Snakes

[discspeed]

Here is a picture I just took of me and my 4.5' corn snake. She is a very chill snake and has never showed any aggression. I even let kids hold her.

[Frank Delicious]

that's a nice corn snake and makes me miss mine.

my favorite was a 3 ft albino my wife got me.

We also briefly had a huge red tail boa but didn't have a proper aquarium at the time to contain it and couldn't afford it so we had to give it away.

[discspeed]

On friday I'm going kayaking/then hiking deep in the remote FL woods to try and find some more snakes. I really want to find a big eastern diamondback rattlesnake and an indigo snake. I'll be posting what I find here.

I've always liked snakes, but that corn snake is the first one I've had as a pet since my garter snakes got out and crawled on my mom in the night when I was about 12. A guy I worked with gave it to me cage and all. Its a great pet. Very clean and it only shits 1-2 times a month. I just take out the aspen bedding that's touching the shit and that's it. I've had lizards and treefrogs and the snake is the easiest to care for by far.

[keltik]

I'm actually not scared of snakes, i made that statement because you were taking up precious disc space with scaly fauna.

[Frank Delicious]

scaly fauna would be a really good band name.

[Roy]

One of the girls~

[discspeed]

I'm actually not scared of snakes, i made that statement because you were taking up precious disc space with scaly fauna.

Looking at some of the other topics in this section I think this is relevant at the very least...

[discspeed]

One of the girls~

She's a beauty! What does she eat?

[Roy]

Frozen/thawed Rats.

She's a great ball python. She eats all year, whatever she is offered.

[Frank Delicious]

when I had a handful of snakes I was surprised how much cheaper it was to just raise my own mice and rats to feed them. Too bad mice and rats stink to high heaven.

[discspeed]

I have to admit...I like seeing my corn snake kill a mouse. My cat watches too. I understand though, rats can be mean and nasty when being eaten and they've got big and sharp teeth.

[Roy]

when I had a handful of snakes I was surprised how much cheaper it was to just raise my own mice and rats to feed them. Too bad mice and rats stink to high heaven.

Frozen/thawed is the way to go. Buy in bulk and tuck em in the freezer. I've tried raising rodents, but it wasn't worth it. you couldnt even raise them for the cost of food and then add all the hassle.

[Roy]

I have to admit...I like seeing my corn snake kill a mouse. My cat watches too. I understand though, rats can be mean and nasty when being eaten and they've got big and sharp teeth.

Rats can mangle a snake. Rabbits too when they kick those powerful back legs.

When I had picky eaters I used to feed fresh killed which equals putting the rat in a pillow case and whacking it on the ground. It twitches and all that good stuff.

[discspeed]

I've got a giant rubbermaid bin that I feed my snake in. There's plenty of room for my snake to take its time and bite the mouse right in the face. There's only been one messy kill--my snake hit the mouse from the side and must have punctured the jugular. Blood squirted all over and for a moment I was afraid the mouse had bit my snake. I had to clean the snake with a wet washcloth--hardly what she wanted after a meal.

[Roy]

I've got a giant rubbermaid bin that I feed my snake in. There's plenty of room for my snake to take its time and bite the mouse right in the face. There's only been one messy kill--my snake hit the mouse from the side and must have punctured the jugular. Blood squirted all over and for a moment I was afraid the mouse had bit my snake. I had to clean the snake with a wet washcloth--hardly what she wanted after a meal.

Live feeding is usually OK. It's a snake, it's what they do. It's just a husbandry issue too. I had few different species with different habits, so you know. But owner convenience is an issue too. Rodents are yucky, you cant even make it home from Petco w/o the bastard shitting 10 times in the box.

I was at a reptile show and saw Bob Clarks display and they were 3 genetic striped ball pythons hatching as we watched. At the time that was roughly $75,000 hatching while we watched.