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beginner help/advice


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Posted by chrish on April 23, 2003 at 23:42:57:

In Reply to: beginner help/advice posted by grimreaper32125 on April 23, 2003 at 03:55:03:

First of all, you need to do some more research. It sounds like you are planning carefully, but why not read a little more and ensure you make a good decision.

As for your choices -
Scarlet Snake - horrible choice for a pet. They only eat reptile eggs and have rarely been kept in captivity successfully. If you get one, it will probably die.

Scarlet Kingsnake - another poor choice. These snakes don't like to be handled, often don't feed on pinkies, and are escape artists.

Boa - assuming you mean a Boa constrictor. An OK choice, as long as you are prepared to feed it. Within a year or two, you will need to be feeding it rats, which can get expensive. You will also need to invest in/build a larger cage.

Ball Python - as suggested below. I don't recommend Ball Pythons to beginners for reasons you can read in the post I linked below.

Some others to consider -

Corn Snake - pretty, slender, easy to keep, inexpensive
Sinaloan Milksnake - pretty, slender, easy to keep and inexpensive
Mexican Milksnake (L.t. annulata) - same as above
(I would avoid the other milksnakes, they are either too high strung or otherwise not the best beginner snakes)
Florida, Eastern, or Blotched Kingsnake - get a little larger, but hardy and docile
Gopher Snakes - most of the western gopher snake subspecies are very docile but they do get larger (6ft+). Some of the albinos are very beautiful snakes (avoid Pinesnakes and Bullsnakes as their temperament is a little more unpredictable).
Ratsnakes - there are lots of good starter rat snakes as well, but avoid most of the asian species as they get large and the imports don't fare well.

Just a few suggestions.



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