Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello. I am thinking about getting a snake. I already have a couple leopard geckos, so herps wouldn't be brand new to me. This is probably a bit of a dumb question, but are there any smaller sized snakes that don't potentially outgrow, say, a 20 long sized tank? Also, to add to this brain teaser, are there any that don't eat mice or rats? I was just thinking since I already have crickets on hand that it would be a good use of them. Oh, and one more caveat. I don't want it to be a garter snake. So, if there is any chance at all of this snake existing, please let me know. Thanks.

There are many snakes that eat insects, but a plentiful(also inexpensive),pretty, and easy to keep one, would be a Rough Green Snake(Opheodrys aestivus). When I was a kid(waaay back)in the 60's - 70's I had several that ate crickets, roaches,grasshoppers,ect.......I see them in pet stores from time to time............................................Doug

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Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!

The green snakes are a good idea, but my understanding is that they're hard to keep alive for more than a couple of years - maybe have tough UV requirements? I'm not sure where you are, but if you're in the SW USA take a look at shovel snakes, sand snakes, and ground snakes - there are posts back in the archives of this forum on all of them. They might not be great handling snakes, though. You could always go for a common garter snake and feed it on mostly worms - garters can tame down well for handling, but they'll go through a lot of worms if you don't mix in vertebrate prey.

Billy
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Phillyherping

For a small beginner snake, I think rosy boas and sand boas would be ideal. A western hognose that is an established rodent feeder might also be a good choice.

Most of the insect eating snakes have somewhat specialized care requirements, and most are only available wild caught. There is a much lower margin of error with these snakes and there is also the hurdle of acclimation to overcome. Most do not tolerate handling. The shovel nosed and ground snakes are also burrowing species (you'll almost never see them).

Rosy and sand boas, stay small and feed readily on rodents. With minimal searching you should even be able to find one that will take frozen thawed. Most are also fairly tolerant of handling and are rugged enough to do fine even if everything is not perfect immediately. Western hognoses can be a little trickier and are known to fast, but an established rodent eater shouldn't give you any real problems. A 20 gallon should be enough for even the largest rosy. Male sand boas and the smaller desert races of rosys can even be comfortably housed in 10's.

Take a chance to browse through their respective forums. If they are not for you, search this forum and its archives for the invertebrate feeders you're interested in and feel free to ask more questions.

-Alice