Reptile & Amphibian Forums

right now i have an eastern king snake and i was thinking about getting a rat snake but i never had one before and i was wondering how they are? Are they aggressive? Any other opinions you guys could give me on them? Thanks

Which would be a good one to start out with?

You've asked a very familiar question. Short answer, either a corn snake (red rat), any of the "american rat snakes" (black, yellow, texas, everglades or grey ratsnakes) or one of the hardier asian ratsnakes (Dione's, Russian (sometime's called Amur), Trinket or one of the smaller beauty snake subspecies). If you were looking for a simple foolproof attactive snake get a corn snake as your first ratsnake. And with all the morphs available you can pick and choose on appearance. After having a corn you can always go for a greater challenge later with a less foolproof or feistier species from the others listed above.

Best regards

John

I absolutely love my rats and currentlly have 10 different North American Rats and a pair of Japanese Rats. On the whole, they are some of the easiest and most attractive snakes in the hobby. They are ready feeders and easy to breed. This also means good quality snakes are readily available at a reasonable price. A temp gradient of about 75-85 is good and moderate humidity is generally OK. My snake room humidity is at 40% today. To me, one of the big pluses of Rats vs Corns is the climbing. The Black, Yellow, Everglades and Grey Rats also love to climb so that is a plus in a display cage. Personally, I have found Texas Rats to be a little different. There are some terrific colors available and my favorite is the Orange Pahse from Dwight Good. Although there are other folks with differing experience, I have found some to be a little snippy. On the other hand, I have been able to tame all of them that were snippy. If you find one as a juvenile that doesn't snap at you, he'll be a good adult. Just be sure it isn't simply because the snake is cold. In the words a of a great man, "This is just my opinion."

I would suggest just about ANY of the North American Ratsnakes for starters. If you want something that can get a little bigger than a cornsnake, then a black, yellow, grey or 'glades would be good. You could even start with a Texas, as these usually grow out of their "nippy" stage pretty quickly (and before they can do any REAL damage!).

The cornsnakes are great, and so are the Bairds if you want something not quite as large as the blacks etc.