Wild caught snake issues?

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Dark Rose

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 27, 2013
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Just in general, are there any inherent dangers in keeping wild caught (non-venomous) snakes? Mainly along the lines of parasites, disease, etc.?

Been kicking around the idea for a while of keeping a snake, something small, easy, like a corn snake, garter snake, something along those lines... Have a creek behind my house, and a cornfield, was out today bumming around the creek with my son, and found and caught a little 6 or 7 inch garter snake. Thought about keeping it, but wasn't sure if there were inherent health risks with wild caught versus LPS...

Thanks!

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wild caught animals often have mites, or worse internal parisites. I would suggest a captive bred animal.
 
crayfishguy said:
wild caught animals often have mites, or worse internal parisites. I would suggest a captive bred animal.
Click to expand...

Can these be passed to humans, or are they limited to quality of life of the animal if kept in captivity?
I was just thinking about the fact that before spending the money on a captive bred animal, catch one for free, and see if it fits into my schedule, and my schedule is sufficient to meet the animals needs as well... But if there's a chance of parasites being passed off to me or my son, that option will be off the table...


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those parasites are mostly specialized on reptiles and do not jump on mammals, including humans. There is a small chance to get salmonella but that can also happen with captive bred animals.
 
Mites and parasites are species specific. Nothing can be passed to you from a reptile except for said salmonella(which is possible with any egg layers, birds, fish and reptiles, cb or wc). If you brought a wild caught snake in it could pass whatever it has to another snake you have in the room especially when it comes to boas and pythons(ibd). I would leave the wild animals in the wild for five reasons.

1.They are used to the perpetual freedom granted to them and it's not fair to strip that away from them. Captive bred suckers I mean snakes don't know what they are missing.

2. Wild caught snakes usually make bad pets because they have to adapt to living in captivity and may reject food for long periods of time and waste away.

3. With wild caughts you have no idea how old they are.

4. Taking from the wild also messes up the natural balance of the population. I don't think that would be a big problem with garters though as they are the pigeons of the snake world. It would effect desert tortoises, tarantulas, pandas etc etc.

5. Wild caughts generally don't come as docile as cbs and may never become docile.

Garter snakes suck anyways. It's cool to watch them catch and eat goldfish but besides that there is nothing. They have an annoying habit of secreting a horrible musky spray as a defense mechanism also.

I highly recommend getting a baby cb cornsnake. You can get pretty much everything you need for less than $160 and they are pretty hardy. They are also generally pretty active. A ten gallon will last you a couple of years before you have to upgrade.
Cornsnake $50
10 gallon $10
Aspen bedding $10
Screen lid $10
Screen locks $5 (they are escape artists)
Heating pad $30
Two digital probe thermometers $8 each
Thermostat or rheostat $35
If the room temperature that it will be kept in is near 80 degrees you don't need one until you could afford a thermostat or rheostat to regulate the max temp of a heat pad(those things can get hot unregulated, I've recorded 130f, eek). Thermostats can be a bit pricey but they are a lot cheaper than vet visits and you could also use and find online cheap DIY dimmer systems to work as a rheostat.

For hiding spots and a water dish you can get creative. You can use tupperware bowls with a hole cut into them, paper towel rolls, or sanitized pieces of wood from outside.

Water dishes can be anything big enough for the snake to get it's entire body in and out of.

It all seems expensive if you get it all at once but if you do it right you can space it out between a few checks to lessen the blow. With of course the snake being the last as you have to get the environment stabilized first before you introduce it.

It's not the price of the snake that should be of concern because of course with all pets the cost of care is more.

Also I suggest a cornsake because they are seemingly more active and faster growing than the other beginner snake the lazy ball python (my love).

I hope that helped you some because I don't want to erase it all.


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You should have a vet run a fecal on any WC snake. Then treat for parasites if any are found. Then your "free" snake costs more than a CBB version would have.

IMO, WC animals should pretty much only be collected by breeders looking to strengthen captive breeding populations.
 
Well thanks for the advice. I've always leaned towards captive bred cornsnakes or kingsnakes (many color variations on each), so I'll probably stick to that plan if I ever decide to move up to a more "hands on" pet.

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