So my 7 year old daughter wants a snake, soooo that means i want a snake. And ive always actually wanted one but thought it would NEVER happen. So im reading as much as possible and watching as many videos as i can. But have given myself bite anxiety, to the point where ive just about given up on the subject.
My husband has had four pythons and said every single one of them used to bite him a lot. I’m thinking maybe he was a crappy owner, but he also had a few boas and said that they never beat him. And now in the past five years, he’s developed this fear of snakes. He’ll pick up baby king snakes that we find in the yard, but full grown ones he won’t go near. So I think. He’s actually maybe trying to talk me out of getting one. I dont know.
So I guess my question here sorry this is long winded is a sub adult better than a juvenile or a baby because I really wanted a baby and is it better to buy locally or order online?
Because like I wouldn’t order a dog online, I would go to a shelter and see the temperament of every dog, so that’s what I was thinking about the pythons. Is it better to go meet these snakes in person or just trust a stranger on the Internet? husbandry and feeding won’t be an issue tank set up won’t be an issue. I can do all of that. I have experience with bearded dragons and sulcatas, sonoran desert tortoises, and I raise and hatch poultry, so I have hydrometers and ceramic heat emitters . UVB bulbs and thermostats . As well as heat guns .Any input from keeper would be so welcomed because watching videos and reading on google is great, but not talking about first hand experience and knowledge.
Am also considering a kingsnake or hognose. But i know we want a chill dude to hang outwith.
Also!!! Do males and females have different temperaments? Thanks if you read through all of that and have any advice!
Juveniles are probably the best to start with in a majority of species. You still have time to socialize them and learn their behaviors early on before you commit to keeping them for potentially decades. Plus you get to watch them grow!
A majority of the animals I’ve purchased or recieved in a trade were established babies or juveniles. Babies might be a bit more prone to being bitey or fearful though.
It really depends. But I highly reccomend avoiding big box pet stores alltogether, their staff are untrained or unwilling to follow proper care of their animals, their animals come from really shady or straight up neglectful sources and their reptiles are not screened for health issues- not all are like this but I’ve seen them get pretty bad… for me its better to be safe and buy from a family owned small store or a breeder. Ordering online is going to be up to you to do your research on what breeders/sellers are good or bad, reviews are public so you’ll have to make your judgement based on that.
I will be brutally honest here, as a keeper of Kingsnakes since 2012-ish, if you’re not comfortable being bit then do not get a Kingsnake. They are extremely food motivated and can be prone to defensiveness and I’ve been bitten by them so many times I’ve lost count over the years, when I bred them and raised babies it was a daily occurrence.
I’ve only ever been bitten by a Hognose snake once from a food response but they are rear-fanged mildly venomous. I did get mild swelling from it, if you’re allergic to the venom it could potentially send you to the hospital. Otherwise the venom is medically insignificant. I’ve kept Hoggies since 2020.
I’ve only ever been bitten by Ball Pythons twice- both were unsocialized babies, one was a fresh hatchling and the other was only 2 months old. My juveniles, subadults and adults are sweethearts and I’ve kept BPs since I was a child.
Sexually mature males or females can be temperamental during breeding seasons, for Ball Pythons I’ve never been bitten for that reason. They just get huffy and hissy and may refuse food a few times. Males are more prone to that.
i would never even consider a pet from a chain big box, ever. Small local owned/shelters are my go to.
Thank you for explaining about the king snakes, ive had opposite experiences. Every cornsnake ive been around were aggressive and strikey. Never known a pet kingsnake , but we have wild ones here and its the only snake i have ever picked up without fear and without incident. So thats something i will do a little more digging into.
I have a “pet” California quail. He is constantly out and super needy will that be an issue with keeping a python?
Obviously different rooms, for stress management and hygiene between handling. But if the quail has run of the house most times will the snake smell him and get hyper fixated?
Ball pythons are known for being extremely docile. Hatchling BPs are usually very bitey. I imagine most hatchling snake species are bitey. The reason for this is simple, they think everything in the world wants to eat them. It takes a little bit of handling (socialization) to teach them humans are safe. A bite from a hatchling won’t even break skin. It feels like Velcro scraping your skin. I suppose if an adult was not previously socialized, they would be bitey too. But even an adult BP can be socialized to be non-bitey, I’ve done it with a very bitey adult that was probably wild-caught. A bite from an adult BP will break skin, but nothing a little soap and water can’t disinfect and definitely not anything needing professional medical attention. The sex of the BP has nothing to do with the temperament.
I would get an established hatchling. Most decent breeders will get several meals in them and get some minimal weight on them before selling them. They get them established before selling.
A great place for you to get your first BP would be a reptile expo. They have a variety of morphs and combos available for the pet trade that are reasonably priced. The National Reptile Breeders Expo is set for next month in Daytona, FL! The second best place is probably MorphMarket. They have almost any morph and combo you can think of for sale, even bigger variety than a reptile expo. I too would avoid the big box pet stores. The workers there just don’t have the knowledge to properly care for the ones they sell. And any care advice they give, well, I’d take with a grain of salt and do my own YouTube research to confirm.
Some of the more popular morphs for the pet trade are Banana, Pied, BELs and Lavender Albino. They are the more flashy eye-candy that a one-time keeper is usually interested in.
I encourage you to do as much research as you can before getting any animal. YouTube is an excellent resource. There are MANY reliable channels with well established breeders and keepers there.
Being bitten by a BP while gaining keeping experience in those early months is the last thing I would worry about.
My only qualm with buying animals from expos is that most people will buy from tables without doing research on the seller/breeder beforehand and end up in a situation they did not expect.
I don’t have major issues with it I’d just heavily reccomend paying attention to who you buy from and make sure you can easily get in contact with them.
Expos are also a melting pot for disease so only handle animals you are very certain you will buy and I also reccomend doing pathogen screenings either through an online order you can receive and send out for testing or through a veterinarian as soon as you can after buying the animal.
Totally agree with everything @cmsreptiles said above. I bought a ball python at an expo years ago and she was sick. I can’t remember what she had but I had to have her illness treated by a reptile vet. I contacted the “breeder” but no response. I think she was a “flipped” BP.
Also mites abound at expos. I have not purchased another snake at an expo after that. All of the animals I now have I have purchased from MM….. (was I allowed to say that?). If not I will erase the comment.
Reasonable questions, reasonable concerns, and reasonable replies.
I will throw in another consideration. Unless you or your daughter are dead set on a BP or whatever, I think you should consider corn snakes. I’ve had many of them as classroom pets and education ambassadors. They’re fantastic. Some do hatch flighty as is typical for other young colubrids, but the majority of mine are calm and curious right out of the egg. I’ve got several bloodlines who consistently produce babies with great dispositions. No bite, no flight, no musk.
Whatever species you end up choosing, do ask questions of the breeder. Inquire about what, how, when, and in what manner the snake is feeding. Being a well established feeder matters more if its going to stress out a child by not eating. If the breeder you’re talking to isn’t answering your questions, move on.
Kudos to you for working on making your daughter’s dream come true even though it’s not at all something you’d want for yourself. That’s love.
Honestly, I have had better luck with some of the breeders I purchased through online than ones I purchased locally. It really is a mixed gamble at times.
Do you have a friend that keeps snakes? You can maybe do a little meet and greet if the snake is friendly enough. Then you can judge your reaction (and maybe daughters). Or if you went to a reptile expo maybe they can help you find the right snake there.
Many times the reptile shows/cons/expos will have a list of vendors that will be there. You can always do a little research online prior to the show. We really can’t recommend a breeder or store on the forums because of the TOS, but the market side does have its reviews and such for you to look through.
There are some things you would want to watch out for if you do consider a ball python. Mostly just what’s called ‘spider wobble’ there’s a particular group of genetic mutation that affect the inner ear. The worst of which is in the spider or champagne morph ball pythons but there are some related genes that can do it as well. The other genes just aren’t as common. The severity of it varies and they can still live a long, mostly healthy life…but for a new owner that’s a lot to deal with sometimes.
I know you said you had a few problems with cornsnakes. I know sometimes rat or kingsnakes can get confused for corns and they’re sometimes more temperamental. I have seen a couple nippy corns though. The one I never had an issue with and started with as a kid was eastern garter snakes and ribbon snakes. They’re also a rear fang venomous species like the hognose, but unless they really chew on you or get a big mouthful it’s usually*** not that bad.
***Unless you are allergic or sensitive as mentioned above
The downside with garters and ribbons is that they’re sometimes wild caught and sold dirt cheap. But there are some really dedicated breeders for them if you check around.
You can always run a filtered search on MorphMarket with the availability set to ‘any’. That will make it so you see ads from sold or held animals and you can always look to see if the breeder has contact info. Most will be open to letting you know what’s available. This is how I purchased a couple of my snakes as well.
Regarding where to purchase a snake, I’ve purchased one snake sight-unseen (besides a couple pictures) from a stranger on the internet, and I’ve also purchased a snake at an expo. Both times I ended up with beautiful, healthy animals who turned out to be exactly what I wanted.
The nice thing about shopping online is that it allows you to take your time, sit with choices before pulling the trigger, and have as much time as you want/need to research and vet the seller. I’ll note that when I purchased at an expo, it was from a seller with whom I was somewhat familiar. Not personally, but I’d admired some of their ads on MM, read their reviews, and knew they were regarded as reputable. So I felt good about purchasing from them. I might have been a bit more iffy buying at an expo from a seller whose reputation was completely unknown to me. So even if you do decide to go to an expo, it might be helpful to look on MM for some vendors in your state/area and make a short list of some that seem above board, so you have an idea of some tables to be on the lookout for at the expo.
Regarding species, I think you’re probably most likely to avoid bites with a ball python or corn snake. Though I’ll add the caveat that while certain species may trend in one direction or another, temperament will vary by individual.
You can ask a breeder about temperament, and about the temperament of a snake’s parents. While most breeders refuse to guarantee temperament, many smaller breeders who know their individual snakes well will be happy to discuss that with you, and can recommend individuals from family lines they know to be pretty chill and easygoing. Larger breeders may be less willing/able to discuss temperament, mainly just because they’re working with too many snakes to be up-to-speed on each individual animal’s personality.
Definitely second the motion that kings are not for you if you don’t want to get bit. I suspect wild kings might actually be less likely to bite, because they don’t associate humans with food. They’re much more likely to musk, flee, or just wait for death at the hands of the giant creature that just grabbed them. Captive kings typically come to associate human presence with food, so they’re more likely to bite you in a misplaced feeding attempt. Lots of bites from captive snakes are misplaced feeding attempts. Snakes can be kind of dumb when it comes to food. They get all excited the human has opened their cage, they think surely the human has brought them a tribute, so they strike the first thing that moves and has a heat signature…which is often a human hand.
Balls and corns are less likely to bite partly because they tend to not have the sort of over-enthusiastic feeding response of many snake species (retics, boas, blood pythons, bull/gopher snakes, kingsnakes, to name a few of the perma-hungry).
Most everything you have been given here has been very solid advice so I am not going to rehash it all but I do want to touch on a few points
100% agree with this statement. And coming here was a grate first step in that
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First and most importantly. Any animal can bite at any time. Period. End of discussion. No matter how calm a given individual or species may be, there is never a guarantee. The number one way to prevent bites is to always be attentive. If you are watching your animal you will be able to see a change in behaviour that might indicate a bite coming
That said, in all honesty, a bite from a snake is usually pretty benign. I have had much worse bites from mice and rats
A graphic I like to share showing the damage more common pets can cause versus a pet snake (the cat is a scratch, the dog is a small breed bite, snake is a colubrid bite)
Absolutely this. However with one exception. If (if if if) you can find an established alterna you might want to consider that. I have never met an alterna that has bitten someone, they are very docile and fairly gregarious. I have used mine in presentations for kids as young as 5 and never been worried about them. My statement about the animal being established however is a hard rule here. The babies are pretty much obligate lizard feeders and if you do not know how to get them switched over you are in for a nightmare. But a juvie that has been feeding on rodents should give you no trouble at all
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Another thing to keep in mind - DO NOT try to handle your snake (ball or other) if you have recently been playing with the quail. The snake will smell it on you and may mistake the smell as food which could lead to a bite. There are other things that can trigger a food response as well so always keep that in mind. I had a snake that has never bitten me before or since take a huge chomp on me after I had been eating crab and cracking the legs with my bare hands. Apparently crab juice smelled like food to him
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My only caveat I would put on this recommendation would be to go for a juvie corn. It tends to reduce the odds of the transition to a new place upsetting the animal which can make them grumpy and in turn make them nippy. Also, baby colubrids are notorious for escaping and it would be very sad for the new pet to go rogue
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I have a couple balls I would like to introduce to you, Jennifer “Over-enthusiastic feeding response” would be putting it mildly for a couple of my girls. You might not think a 3000g animal could fully catapult out of their housing, but you would be mistaken
@heatherbug25 If you are comfortable sharing, might I ask where you are located? It is possible one of us forum dwellers are near by, or know someone near by, as a reputable breeder. I cannot speak for everyone here, but I have very frequently housed babies I have produced to kids as their first animal
Yeah that pretty much says it all! I’ve been bitten more than once by a BP, a BRB, a king, but never a corn snake even as babies. But none of those bites looked like those rodent bites in those photos! Even the adult BRB bite was nothing compared to the photos.
Edit to add: However each time I was bitten it was because I was not being “attentive” as Travis mentioned in his post.
Everyone has given you great advice regarding species, finding the right animal, etc. so I just want to reassure you in another way.
I, too, was absolutely terrified of being bitten for years. I had a ball python as a teenager and I refused to handle her because I was too afraid she would strike. That said, one day I did actually get bitten - and the fear went away instantly. It is SO minor. Feels like, in my opinion, accidentally pricking yourself with a sewing needle. To the point where if I’m not looking directly at the animal, I would hardly even notice that I’m being bitten. The strike is way worse than the actual bite just because of the jump factor. I own around 60 snakes and have probably been bitten upwards of 50 times by various animals over the years, and I just want to reassure you that it is a terrifying possibility but truly the tiniest little thing once it actually happens. One scratch from my excited dog’s claws is infinitely worse than any snake bite I’ve ever received.
It is good that it has been pointed out that there exist kingsnake species that don’t fit the wildly overgeneralized characterizations. The comments about biting are most apt for the getula complex (and most of the milksnakes, for those folks who count milks as a subtype of kings), but not too much else.
I have kept and bred L. knoblochi for almost 20 years, and I can very occasionally manage to get hatchlings to bite if I’m rough when I pop sex them. Otherwise, no way. I assume L. pyromelana are the same, but I’ve not kept them. And I did keep alterna for some years, and they did not offer to bite nor did they seem the type at all.
And if you do count milksnakes, getting any of my L. micropholis (Costa Rican Blacks) to bite is impossible outside the already mentioned pop sexing. And with hatchlings that’s like a gummy worm turning on you – not even worth counting as a bite but definitely worth a chuckle.
I spend a lot of time behind the expo table explaining to people how these generalizations don’t hold among the wide range of species in any given group. I also spend a lot of time explaining to people how the dozen or so most overbred herp species are not necessarily the better choices for some given set of criteria. They’re largely popular because people know about them, and people know about them because they’re popular. And because they’re all morphed-out, which is nice if you want something novel and pretty. There are so many species that are under the radar that are far better captives than what clogs up ad listings.
Changing topics: by far the worst snake bite I’ve ever gotten was from a small male hognose (feeding confusion). Almost suture-worthy, and oh my the blood.
Outside of the last 2 bites I got from my adult BCI I agree Hognose snake bites are pretty gnarly I’m more afraid of getting bit by them than any other snake in my collection and I’ve only ever been bitten once by my female when she was a juvenile as a food response lol
This is something I also think about a lot when people say they’re afraid of being bitten by snakes. Just recently my Brother-in-law had his hand mauled by an otherwise seemingly sweet GSD when he tried to give her flea medication. He had to have emergency surgery to fix his hand and there were so many holes up his arm…
“Over-enthusiastic feeding response” would be putting it mildly for a couple of my girls. You might not think a 3000g animal could fully catapult out of their housing, but you would be mistaken 
I’m more afraid of getting bit by them than any other snake in my collection and I’ve only ever been bitten once by my female when she was a juvenile as a food response lol