What type of snake makes a good pet for a beginner?

Question

I'm considering getting a pet snake, but I'm not really sure what kind to get. I would prefer one that's good for beginners and not too aggressive. Also, it would be nice if the cost of keeping the snake is relatively low as I'm 15 and I'm going to be paying for most of its food and stuff with lawn-mowing and snow-shoveling money. ^^; And if you could direct me to a good web site or book that is a good guide for figuring out how to take care of it and such, that would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

Ball pythons are great beginner snakes. They are very docile, and for one to bite is very rare. They require a fairly simple setup, which is good if you are looking not to spend too much money. There are a wide range of Ball Python morphs to choose from! Male ball pythons generally reach an adult size of 3-4 feet, with the females ranging from an adult size of 4-6 feet. Rarely does a ball python reach 6 feet, but it does occur. Ball pythons can live for about 20-30 years (the oldest ball python on record was 48 years). As babies, Ball pythons somewhat prefer smaller enclosures, so you do not need a super large cage to start with. As far as cage setup, you want to make sure you have a warm side, and a cool side. Make sure you have a hide, as the snake will be using it quite often. You also want to have a water dish large enough for your snake to lay in. You can use a lamp as a heat source on the warm side or you can use a heating pad(i use the ones made by zoomed). You want to keep the cage humid, to ensure a good shed. As far as substrate goes, you can use aspen, paper towels, or even newspaper, which is easier to clean. It is reccomended to clean your ball pythons cage at least once a month. As far as purchasing your ball python, there are many breeders that can be found online that will ship right to your front door overnight. I do not reccomend purchasing a ball python from a pet store, as most of their snakes are imported straight from Africa, and can have ticks, mites, and other parasites that are both harmful to you and your python. A ball python at a petstore might look healthy, but can have parasites hurting them on their insides. A breeder is the best choice becuase most offer beautiful ball python morphs. You can view pictures of your snake before you choose it. You also know that you are recieving a healthy snake. I hope you choose a ball python, as they make great pets!!! Ball pythons are great family pets, and can be very fun and entertaining to look at. They are also pretty slow, and are less active than a corn snake or a kingsnake. I hope this helped you in your decision! Good luck! :)

Answer 2

Buy a corn snake ( rat snake, milk snake, king snake, almost any colubrid ). They usually run about $25 in a pet store, or less if you go to a reptile show. Do not buy a ball python. Balls tend to be picky eaters and stress out easily. Let that be one of your next snakes ;)

The max length of a corn snake is about six feet ( it is uncommon to approach that ), are very docile (on the off chance that you are bitten, it will feel like a light pinch), are hearty eaters, and you don't worry about humidity. These criteria make it (them) the perfect snake!



You'll need a 20-25 gal. tank, a ceramic heater, a hide box (cut an access hole in a shoe box) and a uva/uvb light for daytime light.

Run the ceramic heater constantly (try to keep a steady 85F), but cycle the light roughly 12 hours on 12 hours off. Uva/uvb lighting is very important, without it it is hard for your snake to process calcium and will have weak bones.

Hide boxes make your snake feel safe, without it they will stress out and possibly not feed. Feed your snake [thawed] frozen mice or mice you kill yourself, you don't want an epic battle betwixt your snake and a mouse.

Whatever you do, do NOT use a heat rock. These will burn your snakes belly, and in some cases, will kill it from the burns it will cause.



Check out the links below for some really good dealers of Colubrids. They can be so beautiful!

Answer 3

I don't think reptiles make the best pets in general, but I own a corn snake I've had since 1992. She is 5-6 ft long and not very big around. She eats thawed mice and has been pretty low maintenance. She laid eggs a few times without any complication. She seems to enjoy being handled and likes to be out of the tank for supervised exploration.

Answer 4

Corn snakes are great beginner snakes! They are very cheap, even tempered, and have a easy diet to keep up. If you are going to buy from a breeder, they cost anywhere from $100-$300 for a healthy young corn snake. But if you are going to buy a poor Petco snake, you are going to want to get him checked out by the vet to make sure he doesn't have any thing wrong with him. Also when you are picking your snake there is a trick to check for IBD, which can kill your snake within weeks, by flipping it onto it's back to see if it can flip over, if not don't get him, and go to a different breeder/store because if one has IBD, they all do, I bought a boa last year not knowing it had IBD, and I lost 4 other snakes along with him from him spreading it (airborne)!

But if you are getting a corn snake they are cheap to care for. :)

Good luck finding a snake!

Answer 5

I would recommend going with a corn snake as well. They are incredably docile and very easy to keep. They primarily eat mice, and most will eat frozen/thawed pre-kill mice so you dont have to keep live mice. They will need a proper enclosure, basically a tank with a sliding and locking top, water, and somehow to provide a temperature gradient, warm on one side, cooler on the other. If you decide to get one, I would highly recomend doing the research on care for the animal first. If/when you go to buy one, I would not recomend big chain pet stores. Wait for a breeder show to come to your area and check out animals there. For corns, a wild type hatchling should cost you no more that $15, but prices will go up from there for other color morphs. Check out cornsnake.net and kingsnake.com to get some ideas about color morphs and prices, but keep in mind that cornsnake.net is price rather high, and kingsnake.com is a classified site, some are high some aren't. I would tell you to steer clear of boas and pythons becouse some get to be rather large making them more difficult to keep.

Answer 6

Garter and water snakes are two different species, and they don't make good beginner snakes. FYI, a long term diet of goldfish will eventually kill them.



Far and away the best beginner snake is the corn snake- docile, hardy, long-lived, easy to keep, inexpensive, and colorful.

I have owned many of them, and a couple lived to be over 20 years.



A simple web search will give you all the info you need:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=corn+snake+care&fr=yfp-t-501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8

Answer 7

Actually corn snakes are very aggressive for there first couple of years, they get easily annoyed and will bite if ur getting a corn snake get one that is over 4-5 years old. My friends corn snake has bitten him numerous of times. And usually goes into a defence state when vein picked up. Like I said this should only be for the first couple I years

Answer 8

a corn snake is a great beginner snake the don't mind to be handled and are never aggressive they only get to be about 3 to 4 feet long

Answer 9

I Would say a corn snake or a ball python. I have a ball python for my first snake and he is awsome! they are very gental and kinda get big but they are not mean at all.

Answer 10

a "Garter" water snake is a great beginner snake. Not too big or too aggressive and they eat feeder goldfish, so cheap to feed.

Answer 11

my favorites the king snakes-easy to take care of and love to be handled.

Answer 12

DEFFINATELY A CORNSNAKE, THEY ARE VERY DOCILE IF HANDELED PROPERLY, DONT NEED MUCH ROOM AND ARE EASY TO TAKE CARE OF, PLUS THEY COME IN A VARIETY OF COLORS AND PATTERNS.LOOK THEM UP ON GOOGLE AND SEE HOW TO TAKE CARE OF THEM

Answer 13

if you dont know how to look after one dont buy one!







they r dangerous