best starter snake?
- Thread starter Heppy
- Start date
Meals are a touchy subject. If you were to feed a coachwhip, racer, or garter snake one time per week, it would be a bad situation. California Kingsnakes are an ideal first snake. RTB VERY rarely will get 15'. I have been maintaining a large collection of herps for the past 24 years and have never had a RTB achieve that size. Also some boas such as the Hogg Isalnd will remain small as with other insular localaties. There are a lot of good begginer snakes like corn snakes that could be set up and maintained in a nice naturalistic vivaria. Take a look at "The Art of Keeping Snakes" by Vosjoli.
I have bred MANY a boa over the years and for the most part the males tend to stay well under 10'. Im not saying that there are no BIG males but the norm is usually about 8'.
Females on the other hand when taken care of PROPERLY will AVERAGE 10' with many that attain 10-15'. But a fifteen foot captive boa is a rare sight.
Also another thing to consider is how long it takes for a BOA to reach that size. Sure they reach the 6-8' size rather quickly but after that thier growth slows down signifigantly. And MOST people are NOT going to keep thier snakes that long. Sad but true.
The female that I use for my avatar is a 12 year old 12-13'er. She has been very well taken care of, NO power feeding, NO fasting for more than a week, NO drops in temperature (this particular snake is all pet so no breeding) and PLENTY of room in her enclosure. In my experiance she is the norm. Will she reach 15'? Depends on how long she is with me!
CHEERS!
Females on the other hand when taken care of PROPERLY will AVERAGE 10' with many that attain 10-15'. But a fifteen foot captive boa is a rare sight.
Also another thing to consider is how long it takes for a BOA to reach that size. Sure they reach the 6-8' size rather quickly but after that thier growth slows down signifigantly. And MOST people are NOT going to keep thier snakes that long. Sad but true.
The female that I use for my avatar is a 12 year old 12-13'er. She has been very well taken care of, NO power feeding, NO fasting for more than a week, NO drops in temperature (this particular snake is all pet so no breeding) and PLENTY of room in her enclosure. In my experiance she is the norm. Will she reach 15'? Depends on how long she is with me!
CHEERS!
ya i agre with feeding for my corn snake i feed her on temp because i keep her in my sunroom i feed her 2 mice a week in the summer when it reaches 90 degrees but in the winter i feed 1 mouse every 2 weeks or month depending when she wants food. my RTB i feed once a week and theres no temp drop so a steady scedule is key to sucsess. also iv had my corn snak for 8 years and my RTB for a month just a baby female.
You guys know that the chances of everyone here knowing the difference between a redtail (columbian) boa and a mexican boa are slim to none. The fact is , that unless you eat, sleep, and breath snakes, you probally don't know the difference between snowballs and your ass. There are a bunch of different types of boas from Central and South America and they all look verry very similar. As a matter of fact you can't tell the difference from some unless you count the belly scales. So just to clear that up. Theres to many boas called redtailed boas. Some reach 4', others reach 15' or more. So picking up the usual red tail boa from the pet store is not a good idea, especialy if you cant tell the difference from a hog island and a columbian. Any ways I'd say your best bet is a ball python. It still has that bulky big snake body in a small snake package.
softturtle said:
Well I know that the term REDTAIL REALLY only applies to the "true" redtails, surinam, guyana, ect.
I do NOT eat breath and sleep snakes but I CAN tell the difference between mexican and columbian boas. Its not near as hard as you make it sound.
I would be interested to get a list of the bunch of different Boa Constrictors from Central to South America. Try to keep in mind that they ALL are BOA CONSTRICTOR CONSTRICTOR. While they may differ slightly in size and color from region to region they are still ALL the same species.
And I have never been to a shop or breeder that has sold HOG ISLAND Boas as Columbians. I have been doing this for over twenty years and I can recall only ONE shop where the baby "redtails" were actually "mexican" boas. But remember, they are still both Boa Constrictor Constrictor.
And I could not disagree with you more about recommending a Ball Python. How is someone that doesnt know thier ass from a snowball gonna know if the baby python they are looking at is REALLY captive born?!?!? After all dont we ALL know the heartache of a NON-FEEDING Ball Python??
kingsnakes have to be the best starter snake in my opinion - my first snake was a florida king - she was 17 years and 3 months old when she died, was 4ft 6" long and at her prime weighed 1.57Kg .... she was a brilliantly eater, reasonable active, very interactive, never bit, peed or poo'd and lived her entire life in a viv that was 3ft long ....
what better snake could you want to start with???
I certainly wouldn't recomend particularly heavy body snakes as starter snakes, especially pythons and boas - I think that starting with a snake that has the potential to reach more than 10ft (regardless of whether it gets to 15ft or not) is probably not a good idea .. likewise balls can be notoriously difficult feeders - and it can be a little daunting to have a snake that suddenly stops feeding for a month or so....
Corns are good (I'm just not a great fan) ...
carl
what better snake could you want to start with???
I certainly wouldn't recomend particularly heavy body snakes as starter snakes, especially pythons and boas - I think that starting with a snake that has the potential to reach more than 10ft (regardless of whether it gets to 15ft or not) is probably not a good idea .. likewise balls can be notoriously difficult feeders - and it can be a little daunting to have a snake that suddenly stops feeding for a month or so....
Corns are good (I'm just not a great fan) ...
carl
How bout get whatever snake you want. Look at some books, search the net and find snakes that interest you. Then research the crap out of the one you want and get it. The only thing I would recommend is to buy captive born straight from a reputiable breeder, I think someone else suggested that. A good breeder will try to discourage you if you " don't know a snowball from your ass ", and even if your dead-set on buying they can help you out with what you need to know.
