Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A friend of mine is downsizing his collection and has a bull snake he says I can have if I want. I wanted to know what the temperment on bulls are, care, and such. I have two corns, a cal king, and a ball python. Thanks for any and all tips.
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People Who Say Money Can't Buy You Happiness Obviously Didn't Know Where To Buy A Herp

2.0 Corns (CC & Norm: Peppermint & Guttata)
1.0 Ball Python (Norm: Ade)
0.1 Cali Kingsnake (Norm: Lady Macbeth)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Yellow x Gold: Vito)
0.0.1 Leopard Gecko (Norm: Pardus)
0.0.1 Marbled Gecko (Norm: B.B.)

Much of the general care and husbandry will be the same as for your corn. If you are able to provide a suitable envirnment for the corn the bull should be fine as well. A few notable differences are a bulls will get much bigger and will need more room. A healthy well fed bull should expect to get about 6 ft and will be almost as thick as a Pepsi can. An adult corn will do fine on a couple jumbo mice, an adult bull will hammer (and I do mean hammer) med rats. The big difference with bulls is they have personality. I think bulls are a lot more alert and aware of their surroundings. Sometimes when you walk in the room they will come out of their hide and up to the door wanting out and will be a pussy cat while handled. Other times they will coil, show their teeth and HISS loudly for several minutes straight. The pits put on a magnificent show of defensiveness that is not for everyone. They can hiss so loud and look so fierce that you would swear you are going to be torn limb from limb. Usually it is just a show and they can often become quite handlable once they are up off of their bellys. Some will also be tamed to the point of not showing any more defensiveness as sub-adults and adults. I personally have never actually received a defensive bite from a pit but do to my own errors I have received a few misplaced feeding bites (did I mention they have tremendous feeding responses?) and they do leave a mark. It would be important to learn from your freind about this snakes' particular temperment and habits and learn how to handle it properly. I see you have a cal king and I think bulls are are much easier to handle than cals. When a cal coils and hisses, he means it. The biggest warning I can give about pits is they are addictive. If you end up liking this snake you WILL be getting more. As I mentioned earlier they are not for everyone, learn as much as you can from your friend and interact with this particular snake as much as you can before commiting to it. They do need large cages and it will need to be cleaned freguently (big meals in / big meals out) and if you have non-herper friends or family at your house they may not appreciate the personality that we all here on this board love. Good luck and let us know what you end up doing.

Thank you so much, this truly helps tons. I was told that this particular snake has never bitten, is quite calm, and about three feet long. I would like a snake bigger then my corns and ball but not a ten foot python. ^.^
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People Who Say Money Can't Buy You Happiness Obviously Didn't Know Where To Buy A Herp

2.0 Corns (CC & Norm: Peppermint & Guttata)
1.0 Ball Python (Norm: Ade)
0.1 Cali Kingsnake (Norm: Lady Macbeth)
1.0 Bearded Dragon (Yellow x Gold: Vito)
0.0.1 Leopard Gecko (Norm: Pardus)
0.0.1 Marbled Gecko (Norm: B.B.)