Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I feel really stupid asking this but my son wants a snake and I just don't think I can bring myself to feed them live food. Is there any such thing as a snake that eats fruit or something? . Thanks!
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Becki

1 Husband
4 kids
2 Hermans
1 Dog
4 Finches
1 Betta

Sorry, no vegi snakes...BUT... Most of your really good beginner snakes will take rodents which you buy frozen and thaw out to feed. I have 11 snakes right now, and they are all eating frozen/thawed. It's really easy, not messy at all...not even gross when you get right down to it. So...get your son a snake.
Do some research and figure out what kind you want. You might want to start with a corn snake or one of the other North American Ratsnakes. Check out those forums. There are other good first choices, also. Good luck. Do your homework before you bring your new snake home. Duffy

there are also snakes that eat insects or fish, maybe you wouldn't mind that as much?
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Sue Barnett
1.0 Florida King (Vega)
0.1 Western hognose (Sola)
0.1 Egyptian spiny mouse (Mia)
4.2 mini rex rabbits (Basil, Pippin, Reggie, Hayden, Jackie and Peek-a-boo)
0.1 Plott hound (Molly)
1.0 half Arab (Zarr)
1.0 Betta (Flash)

IMHO, the snakes that eat insects are NOT beginner snakes. Most of them are very fragile and have specific requirements and feeding habits. Green snakes, ringnecks, DeKays, and browns fall into this category, and they are no way a beginner snake.

Most snakes that eat fish are also not beginner snakes, as they too have different requirements than a rodent eating snake. Water snakes and garters fall into this category, and most water snakes are quite a bit more nippy than the corns, rats, and kings.

I would stay away from ball pythons as well. If you buy at a pet store (which I do not reccomend), they will more than likely have ball pythons and try to push you towards one. Dont buy it. Not good beginner snakes either. They have stringent humidity needs, and are picky eaters. They sometimes go off feed for no apparent reason for months at a time, and if the humidity is not just right in the enclosure, they will have horrible sheds.

Stay away from milk snakes too, these are very squirmy and will musk on you every time you handle them. Sometimes they grow out of it and others never do. Very pretty snakes, but not good beginner snakes either.

So my advice would be for you to get either a corn, a gray rat, or an everglades. Black rat snakes are generally easy going, but they tend to get pretty big, so that must be part of the decision making process. These are all in the rat snake family.

The king snakes that would be good beginner snakes are the california, black king, or desert king. Easterns are an easy going snake as well, but they are the largest of the NA kings, and just because of the size possibility, wouldnt be a good 1st snake.

The feeding issue, as stated prior, shouldnt be an issue. Feed frozen/thawed mice. There are a few good reasons this should be done:
1. Mice and rats can deliver a nasty bite, they have big incisors that can puncture deep into a snake. They can cause a snake to lose an eye, get a nasty infection at the bite area, or even die from the bite.
2. Cost, F/T mice cost waaaay less than live.
3. Ease of feeding. You just pull the amount of mice you need to feed from your freezer and thaw them out in warm water. Feed them to your snakes, no problems.
4. Keeping F/T in bulk keeps you from having to raise mice yourself, or not having the mice when its time to feed.

If you get a hatchling, I would suggest you keep it on newspaper as a substrate. This makes it easy to feed and not worry about it ingesting substrate, which can cause impaction. It also makes it easy to clean out the enclosure.

If you use a 10 gallon aquarium, make sure you get a tight fitting screen lid with security clips. Snakes are notorious escape artists, and will exploit every chance of escape!!!

Do some research before you buy a snake, get the enclosure set up before you buy the snake, and it will make owning and caring for it a breeze.

Whatever you decide on buying, you should check out a reputable dealer before you opt to buy from a pet store. Most of the time the pet store snakes are not well cared for and are stressed, and probably carry mites. Most of the time the pet stores dont even know what they are selling. A couple of weeks ago I was in one of our local pet stores, and they had a snake labled as an albino corn. Well it was a normal everglades rat snake. They thought it was an albino because it had orange eyes!!

There are lots of pictures on most dealers web sites, and most times they have pictures of the animals they are selling, so you can see the animals you are thinking about getting.

Hope this isnt information overload and is helpful, if you have any more questions, do ask.

Here is my hatchling everglades rat snake......

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1.0 Corn snake (KY locale)
1.0 Black rat snake (KY locale)
1.0 Albino Black rat snake (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Everglades rat snake (Dwight Good stock)
0.1 Yellow rat snake (Dwight Good stock)
1.1 California king snake (Coastal phase)
1.0 Prairie king snake (KY locale)
0.1 Black king snake (KY locale)

Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian

Thank you so much for all the info! I can definitly feed a snake dead mice...no problem. I will check into some of the beginner snakes you recommended and start learning all I can about them to see which would be better for us. I want to make sure we know everything we can before we decide to get one. Thanks again for all your help.
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Becki

1 Husband
4 kids
2 Hermans
1 Dog
4 Finches
1 Betta

Check some of the posts below and you will see some of the suggestions given for beginner snakes.

Definetly do tons of research, ask lots of questions and get eveything setup before buying your snake.

Best of luck!
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Check Out My Albums

1.0 Ball Python
"Aragorn"

1.0 Kenyan Sand Boa
"Gimli"

1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake
"Indigo"

0.1 Australian Cattle Dog/Pointer
"Kira"

Wow! What a great wealth of good, sound info...AND...What a pretty little 'glades. Nicely done. Duffy

I would like to add one more snake to hotshots list which seams to always get left out . I know I am crazy but gophers, pines and bull snakes. Are good snakes to start with will get a little larger then corns and kings but not much I also think they are a good starter snake because they are a little bit bigger as hatchlings.

6 feet is about max for them. They take the same care as corns and kings. good luck