'll use for the rest of his life.

What temperature/humidity should I give him? I use under the tank heaters, a blacklight heat lamp, and a spray bottle to keep my corns, milksnake, and spotted python alive, so would that work?

Finally, this guy is rather mean. I take it back--he's VERY mean. Will that go away with time and handling, or are they always mean? My experience with snakes is that they're tame overall, so this one surprised me.

Thanks for the help.

as they are VERY fast snakes (hence the name), and can be VERY snappy. It is up to you if you want to risk getting a snake that might bite you every time you get him out.
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phflame
kingsnake.com host

They're fairly easy. Nothing tricky about temps, humidity, feeding, etc. A rule of thumb for enclosures is it should be about 2/3 the snakes length. A 20L should be fine for a whille although the bigger the better. I have an adult female southern that is one of my favorites to keep. BUT, like the person above me said, you WILL get bit, you most likely will get musked, and good luck if it bites you and you drop it.

I used to keep racerssome time ago. My advise is don't buy the snake. And if you do, let it go somwhere that you have seen other black racers. In general they do not make good pet, and will never become tame. I had 6 racers, and they would only eat frogs. With time yoou can scent and probably get them on mice though. From your post, it seems as though you don't have much experience with snakes. Start with a rat or king snake.

I'm actually a bit experienced with snake handling in general, but the internet doesn't have a lot of ready-to-read information about racers that I could find.

I have 3 corns, a spotted python and a pueblan milksnake and they're all healthy, and relatively tame.

I'm mainly interested in the racer because its pretty, black (my snakes are brown and orange), and not a kingsnake. I never really got into kingsnakes.

If a 20L won't last his entire life, what will keep the racer (if I get it, since apparently they don't tame down) happy? Will a 40 breeder be sufficient for an adult racer?
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1 Snow Corn (Egg)
1 Anery Corn (Sevitt)
1 Creamsicle Corn (Flonne)
1 Spotted Python (Normande)
1 Pueblan Milksnake (Lamington)
1 Banded Gecko (Vyers)
1 Leopard Gecko (Cubone)
1 Emperor Scorpion (Noodle)