Ugh it's a SNAKE!!

[Cumberbatch2012]

I can look at them in the pet shops, and I've even held them before, and that's okay, but what I hate is when I'm walking in the woods and all of a sudden there's a snake slithering away from me.  Scares the heck out of me!  Yuck!  I grew up in the country, so it happened a lot.

[Sunshine]

He's beautifullllll

[Mirnyj]

I do like snakes a lot, as long as I don't need to meet a poisonous one in the wild.

[kezrob23]

I don't mind them in cages, but I have a very healthy fear of them in the wild. I've only ever come across one in the wild, luckily my friends dog alerted us to it as it was a tiger snake. I've never ran so fast in my life!!

[xeevee]

I don't mind them in cages, but I have a very healthy fear of them in the wild. I've only ever come across one in the wild, luckily my friends dog alerted us to it as it was a tiger snake. I've never ran so fast in my life!!

I lived in Tassie on a farm.  You should have seen the tiger snakes we got there.  They are MASSIVE and totally black.  I must admit, don't love coming across snakes in the wild.  I appreciate them being there, but I usually skeddaddle pretty fast.

[snwbear24]

My niece has a snake as well she has had him for years now! I don't mind snakes as long as I know where they are!

[flyawayraven]

Wow he is a handsome fellow! Hope to have one of my own one day.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I don't mind snakes as long as I know where they are!

pretty much this. 

[ThriftyPony]

Neat! I didn't know snakes lived so long.

I have been taking some time to think over whether I want to buy an albino garter snake or not. A new pet takes some consideration, I guess, and I want to be sure I can give it a good life. There is a nice little guy at our local pet store, and I fell in love, but I would need to find a secure enclosure for him first. I have two cats, one of which is a bobtail, and he is very curious. He has terrorized my rats a time or two.

Anyways, lovely pet!

[kaoskat]

He's darling!

[Fisha Seabreeze]

My hubby and I use to breed snakes for pet stores to sell (ball pythons being the most common and popular of the pet snakes). They make such great pets, they get big enough for people to enjoy their size, but still small enough making them easy to handle. They stay pretty docile and are not nearly as active as other snakes. A few years back we had a few small BPs start showing symptoms of Inclusion Body Disease, to which we quarantined them immediately and they passed away. It was awful. Then it went really bad. We started having snakes drop like flies, all of our breeding stock as well as just our own personal pets started showing symptoms. There is no cure so once they get it, its fatal. As it turns out a female snake we bought back in 2000 for genetic variety had it but it didn’t show symptoms till several years later. (We always quarantine new snakes for 6 months, but because this took so long to manifest we never knew) By that time our whole collection was infected. We had lots of really pretty morphs that passed away, as well as our own pets. We had to put y husbands red tail boa (Mr. Echo) down because he started biting himself (on accident becuase he couldn't correct his head), smashing his head into his glass when he tried to move, and barrel rolling. It was so heart wrenching my husband took it the worst about Mr. Echo. It was all very heart breaking and we have never owned any boids (boas and pythons) again. We stick to our king snakes, rat snakes, milk snakes, and such (we had them at the same time as all the boids but they never caught it).
I do miss pythons from time to time and whenever I see the tinys at pet stores I melt a little and have to resist taking some home. Good to know that there are pony people who dig on snakes too, They’re such great creatures.

On a side note, if Benjamin is as big as you say he is have you ever had him sexed? BPs that size are normally females. Just curious, you might just have a super fat boy.

I have a strong feeling Benjamin is a Benjaminia because of his size and girth and the fact his tail past his vent is really short. I have no experiance sexing and am afraid of causing him pain or damaging his delicate spine and insides, so I just say he's a him and be done with it. Though female Balls are bigger due to every snake being uniqie you can have a small female an a really beastly male so there is no way to check sex just by looking at I know.
I have heard all about BID and the only humane treatment is to have the snake put down as it kills slowly and painfully. Ben has never been in contact with other snakes and I don't handle other snakes other than him so his very safe from this lethal and highly contagious illness.

[Sandi]

snakes are not scavangers and he will not touch dead food.

Not true. I know a snake owner and he gives his snakes dead mice and they eat it. You have to make them used to it though. He buys frozen mice. In Sweden it's even illegal to give reptiles (and other animals) live food because it's usually a very painful death for the animal and the snake itself can also get hurt.

[Fisha Seabreeze]

I don't mind them in cages, but I have a very healthy fear of them in the wild. I've only ever come across one in the wild, luckily my friends dog alerted us to it as it was a tiger snake. I've never ran so fast in my life!!

Don't blame you at all, the tiger snake is one of your country's most venomous snakes.

Post Merge: November 07, 2013, 07:11:51 AM

snakes are not scavangers and he will not touch dead food.

Not true. I know a snake owner and he gives his snakes dead mice and they eat it. You have to make them used to it though. He buys frozen mice. In Sweden it's even illegal to give reptiles (and other animals) live food because it's usually a very painful death for the animal and the snake itself can also get hurt.

I understand that mind set but Benjamin have eaten live for many years and he was always hard to get to eat frozen thawed  but I never leave him alone with live food and always monitor him to ensure he kills safely. I just want him to live as a natural life as possible, being a hunter as his kind has done for centuries.

[tikibirds]

Not a fan of them since I FOUND a random snake curled up on top of my fridge a few years back 
Aparently someone in the building lost him and he slithered his way into MY apartment.

I was told it was a mexican rat snake? Black with a metalic green shimmer in the light

[Englishgothgirl]

I've been breeding reptiles for 10 years, rescuing for about 8 years and I also lecture on exotic animal husbandry, biology and genetics to schools, colleges and other establishments.

Myself and my partner have also been some of the first people in England to breed some rare Australian pythons, a few years ago.

Our specialty are large boids.

Mainly Ball Pythons, Blood Pythons, Boas and reticulated pythons.

As well as multiple gecko species, and colubrids

As well as exotic mammals, invertebrates and amphibians