Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am interested in getting a snake, I have never had a snake before but they have interested me since I was young. I have experience with other reptiles and animals in general. I just want to know what people recomend as a good snake. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Cody

I would recommend a nice corn snake, if you want more detailed info visit the corn snake forum

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1.0 Albino Corn "Lucky"
1.0 Snow Corn "Snow"
0.0.4 Southern Ringneck "Collar", "Bc", "Lazy", "Biggie"
1.0 Green Amevia "Gizard"

Get a nice corn, My first snake and I'm GLAD I got one! they are impresive and grow to about 3-5 feet in length. They eat easily and are have MANY MANY morphs. First what you want to do is read read read as much as you can and keep researching easier snakes, such as corn snakes,ball pythons, and king snakes also milk snakes are pretty easily cared for. Once you found the snake you want google a care sheet for that animal, for an example you've decided you want a corn snake, Google the word "corn snake care sheet", and you will get many pages dictating the basic care for that snake. If you want a king snake "google king snake care sheet" etc. Buy books because care sheets have basic limited info. You want the best care for your snake. Also I should say if you have a problem with dead/live mice whether you love them or don't want to see one die then a pet snake is probably not for you. If you want to read up on corn snakes, Go to www.cornutopia.com and if you want to read up on king snakes and ask questions go to the king snake forum and look up posts and ask questions. Please choose the right snake that suits you best. I recomend corn snakes because they come in a number of color morphs, if you want to check some out copy and paste this website http://cornsnakes.net/cornprice.php3 you can look at all the morphs by clicking on them and it also gives you a rough price of what you should pay for that kind of snake. Corns are the way to go although some may think otherwise Heres my albino corn snake, Ive now named him stiffler aka blaze.

I wouldn't reccommend anything until we know what you are willing and able to feed it.

Can you obtain mice for feeding?
Would you use mice?

Basically those same questions for every possible prey item... Then it's questions like, do you want a small snake? Big snake? Etc....
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Mike
http://www.freewebs.com/badyear2005
Check it out ^ Loss for loss for my year.

Many good choices. It all depends on if you have size or space limitations. Corns snakes are at the top of the list. For ratsnakes, it's hard to beat a Bairdi Rat. Many of the kings are great choices. Eastern and Florida Kings are two of my favorites, if you like larger colubrids. Thayeri Kings are a good choice for smaller kings.
Ball Pythons can be an excellent choice "IF" you purchase one that is Captive Bred & Born. Lots of great choices.

Steve

I am interested in getting a snake, I have never had a snake before but they have interested me since I was young. I have experience with other reptiles and animals in general. I just want to know what people recomend as a good snake. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Cody

Cody,

I've been exactly where you are for a long time and bought my first snakes last month. I'll take you through the thought process that led me to my choices.

I wanted the largest, heaviest snake that one person could safely handle. I'm a bachelor and not likely to be married, so I'll be caring for my snakes alone. I like big snakes, but I wanted to be safe and responsible. I heard from a couple of people that the rule of thumb is one handler for every six feet of snake. I'm a fairly big guy at 5'11" and 260 lbs.. I figure that I could go over the six foot limit a little bit but not much.

The desire for a large, heavy snake led me to the boas and pythons.

I wanted a red-tailed boa, and some people say that the males of some species will top out at six or seven feet. Other people said that there's no way when buying a boa to be sure that I'd get a male of the species that would stop at this length. All of the females have a good chance of reaching twelve feet. I decided that I couldn't be sure that a boa constrictor wouldn't outgrow my ability to be a good caretaker.

The choices that I had left were sand boas, rosy boas, ball pythons, and blood pythons. The pythons are the bigger of these choices, so I dismissed the others. I also think that the pythons are the prettier of these choices. Of blood and ball pythons, everyone told me that ball pythons are easier for the beginner to keep. At that point, I decided on a ball python.

As a second snake, I considered corn snakes and kingsnakes. I read in a couple of places that corn snakes don't coil and grip a person's arm the way that kingsnakes do. I had caught a wild kingsnake a couple of months before getting serious about getting a snake. I liked the way that this snake gripped my arms and hands, so I was interested in a kingsnake. I found an adult California kingsnake at a local store, and I bought him on the day that I bought my python.

I've already learned some things that might factor into the decision if I had it to do again.

I recently found a big corn snake at the pet store. This animal is beautiful, and he has great size. Eventually, my ball python will be heavier, and I want heavier. However, I wouldn't dismiss corn snakes so easily on the size issue as I did at first. A well-fed corn snake is an impressive animal.

Kingsnakes are burrowers, and my kingsnake spends most of his time under his water dish. Occasionally, he comes out and looks at me. Occasionally, I'll find him stretched in the cage. Most of the time, he's under the dish. I'm not sure whether a corn snake would spend quite as much time under his dish. I think there's a huge amount of individual variation. I've heard of kingsnakes that stay active and visible a fair amount of the time. I've seen some corn snakes at the pet store that never leave the security of the space under their dish or cage carpet. However, if I wanted a snake that would spend more of his time where I could see him, I might look harder at a corn snake next time.

I suspect that there are plenty of good choices. The biggest concern will be caring for the animal properly. If I succeed in learning to make my animals happy and healthy, I'll be happy with my choices.

Bill

You seem to have narrowed your choices to ball pythons and blood pythons, but what about carpet pythons? I agree with the ball python choice as blood pythons are usually short and fat, but did you explore the carpet python option? Coastal Carpets can grow fairly big (bigger than ball pythons) but they don't get to be as thick as red tails so it's easier to handle with one person. Another would be the Irian Jaya carpet pythons as they aren't as big as Coastals, but still grow bigger than ball pythons. The only thing with carpet pythons is that they generally have a shorter temper than ball pythons and your risk of getting bitten is alot greater, but the bites don't really hurt, they just make you bleed. Just some food for thought coming from someone that owns ball pythons, red tails (an anery) and a Coastal Carpet python.

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1.0 Anery Columbian Redtail Boa
1.0 Striped Coastal Carpet/Irian Jaya Carpet Python
0.1 Gray Banded Kingsnake
1.1 Ball Pythons
1.0 Sunglow Striped Corn
1.2 Leopard Geckos (Albino, Severe Reduced Patter, Carrot tail)
1.1 Pugs (Male-Fawn, Female-Black)
Various Fish

I think I had heard of carpet pythons, but I think something that I heard made me think that they weren't an idea beginner snake. I wanted something that would hang around my shoulders while I'm on the computer or reading, and I may have felt that these animals would be too active and too unfriendly for that kind of interaction.

Either way, thanks for the suggestion both for me and for the person who asked the question originally. My mental "next snake" list has a couple of entries already, but I'll think about carpet python as another possibility to be added someday. Right now, I have room for just my ball python and my kingsnake.

Bill