My name’s Michelle, aliases are peach, meech, chelle, gabriela. I’ve been a lover of beauty in the form of reptiles for years. I’ve only ever kept them as pets. I’m from San Francisco, California. Grew up in a large family and now have a daughter of my own. I’m currently a stay at home mom who crochets, bakes, and drinks beer occasionally. It is I who keeps a frenchie, chiweenie, and three year old sane while I slowly lose my mind .
To add to the joy of my life I keep pets. In the last decade I’ve had a leopard gecko, 3 cresties, 1 beardie, and finally have decided to delve into the world of snakes. Im on MorphMarket every single day looking for the corn snake that really catches my eye. It’s been about a month now and i have a long list of favorites. I’d like to explore the possibilities but my top three options as of now are very basic. Ball Python, Corn, and KBS.
An introduction to me is an introduction my lack of decisiveness. Only thing that’s certain about me is that i go for what i want… once i decide what that is. too lazy to properly punctuate anything.
Hey there! Welcome to the community. I also suffer from a lack of decisiveness I’ve been trying to decide on my next snake for ages. I’ve considered green tree pythons, rough scaled pythons, macklots pythons, Dumeril’s boas, carpet pythons, chinese king rat snakes and pine snakes trying to figure out what seems right. The only problem is that they all seem right
Yeah, I’m certainly a larger snake kind of guy. The only small species I keep is the western hognose. Don’t ever really plan on keeping smaller snakes other than hogs.
Zhe actually belonged to our at home daycare. We rehomed him. He’s living the life renamed Stony and lives in a huuuge custom made enclosure. Gali and Pliny were my first two and they both have passed away. Currently I only have one crestie.
Another beginner snake is Rosy boas, they have some beautiful colors, some morphs but not to the extent of others. I would recommend a Rosy over Ball, IMO ball pythons are too difficult, from overbreeding/inbreeding issues to difficulty in feeding. As you are a California native Rosys boas are native here, so it will be much easier to achieve proper temperature and humidity. Now you live in SF area so it is a bit colder than So.Cal where i live, but it is very doable.
Im not going to dog you for your choice. But i feel (again IMO, and every ball person will disagree with of course) i just don’t see balls are a great beginner snake.
To me they are way less forgiving if you are off on humidity, since Ball Pythons originally come from Southern Africa region, africa has way more humidity than California. I list count of the number of posts i see about issues with ball pythons ( could be anecdotal here, since there are more ball pythons some 40k+in Marketplace alone, therefore there are more problems)
Of course you buy what you desire and you will be happy with. I just thought id mention Rosys if you weren’t aware of them. They stay small so they are child safe as well as pet safe.
These are just so you can see what Rosys have to offer. My 3 Rosys Please if i overstep im sorry.
Noooo you are not overstepping at all! I love suggestions and I appreciate well founded ones even more. I need the food for thought because I just can’t seem to fall in love with the idea of a corn snake or a ball python.
I worry about the pickiness of the ball and the humidity as you mentioned. I will gladly look into rosy boas. Yours are beautiful! Tysm for sharing your insight.
Oh btw if i forget to tell you Rosy Boas are mouse disposals my rosys eat every meal and would ask for seconds if allowed , never had a single meal passed up.
Hello and welcome! Im a bit late to the party but still very much excited to see a new member!
I keep a few species of Garter snakes, a few Ball Pythons, and many corn snakes. But i keep looking at asian rat snakes and hognoses… the market has a little bit of everything.
You have definitely come to the right place , looking forward to see which beautiful noodle(s) join your family
Hi Chelle. I dont know that i agree with everything @rmleone is saying about Ball Pythons. They arent all as bad as he makes it sound. I have quite a few Ball Pythons right now. I feed mostly Frozen/Thawed rodents unless i have to feed live. Most of my animals are usually lining up at the cage door to eat once they smell their food thawing. I do have a couple problem feeders but those are the exceptions in my collection. Mostly, some are just more picky and still prefer mice over rats.
I haven’t actually kept Rosy Boas personally, but i have worked with them in a few pet stores i worked at. Rosies are prety easy to keep and docile to work with (balls can be too, but then again so can Burmese, Bloods and Retics). However, we had our problems with some of the Rosy Boas just the same. Same thing goes for kings, corns, milks, red tail boas and just about every other snake species available on the market. However, most of the captive bred animals available today are far less problematic than the wild caught or farm raised and imported animals that used to be available.
Just because someone else has had extreme success with a particular species in your general vacinity, it doesnt mean you will be just as successful. It also does not mean that you can’t be successful with them. There are several Ball Python breeders in California just the same and a lot of people all throughout the US and Canada that keep them just fine as well as scores of people that struggle with them. Just make sure that whatever you decide to keep, you arm yourself with enough information to be a successful host for your animals. Or, at a minimum, find a few good people you trust to give you good advice when you need it and that you can contact if you need help. This may not actually be your local pet stores as not all of the LPS are staffed with peiple that have to right skill sets to help you properly.
I think you’re in the right place here to get the information you need and in a much better place than most of us were 20 or 30 years ago or longer. Yeah… i’ve been at this that long…
I’ve been trying to decide on my next snake for ages. I’ve considered green tree pythons, rough scaled pythons, macklots pythons, Dumeril’s boas, carpet pythons, chinese king rat snakes and pine snakes trying to figure out what seems right. The only problem is that they all seem right 
