How to Choose the Best Pet Snake for You

Last Updated on April 12, 2022 by Andrew

Researching any pet can be a long, often difficult process. This is especially true when you’re trying to research a varied and uncommon pet such as snakes. While many snakes make wonderful pets, they’re not a monolith. Not every type of snake is for every home. While personal tastes in aesthetics are important, you also need to make sure that this animal will thrive in what you’re able to give it. 

So, when looking at snakes for sale, it’s natural to ask about the differences between them and what makes one a better pet than the other for a particular home. With the help of this brief guide, you will be well on your way to understanding what exactly makes a pet right for you. 

Size

When choosing any pet, size is undoubtedly going to be one of the most important factors to consider. That red tail boa constrictor may arrive at a petite, cute size, but it can very well grow to something that’s over 9 feet long. Remember, your snake’s adult size will determine things such as prey items, tank size, and how easily you are able to transport it. 

For most beginner snake-fanciers, we would recommend starting off with a snake that tops off at around five feet long. Fortunately, you have a wide variety of snakes for sale in this category. 

Activity Level

Different species of snakes will have different levels of activity. This not only means them being more or less energetic than one another but having entirely different sleeping habits. For instance, your snake can be diurnal (active during daytime), crepuscular (dawn and dusk), or nocturnal (nighttime). As you can imagine, this might impact when you can interact with your snake and see it. However, most snakes will tend to adjust to the schedule and activity level of the people around them. 

Feeding Habits

While most adult snakes have around the same feeding requirements as any others, different species exhibit different feeding responses, habits, and levels of “pickiness” from one another. As you can imagine, this is much to the chagrin of owners just trying to make sure that their snake has a meal. One of the most notoriously picky snakes in the community happens to be the ball python.

To help make your snake’s food item more enticing, it is generally recommended that you let it defrost by soaking it in hot water or leaving it in the sun for a short period of time. 

Good Snakes for Beginners

While every prospective owner will be looking for different things in their future snake, some have attributes that simply make them great choices for a wider variety of homes. This means that they are generally docile and tolerant of handling, stay at a reasonable size, and have a lot of research/literature on their care and needs.

This includes:

• Ball pythons
• Corn snakes
• Kingsnakes
• Hognose snakes
• Milk snakes

Conclusion

Searching for snakes for sale doesn’t have to be a laborious effort. By doing a little bit of basic homework, and talking to the larger reptile community, you will understand why and how a certain snake will fit in better with you than some others.