Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am pretty new to keeping snakes. I own one variable king, which is doing very well, and allows myself and everyone to handle him, without any unfortunate incidents.
I went to the same pet shop that I purchased my variable, and saw a beautiful albino king male, that is about four feet long, obviously an adult. I had the employees get him out of the cage and they showed me him close up. He did not show any aggression either. The employees say that they feed him one adult mouse a week and that keeps him healthy and satisfied.
My questions are, is an albino snake healthy? Is an albino prairie snake still a prairie snake? Is it a bad idea to buy a full grown king, or is it better to get a younger one? I appreciate all opinions and input, thanks.

Hi Chris,

It sounds like you have a fortunate relationship with a good pet store: You have been pleased with your first acquisition and they're letting you examine the animal carefully, etc. You pay a premium in price at a pet store, but in your case it may be well worth it.

I keep a lot of albinos--I've owned albino cal kings, chain kings, hondurans, nelsoni, pyros--and they've been as hardy as the wild types. Yes, an albino (it's actually "amelanistic" but everyone calls them albinos) prairie king is just as much a prairie king as a wild type prairie king. It just has one pair of genes, out of its thousands of pairs, that have two albino genes instead of two wild type genes in that position.

Buying an adult has a couple of risks: 1) you can't know how old it is, thus you can't be sure how much life expectancy it has remaining; and 2) this is more of a problem in the case of snakes bought for breeding, which doesn't seem to be your motive, if you buy an adult you can't be sure it's not being sold because it didn't breed for someone else, that it's infertile, for example. Lastly, 3) if you buy a baby snake you pretty much get it used to your environment from the get-go, whereas the adult might have been used to a bigger cage than you can give it, or higher--or lower--temps or humidity, or to a food item (live vs frozen, for example) that's hard for you to get. Sometimes those habits can be hard to overcome, sometimes not.

But you've got what sounds like a trusted seller, and you've foiund a snake you like, and you can give it a good home. That's a pretty good match up for you AND the snake! Maybe you can put a deposit on it with thte agreement that they'll let you watch the next time they feed it, and you get to see it feed on the same type food item you will find convenient to provide for the animal.

good luck!
terry

>>I am pretty new to keeping snakes. I own one variable king, which is doing very well, and allows myself and everyone to handle him, without any unfortunate incidents.
>>I went to the same pet shop that I purchased my variable, and saw a beautiful albino king male, that is about four feet long, obviously an adult. I had the employees get him out of the cage and they showed me him close up. He did not show any aggression either. The employees say that they feed him one adult mouse a week and that keeps him healthy and satisfied.
>>My questions are, is an albino snake healthy? Is an albino prairie snake still a prairie snake? Is it a bad idea to buy a full grown king, or is it better to get a younger one? I appreciate all opinions and input, thanks.

Hi Terry:
Thank you for your quick reply, you gave me a lot to think about. I learned much from your reply.
Chris

Terry Dunham is absolutely right that albinos tend to be just as hearty and live just as long a life as non-albino snakes. I also agree with his statements about buying adult snakes.
There are some health issues related to albinos. Albinos can develop vision problems, especially retinal degeneration. They are also very sensitive to UV light. Since kingsnakes rely on sense of smell more than sight for hunting and they do not require UV light this may not be a problem to most animals. Some albinos have been known to go blind late in life.

Thank you for replying to my question, I also learned from your reply.
Chris