need help picking a constrictor

[Yve]

NYbirdeater,
if the snake is actually going to be for your child(not you) and he will be caring for him I think starting with something that is hardy, tolerant and fairly small would be the best choice. This way he will have a better chance of being successful in caring for it without you having to constantly help with it. This will build the childs confidence in caring for it. Corns are excellent first pets for a child. Ofcoarse you should have a good understanding of the the proper husbandry of the animal you select. If you want to get into the reptile hobby for your own pleasure than get a larger snake..but again make sure you understand the needs of the animal...also, you will have to take great care with it around your child. It doesn't take a very large constrictor to harm a child or an adult for that matter.
A few recommendation for general care: don't house together(similar or different species), snakes aren't communal animals. Feeding will become a problem....not common but cannibalism can occur...also if one becomes ill the other will as well. Stress...a very big factor...these animals are not anthropomorphic...all they think is: food, warmth, safety. They stress easily, even though some may become very calm being handled does not mean they enjoy it....they TOLERATE it. When it comes to feeding you can purchase frozen rodents at petstores...if they don't you can order them online. If for some reason you choose to only buy what you need for that feeding, then get live ones and whack em or get a CO2 tank both humaine killing methods although it may take a bit of getting comfortable with. I only feed live to my ball pythons to 'jumpstart' their feed instinct after several months of refusal. If I do that, its a small food item compared to what it would normally eat as to prevent injury. There's always the arguement that snakes eat live in the wild why not in captivity..the reason is that a rodent can run away in the wild...a cornered rodent can do MAJOR damage to a snake. If the snake is not hungry it will not strike at live food prey. It will recoil and hide. With thawed rodents you can leave it over night and sometimes the snake will eat it...with live you have to stand guard and make sure the food doesn't retaliate. I've also heard of snakes getting bit in the midst of constricting...sometimes right on the eye ball....explain that to your child. Hmmm what else....tell you what...decide on the snake and then do a search for 'caresheets' of that species on the net.....there is loads of information..thats how I got started.
There are two reptile sites that I'm familiar with that I think you'll find helpful.
Kingsnake.com and ssnakess.com. both full of information on all species of snakes in the forums. Both have caresheet pages as well.
Have fun with it but do your reading...there's so much to learn!

 

[NYbirdEater]

Yve.

I have been reading some caresheets and those links have a lot of info. The rosy boas do seem very good and easier to care for than corns so I'm going to look up some more info on them. My son actually wants a python and cries every time I suggest something else or show him pictures so I'm not only trying to appease my own taste. In fact almost all the snakes I like best are way to dangerous to have around a child, and even myself, be it venomous or simply too large when adult. Another hurdle is now my son wants a cat! So it's up in the air. I'm pushing for the snake as a cat is a ton of work and very expensive in the long run. thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Yve]

I'd push for the snake as well....They are easy to care for and don't make a mess in the house!

 

[pitbulllady]

OK, here is a suggestion I hadn't thought of earlier-the African House Snake! It is a small constrictor, about the same size as a Corn, though females are typically larger than males. In most respects it is more like a python than a colubrid, though it's still classified as one of the later. It has a python-like head, with the cat-like vertical pupils, very soft, smooth scales that are very irridescent, and is a voracious constrictor of small rodents. It does not require additional heat like most pythons, however, and does well at room temperature. Normally they are very docile little snakes, and not too expensive. There are different color phases, witht the reds being my personal favorite. For a long time they were classified with the boids, and if they can fool the taxonomists, your son won't know it's not a python!

pitbulllady

 

[NYbirdEater]

OK, here is a suggestion I hadn't thought of earlier-the African House Snake! It is a small constrictor, about the same size as a Corn, though females are typically larger than males. In most respects it is more like a python than a colubrid, though it's still classified as one of the later. It has a python-like head, with the cat-like vertical pupils, very soft, smooth scales that are very irridescent, and is a voracious constrictor of small rodents. It does not require additional heat like most pythons, however, and does well at room temperature. Normally they are very docile little snakes, and not too expensive. There are different color phases, witht the reds being my personal favorite. For a long time they were classified with the boids, and if they can fool the taxonomists, your son won't know it's not a python!

pitbulllady

Wow that sounds like the perfect mix, I particularly like pythons from the head shape and cat like pupils. i will go and dig up some pics on the net and take a look. Do they often sell these at reptile shows?

 

[NYbirdEater]

They look nicer than the rosy boas. Do you need to feed them pre-killed prey as well?

 

[8 leg wonder]

sand boas would be a great choice because they stay small(2-3 feet), the're cheap and have a beautiful pattern.

 

[LPacker79]

They look nicer than the rosy boas. Do you need to feed them pre-killed prey as well?

ALL snakes should be fed prekilled.

 

[Valael]

What he said. It's not a matter of Such-and-such Snake being a better killer. It's just a matter of safety.


You could feed your animal live food all it's life and never encounter a problem. But then one day, you throw your mouse in and end up with a new pet mouse and a dead/dying snake.


The only time you can safely feed live food is when the animal is small enough (Pinkies) that it is physically unable to do harm.

Except I'm sure the non-rodent eatting snakes can take live food just fine, but you're not looking for those. And I don't know anything about them.






One species no one really mentioned are the different types of Kingsnakes.

This site is really slow, but it has a bunch of pictures of various types of Kings, including my favorites-- Cal Kings, Durango Kings, and Gray Banded Kings.

I guess on average, they tend to be nippier, but if you hold it reasonably often, it'll be just as tame as anything else out there.


(I owned a Durango for quite some time and rarely handled it. But when I did, it would *never* threaten or attempt to bite. It was an amazingly docile animal)

 

[NYbirdEater]

What he said. It's not a matter of Such-and-such Snake being a better killer. It's just a matter of safety.


You could feed your animal live food all it's life and never encounter a problem. But then one day, you throw your mouse in and end up with a new pet mouse and a dead/dying snake.


The only time you can safely feed live food is when the animal is small enough (Pinkies) that it is physically unable to do harm.

Except I'm sure the non-rodent eatting snakes can take live food just fine, but you're not looking for those. And I don't know anything about them.






One species no one really mentioned are the different types of Kingsnakes.

This site is really slow, but it has a bunch of pictures of various types of Kings, including my favorites-- Cal Kings, Durango Kings, and Gray Banded Kings.

I guess on average, they tend to be nippier, but if you hold it reasonably often, it'll be just as tame as anything else out there.


(I owned a Durango for quite some time and rarely handled it. But when I did, it would *never* threaten or attempt to bite. It was an amazingly docile animal)

Thanks for the info. Would you recommend daily handling of the snake or would that stress it too much? Also, do they require a heat source or high humidity? The african house snake seems most appealing because of how docile it is, the look of the snake, and the fact it can be kept at room temp.

 

[NYbirdEater]

The only time you can safely feed live food is when the animal is small enough (Pinkies) that it is physically unable to do harm.

I haven't read this anywhere so I'm taking a wild guess but can you feed larger snakes a lot of pinkies instead of one full grown mouse? That way they wouldn't have a chance of injury but would still be getting enough nutrients. Also, african house snakes I've read are wild eaters and strike at any kind of prey introduced almost immediately, they suggest not feeding them together if you have more than 1 beacause after grabbing 1 prey item it will often attack the second even if the other snake already has hold of it, and for a single snake they even suggest placing it in an empty enclosure during feeding because it has a habit of swallowing substrate. For a snake like that even feeding it multiple pinkies or fuzzies seems fine to me as far as safety is concerned

 

[Valael]

I have no proof that it would be a bad thing to do, but I would definitely recommend even trying.


For one, pinkies don't really have fully developed bones. I don't know how vital calcium is for snakes, but I'm sure a growing snake needs it.


Two, I'm willing to bet money that after they reach a certain size, they'd ignore it.


Overall, I'd say it's a horrible idea to even consider trying.


The fact is, if you want a snake that will be healthy all of it's life, you're going to have to kill the rodent before you put it in there.

Don't get a snake if all you want to do is see the rodent fight for it's life. It's kind of neat, but there's a very real chance you'll regret it down the road.

 

[Yve]

10 pinkies will not have the same amount of meat or fat on them in comparison to one appropriately sized rodent. Their 'contents' so to speak is different than that of a larger rodent and the ratio when comparing nutrients will be very different. pinkies are mainly skin and bones.....in terms of adequate nutrition feeding 1 appropriately sized rodent is best. You can buy frozen rodents online, its the easiest, cheapest and the only safe way to feed a snake. There is no proven benefit in feeding live prey so why put the snake at risk?

 

[NYbirdEater]

Thanks for the info guys. Watching the rodent die is not why I want the snake to eat live food, I thought there might have been some other feeding methods that proved safer for the snake and healthy while also having the beneficial effect of feeding them live food like they are used to in the wild.

Buying frozen mice is no problem with me, although a thawed one probably leaves a less than desirable smell in the kitchen. I have been speaking to people I know who keep constrictors and they have mentioned several species which strike at anything, living or not. Almost all of them did say that certain species never had problems taking down live prey because they are such efficient hunters and don't even give the mouse a chance to fight back if it wanted to. I'm sure there are exceptions especially depending on the particular temperment of the snake you happen to get or if the mouse just happens to get lucky. I plan on feeding it live until it takes large prey at which point I'll switch to frozen.

BTW I keep hearing about mice as the only source of food for the constrictors. Do any of them eat lizards or other snakes, frogs and other amphibians, or even large insects? It seems like most animals need some kind of fluctuation in their diet and I can't imagine in the wild the snake manages to survive merely on rodents specifically mice.

 

[protheus]

On the colubrid question colubrids are the largest group of snakes and contain kings, milks, rats etc. etc. as opposed to boids being boas and pythons.

... and don't forget the Boomslang. Remarkably tolerant, it seems, but I wouldn't recommend it for your son, due to the reputed lethality of its venom.

EDIT: What I mean is that the Boomslang is a colubrid, not a boid, to be clear.

Chris

 

[Mojo Jojo]

You aren't going to smell a freshly thawed rodent. I think that they are usually frozen alive. So there hasn't been any time for decomposition. And it isn't going to be decomposing while it is thawing. So as long as you feed it right after it is thawed, then you shouldn't have any odor problems.

As for a snake that will strike at anything that moves -- there is always that occaisionality where it doesn't. I can tell you one thing though, it really sucks to come home to find your snake chewed up by a rodent.

Jon

 

[pitbulllady]

On the contrary, thawing mice don't smell at all, unless they were already rotting when frozen, which is highly unlikely. LIVE mice stink to High Heaven, however, especially the males! On days I feed my snakes, I simply take out the appropriate number of mice and/or rats in the morning before I leave for work or whatever, and lay them out on several sheets of newpaper. By evening, they are thawed up and room temperature and ready to be fed to the snakes. No smell, and no risk of them biting either me OR my snakes(believe me, even a mouse can do some serious damage with its teeth). Frozen rodents not only don't stink, but they don't cause quite as much problems for those of us unfortunates who happen to be highly allergic to rodents and their dander.
As for snakes swallowing substrate while eating, as well as snake battles over food, this can be remedied by placing the snake in a clear plastic sweater box container for feeding, with either no substrate or newspaper(I use newspaper in my cages anyway). I have several snakes which live together in the same cages, but have to be separated for feeding, otherwise fights will break out and somebody could get eaten along with a rodent-my Coachwhips are especially bad about this! I just separate them for feeding. If you only have one snake, it's not even a problem.

pitbulllady

 

[NYbirdEater]

You aren't going to smell a freshly thawed rodent. I think that they are usually frozen alive. So there hasn't been any time for decomposition. And it isn't going to be decomposing while it is thawing. So as long as you feed it right after it is thawed, then you shouldn't have any odor problems.

As for a snake that will strike at anything that moves -- there is always that occaisionality where it doesn't. I can tell you one thing though, it really sucks to come home to find your snake chewed up by a rodent.

Jon

I thought just dropping it in warm water would give you a nice little mouse smell, but thanks for the heads up. Also, I would only feed my snake while I was there, and not leave the house while a live rodent was in the tank with it. BTW no one suggested cracking off the mouse's teeth JK that is cruel

 

[8 leg wonder]

I just wanted to say something about freezing mice alive, I just wack it up against the wall to kill it, its quick and you dont have to worry about anything going wrong with a live mouse in the freezer. I honestly think its cruel to leave a live mouse in the freezer to die slowly.

 

[Yve]

wacking them and also CO2 is the most humane way. I usually leave them out to thaw as well (I normally buy them in bulk already frozen). If you're feeding corn size snakes your food items are fairly small and can be thawed in a zip lock bag dunked in a bowl of very warm water. Its faster this way then leaving out. Also it doesn't get wet and messy.