medium snakes

EXAMPLES OF MEDIUM-SIZED SNAKES

THAT MAKE NICE PETS.

Here's a visiting girl holding a full-grown, albino Florida rat snake---"Sunshine." This size snake makes a very nice pet---substantial but not giant. I raised Sunshine from a baby, so he's very tame, though many grown snakes are just naturally tame from the time you get them also.

Sunshine eats medium-sized, pre-killed, frozen, thawed and warmed-up rats. He might eat one rat every week or two weeks during their feeding time. In the winter, like most snakes, he may shut-down eating and just go on stored fat.

You can see the girl has Sunshine over her shoulders. This is a good way carry tame snakes, so they don't feel like they may easily fall down---which can make them nervous (no hands to grab branches with). You don't want him curling all around your neck in case they get afraid for some reason and start squeezing, but over the back and shoulders is fine. In any case, their body should be carefully supported and they should always be treated gently and kindly.

Here's a full-grown, white albino king snake---"Milky." King snakes are very tame, medium-sized snakes---though you usually have to keep them by themselves as they may kill other snakes (and even eat them). In albino snakes, the dark color isn't made---but the "shading" colors remain, such as the orange stripes down the length of Milky. So you get wonderful orange/yellow colors on a white background in albinos. There are albinos now that you can buy of most types of snakes.

Here are three grown rat snakes---a yellow rat snake (the orange one, "Rusty") a green rat snake ("Mossy"), and a black rat snake ("Blacky").

Mossy I bought in a pet store. Blacky was crawling along through the parking lot where I work, so I walked over and picked him up and took him home so he wouldn't get run over.

Rusty was discovered by some people cleaning out their basement as they got ready to move. They put him in an old vacuum cleaner bag and stuck him in the trash.

A friend of mine helping them move rescued Rusty and brought him to me. The poor little snake was all covered with black soot, very skinny, and scared. I guess I'd be scared too if I was grabbed, put in a sooty bag, and stuck in the trash. Anyway, he soon tamed down when he found he was safe, warm, had plenty of tasty rat-food, and nice people taking care of him.

These are full-grown rat snakes, about four feet long all stretched out. They're very tame and friendly. Rat snakes make nice pets, especially for beginning herp enthusiasts.

Here's a beautiful, red-orange corn snake. This guy is almost full-grown. He's very tame. Breeders have produced corn snakes of many different, interesting colors and patterns.

Here's a beautiful, full-grown ball python. Ball pythons are very tame, don't grow too large, and make very nice pets.

They are very shy, and if scared will curl up in a ball with their head protected inside the ball---hence their name. Sometimes, however, they can be so shy they are hard to get to start eating food when you take them home. This guy eats mice. He's one of the few snakes that I've had who refused pre-killed, thawed, warmed food---so I have to give him live mice.

The mice get put in the cage plus water and mouse-food. I then close the cage, turn out the overhead light, and cover the cage with a blanket so it's absolutely dark. The shy ball python will then feel safe to gobble up its food. If the mice get grabbed and constricted, they are unconscious in seconds. If not, when I come to check the next morning, the mice don't even know they were in danger---just that they had fun running around a big cage all night where their regular food and water was. During the time of year the pythons eat (spring, summer, and early fall) this guy will eat up to two or three mice a week.

Finally, here's a beautiful, grown, speckled king snake---"Speckles." King snakes come in all sorts of different patterns, from totally black to banded. In this type, yellow, black, and white are totally broken up into specks instead of being in bands.

Speckles lives with the ball python above. For some reason he gets along with the ball python fine, though he almost killed a young Anaconda by grabbing its head and swallowing it (before I came along and managed to get them separated)!

King snakes are called the "king" of snakes because they can kill and eat other snakes (unlike most snakes that are only interested in warm, fuzzy food like rodents)---even killing and eating other king snakes!---so you usually need to keep them only one per cage, and give them lots of attention because they won't have other snake friends living with them. King snakes have even been known to kill and eat poisonous rattle snakes!

King snakes are very tame, don't grow too big, and make great pets.

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