Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm thinking of purchasing a beautiful silver beauty from someone. Do these make good pets? How about biting? Feeding?

Any special requirements they need? How big do they get?

thanks!

If you're considering buying one then you should know they only eat small anoles or frogs as babies and can be weened off of them onto pinky mice by scenting. As adults the Candoia don't get large and have good temperaments. Evan Stahl has some nice ones available. If those are the ones you're considering you can't go wrong as long as you can handle finding them food until they start taking baby mice. For more information go here:
http://www.kingsnake.com/candoia/

How good of pets they make really depends on whether they are wild caught or captive bred and their age IMO. My pair are both wild caught, the female is probably 2 years or older and the male is most likely a yearling. The male is real sweet natured but has never fed voluntarily on his own - assist fed every meal. The female eats like a champ, and has the temperment of a rabit pit bull. If you can get captive bred and preferably one already feeding on rodents, you shouldn't have any problems. Otherwise, it's small house geckos, anoles or tree frogs. Find out from the owner of the snake you're wanting what it eats and if it's tame. As for care, they prefer generally lower temperatures than most boas (80-82 F) and higher humidity (50% minimum, preferable around 60-70%), and a large water dish is also a must. Size wise they aren't very large snakes, males usually max out between two feet and three feet, and females are usually between three feet and four feet. Even though my female is on the nippy side, I still enjoy the pair, I just don't handle her unless it's necessary for the most part. Here's a link to THE man for the Candoia set, Jerry Conway. His site gives you basically everything you need to know about these great little boas and he also is the one best known for breeding them. As I mentioned above, captive bred is really the way to go with these little guys because you'll have far fewer problems in both the short and long run. Plus, you'll be able to handle the little buggers without the major worry of getting bitten repeatedly by a frightened wild snake.

Raven
Jerry Conway's pages on Candoia