Snake, snake, ooooooo it's a snake

[bladespark]

I'm still debating bally python vs. Columbian rainbow boa.

Cannot for the life of me find any two sites that agree on how to care for rainbow boas, though I am at least sensing a general theme as far as temperatures, humidity, and general care. (And thank you, Savashtar, for the fabulous advice on that. Also Darkbloodwyvern, for the excellent ideas on getting familiar with snake handling.) I have ordered a book off of Amazon! (It was just $3, I couldn't resist) that's about rainbow boas and related species. It should prove educational even if I end up with a ball.

Honestly in some ways practicality says I should get the ball, but... I just don't know! Balls are cute but rainbows are gorgeous. And I have been told that a rainbow is a wonderful snake for handling, while balls prefer to be left alone. I've also been told though that balls are great for handling and that rainbows are too nippy. Oh well. I'd say I'll just decide at the last minute, but I need to know which one I"m getting so I know what stuff to buy, as they do have slightly different care requirements. But I still have a month or so to make up my mind.

(And if you guys think I talk about snakes a lot now, just wait until the week before I get one, and the first few weeks after I get it. I'll probably be posting about it every single day.)

Comments

[tarathene.livejournal.com]

I for one welcome our new legless overlords! (And the impending entries about them.)

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

ive found ball pythons to be very handleable. :) they just get nippy if you try to handle them when theyre hungry.

i personally, would recommend a ball. i feel that they make better "first snakes" for first time owners. :)

have you done research on food? live vs freshly killed vs frozen?

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Yup. I've read pages and pages and pages of snake stuff.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

my preference in feeding is frozen, since its the safest for the snake. ;) granted, live feeding is always very amusing to watch, i feel its just too dangerous to the snake. :)

i look forward to seeing your snake and snake related posts. so long as you dont mind all my bird related posts. ;)

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

That's my preference as well, though I understand with some really picky snakes they just won't take frozen. I saw a real horrific photograph of what an adult live mouse once did to a ball python. *shudder* I'd really prefer to not have to get my snake put down because of injury! Although for some reason frozen dead mice are creepy.

(And nah, I like your bird posts.)

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

if you think frozen dead mice are creepy just wait till you buy a bag of them and have to thaw one for your snakey. XD the gross factor is unbelievable. its just a floaty little fuzzy corpse being waterlogged XD

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

He he he. Yeah, I'm sure it's pretty gross. Good thing I'm not too easily grossed out by that sort of thing. So long as their innards are all over the place I don't mind dead things. My mom used to come get me to take dead mice out of the mouse traps, because nobody else in the family would.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

dead stuff doesnt bother me. unless its a pet. then i cry uncontrollably. yes i collect skulls, teeth, hides and such so im not too easily grossed out. mouse popsicles are gross but hilarious.

i think theyre killed with a blow to the head, so theres not any blood or guts. there have been times that they didnt have any frozen in stock and ive actually had to purchase and kill my own mice. its not fun, but thankfully its a swift painless mouse death.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

*nodnods* If I had problems with mousicles, I wouldn't be buying a snake!

I used to know a gal... funnily enough you remind me just a tiny bit of her, except that she was totally psycho, and you're only crazy in a fun way. *grins* Anyhow, she was nuts about animals, loved them, thought they were way better than humans, all that jazz. Which I can totally sympathize with. But she had rats and mice. Looooooooooooooooooved rats and mice. The rats were her babies. She'd flip out at pet stores for having too many mice in a cage, mice were people too! That kind of thing. And she wanted to get a snake, but she insisted she could feed it "snake sausage" so she wouldn't have to kill wonderful mousey people for it! I kind of suspect that snake suasage isn't all it's cracked up to be, as it seems nobody even makes the stuff any more.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

"hi Harli! you remind me of this totally psychotic crazy person i used to know! bye!" XD just kidding lol

i know im a bit of an animal nut and sometimes im maybe a little harsh about it, but after seeing my mum neglect her animals for years and seeing both of my parents abuse all their pets, its hard for me to deal with more abuse or neglect, ya know? lol but barking at pet stores about their practices doesnt change a thing and never will change a thing.

as for "snake sausage", ive never heard of such a thing. it sounds really unhealthy for a snake tho.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was my take on it. I wouldn't trust it to actually give proper nutrition.

Plus apparently it's REALLY hard to get a snake to take it. Which I can imagine, as it doesn't look or smell a thing like actual prey.

Whatever I end up getting, I'll be feeding it little furry things. And being grateful that snakes don't crunch. *shudders* That's nasty.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

yeah crunching on reconstituted mice doesnt sound too appealing.

im researching Leopard geckos. :D Psyko wants one rather than a fishtank. which suits me just fine since itll be easier to maintain than a fishtank. but i think itll be a while yet. doesnt hurt to do a buttload of research. :D

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I'm reading everything I can get my hands on just now.

I hear leopard geckos are pretty easy to keep. They're spiffy looking, in any case!

Lizard-wise I like bearded dragons, and iguana. But I don't like either of them well enough to actually get one.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

beardies are pretty cool. i miss mine. :) id love to get an iguana but they require so much. too much for me considering the zoo we are already running here.

that and ive seen too many really mean iggys. kinda makes me reconsider owning one. :/

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Iguanas are horrifically high maintenance. From what I hear they're really smart, for lizards. I suspect that's the problem. Smart + a little aggressive = acting out a lot.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

http://roxik.com/pictaps/?pid=a752974

i thought you would probably get a kick out of that.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

That's weird and spiffy.

mousicles

[aazhie.livejournal.com]

they gas them to death, some people say if it is done right it's relatively quick and painless. they're still suffocating tho :P

Re: mousicles

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

gas eh?

im used to the head+wall=dead technique

[aoanla.livejournal.com]

Oh, they're not that bad. And at least snakes tend to swallow them whole - the crunching sound you get when you feed them to lizards is much closer to being ick.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

LOL i can imagine! i had a beardie (unfortunately he died of unknown causes years ago) but he only ate veggies and crickets. never did get big enough to chow down on mice.

[xianghua.livejournal.com]

I don't have any experience with either species, but I'd recommend tracking down batagur and talking to her- she's a herp professional and is my go-to person with all things scaley and advice-needing.

All that said? Do the research and decide what YOU want. I'd say meet more pets of each species and get a feel for how handlable they are on an individual basis with varied types of handlers, since that's an important criteria for you. talk to your local snake store (and herp vet). Go from there. Join some mailing lists that are devoted to pet experience with the species, not justs people advertising morphs for sale.

YMMV- this is mostly taken from my experience researching for a pet (pied) crow that's still another year or two in the future- I've had to be sort of creative in my research since there's not a ton of written material about keeping them as pets.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

I'm on a forum, and I've been looking at all kinds of informational and vetrinary sites as well as sales sites. So far I've seen quite a few ball pythons, but rainbow boas are fairly rare, and they seem to be few and far between, especially locally. But I do plan on spending a lot of time handling them at the pet shop before I actually buy one, if that's the route I end up going.

[emirasan.livejournal.com]

Snakes are basically like all other animals and people. They all have their own personalities. Breed really doesn't make a difference there. I've seen Balls that hated being handled and would bite anyone any time, but I have a pair that just love being picked up, carried around and even taken on trips. I would think the same thing applies to Rainbows as well. As for frozen vs live. I know it's "safer" for them to eat frozen, but really. Pets or wild, they're still instinctual predators. I have heard the horror stories of the mouse or rat getting the upper hand, but I don't think it happens a lot. Mine REFUSE to eat frozen so they get live. We are always very careful and even stun the food before we give it to them. It is entertaining to watch them eat, but we also stay close just in case something happens. I'd rather get bitten by either the snake or the food than let the food do real harm to one of my snakes.

I agree with Emirasan

[aazhie.livejournal.com]

All snakes are individuals, you can find a ball that acts like a rainbow, and a rainbow that acts like a ball in most cases, the indiviudal may have species specific behaviors, or it may only have a few or none. CB balls that have been raised "hungry" (not overfed, and sometimes a little underfed as babies) are generally pigs to the nth degree. My pastel female has only refused two FTs since i got her and I fasted her for a week and she chowed down after the week was over. she was raised solidly on lives, but eats mice, rats, PK and FT. Even my corn snake would refuse to eat sometimes, especially around mating season. Many snakes will fast for one reason or another, so even if you don't get a ball you may encounter refusal to eat at some point or another.
My snakes will sometimes take FT, but it isn't as though domesticated mice are raging killers. Usually the horrific pics are from some dumbass who left a rat or mouse in the snake's cage ALL night (with no food or water, c'mon, it has to eat something...).
If you buy lives from a RELIABLE breeder or store and they will be docile prey. If you feed live, you can just make sure your snake is awake before you drop in food and flick the buggers on the head so they are stunned and less likely to know what even hit them.
but really, if the snake you get is started on FT from it's hatching/birth it will probably prefer whatever it was originally fed.
Snake sausages are indeed ok to feed to your snake, but piggy eaters like corns are better to feed them than something like a ball. The only thing that bothers me about them is that they have few reasons to exist, one beingt hat in some countries it sounds like it is hard to buy frozen rodents because of legalities, but snake sausages are easier to get, and people who are too big of wusses to feed their pets things with faces. If you can't take the heat get off the UTH.... :P