Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i posted in the snake-general forum and got advice to go here, i was wondering what snake that could be hendled and doesnt eat mice/rats? also not too expensiveor easily caught, Thanks!
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Nic
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Three snakes come to mind;
The rough green snake; eats crickets in captivity. can be skittish but handleable.
Garters; eat insects, fish, amphibians and (depending on species),lizards and small ammals. Some tame nicely, some bite and musk.
Water snakes (American); (Neroida) eat fish. Temperment same as garters.

All the above are not expensive, easily housed (in a ten gl tank) and are fairly hardy.
Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

I would think, personally, a 10 gallon is a little small for all of those except for some of the smaller Thamnophis. Water snakes will easily outgrow a 10 gallon, especially females. And rough greens appreciate the extra space and will move around a fair amount if provided with a lot of cover in a 20 gallon. Even with Thamnophis though, they are fairly active snakes and I personally think a 20 gallon minimum should be the standard size. Andy
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Andy Maddox
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

A 10gl tank for a mature watersnake or garter is small...However it has to grow into the larger tank...and depending on the size aquired...will take years. For example you would not put a n/b king in a ten, though between 10" and 2.5" it makes a good sized home.

Rough greens do quite well in a 10. I have kept many (they are local and numerous here in S. Fla). The trick is to use small branches in the tank so it has lots to climb on and doesn't charge the glass. Snakes do not need to stretch their whole length, so unless you are dealing with a racer type or larger fast moving vine snake, the extra space is not necessary (Nor is the smaller space for that matter confining).

My 23" regal Ringneck does fine in a 2gl tank as it stays mainly under the turf except to hunt and the smaller space makes catching it's fast moving lizard prey easier. A larger tank would hinder it's feeding efficiancy. Bigger is not allways better.
Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

True, but when I have kept rough greens they seem to like to bask. That might just be my observation. As for the ringnecks, I always kept mine in sweaterboxes no problem, so no disagreement there. Andy
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Andy Maddox
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

one of the advantages of living in South Florida is the pretty much year round temp. This allows for supervised basking in real sun (partial shade situation) almost year round (the key word there being supervised so you dont bake your animal)I agree Greens benifit from this.
Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Yeah one of my first mistakes as a young child was leaving "Cobra" the hognose out to bask in the sun while I was away all day. Let's just say I never did that again. Andy
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Andy Maddox
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry