Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had a lot of experience with various herps...bearded dragons, leopard geckos, various other geckos and small lizards...

What would you recommend as an interesting but somewhat social first snake? Nothing over 4 ft please obviously nothing venemous. I keep picking up Gopher snakes when I'm hiking and I've decided snakes are fascinating. (Note: Gopher snakes have not been removed and taken home)
-----
Too many Leos
1.0 feline "Spot"
0.1 canine "Tika"

While a corn can and will exceed 4 feet (by a foot or so eventually) their relatively thin girth makes them a fairly "small" 5-6 footer. Just about perfect beginner snakes in almost every way imo. Duffy

Corns are alright, but i prefer CB(only) ball pythons, but corns are great dont get me wrong. There are other great snake pets such as pueblan milksnakes,any rat snake, and california kingsnakes. just what ever you like the best, any snake is easy to care for except like mandairn rats and ect. but i would stick with the corns and ball pythons which are cheap snakes and hardy.
thanks, zach

My first snake is a Cal King. Beautiful little girl, hardy, pretty, an eager feeder and not fearful or aggressive but the one catch, is that she thinks my (unscented) hands are made out of mice...
If you feel a particular fondness for gophers, a CB gopher may be a nice possibility. The other posted recommendations are quite good.
-----
0.1 chickens (Condor)
0.2 dog mutts (half ownership, only mine when they misbehave, Lucy & Amy)
0.1 Halflinger horse (Crissy)
0.1 Normal phase California Kingsnake (Sophia)
1.1 parents
Still searching for 1.0 WC human

The only CA Kings I've ever seen have all been wild and they're very attractive snakes...that's an interesting idea. The wild gopher snakes here are HUGE and their pretty mellow. Unfortunately, they keep getting run over by cars in the summer season. Its quite sad really

My friend also has a little albino cornsnake...I didn't know they got that big! Shows how much I know, LOL! They seem very tame but fairly active, which is a plus. I think I better research this quite a bit before jumping into anything. I'm looking to get some Boaphile cages and they sound like they'd be perfect.

Thanks again! Any more ideas are welcome too
-----
Too many Leos
1.0 feline "Spot"
0.1 canine "Tika"

This question comes up here quite often and so a few years back I decided to semi-objectively determine what the "best" starter snake was.

I made a list of commonly available snakes and then gave each one a rating on a series of characteristics, such as how readily adults and juveniles feed, tolerate handling, how large they get, how expensive they are, and how readily available.

I tried to be as objective as possible, and here is how it turned out (lower totals/closer to the top is better) -

-----
Chris Harrison

That's a good chart, but I think different people will find different priorities. For example, I could care less if a 1-ft juvenile Children's python tries to bite me. On the other hand, I find it to be a real PITA sometimes when one of our ball pythons decides it doesn't want to eat. We have a very young Savu python who will try to bite me every time I go to pick him up. But after just a few times I knew exactly how to pick him up without getting bit - not the having him bite me would actually hurt. Once you get used to handling them, snappy juvs just don't seem like a big deal.

And I'll throw in my usual plug for Savus as a first snake.
-adults under 5' (males around 4')
-voracious eaters
-snappy as juvs but docile as adults
-semi-arboreal, so if you give them a good perch you will be able to see them out on it almost every night (unlike balls and other terrestrial snakes which can spend 99% of time in a hide)
-they look cool and change color with age

-Imp

I'd go corn over ball python. You seem to be interested in a more active snake, and from what i've seen, corns are MUCH more active than bp's. However, I have seen one bp that was just all over the place... but thats one out of dozens of different bp's that i've seen.

Also, why don't you look into a texas baridi? These guys are gonna be about the same size (4-6 feet), they are ugly ducklings but they are STUNNING as adults. And what I love, they got that texas attitude, lol. Mine's never bit or struck at me (except during feeding time through the glass lol. After she's had one mouse if i'm standing close she'll strike at anything moving. I call it PMS... post mouse syndrome)

The main reason I would suggest a corn or bairdi over a bp is, besides the awesome coloration, you get a lot less stress when feeding. I've heard of plenty of bp's that don't like to eat.

Either way you go, make sure you get a captive bred.
-----
Chondros and colubrids... my 2 favorite types of snakes!

"Life is hard. Life is harder if you're stupid." - John Wayne

Not really, balls are just as active as corn, but I love corns too lol. Just as good here is my list of best snakes.

Ball python
corn snake
pueblan milksnake
california kingsnake
western hognose snake
yellow rat, black rat, gray rat snake
rosy boa
kenyan sand boa
columbian red tail

All these are great snakes, but some are more agressive but none of these hurts but the red tail, the most aggressive on my list is the yellow rat, but will tame very easly, but all together corn snakes have the most morphs and stay in the 3 foot range as adult, but may get 5 but rarely, depends on sex to. well i hope this helps, zach

a "brooksi" or Flordia kingsnake is great, i have one, and it is my first snake, and i love her! she is the best. she also is very cool looks and has never had any hesatation about eating. but listen, they are hard to find on the internet, but california kings are simaliar, but i can give you my email if you have questions. but im telling you dude, they are great. also, they are almost as big as ball pythons, so if that is a concern, well they meet that at an adult size of about 4.5 feet. im telling ya, she is the best and its by far been the best pet i have had in my life, and there has been no parasites or anything! please, for my sake, strongly look into these wonderful snakes, i wish everyone could have what i have. I STRONGLY SUGGEST GETTING ONE, YOU WILL THANK ME LATER!
-----
i have one Brooks Kingsnake, hopefully breeding in the next couple of years! yaaahhhh, only if i can find a male though lol, but im still looking for a male lol