Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm currently looking into getting a snake. However I'm unsure what would make a good one to start out with. My only conditions are 1) it cannot get to large, and 2) it cannot be one that eats mice. Does such a snake exist?

Thanks, Roman

If you name something that's not a plant... there's a snake that eats it.

There are some....
you could keep garters, watersnakes, or ribbons, which will eat frogs, tadpoles and fish.
Rough green snakes will eat crickets.
Many snakes are lizard or snake-eaters.
However, the easiest, most available food is mice/rats.
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

Ribbon snakes eat fish but they can be very difficult. You cannot really handle them because they bite and musk on you. I would suggest getting over the mice issue and getting a snake you can really enjoy. Thats just my opinion though.

Rob Woods

Most of the easy species are ones that eat mice. You could go for something like a garter snake that eats goldfish, but these generally don't make the best beginning pet snakes (although they can be if you get a tame, non-stressed specimen)

My best advice would be to just feed the snake mice. That way you can get an easy, docile snake like a corn snake or kingsnake. Or, get a lizard instead, like a leopard gecko or bearded dragon that eats crickets instead of mice.

That's really interesting-because I have had garters for years and they always eat earthowrms and handle very nicely-even right tou of the field. Since the gartersnake in my area have no fish to eat they probably live on earthowrms only or maybe the occasional mouse or salamander-but at the size of them-I think-the little Red Backs are more than likely ignored except by the smallest of the garters.

Just my thought.

L