Getting ready to get a new snake can be a daunting process. Locating the perfect pet shouldn’t be. In this guide we will show you four of the best places to locate a snake that is for sale.

Craig’s List

There are often snakes listed for sale on Craig’s List. Simply visit www.craigslist.org and select your city, state, or country from the list. Once you’ve done that look for the Community section (currently upper left corner) and the click on Pets. Once you do that take advantage of the search function in Craig’s List and search for terms such as “snake”, “boa”, “python”, or whatever other snake related terms you can think of. At this point it is as easy as clicking through to the ads.

Advantages: Local area and the prices is usually lower than average because people are simply trying to get rid of their snakes.

Disadvantages: Often snakes come from previous owners who either didn’t know what they were doing or were simply neglectful. The animals are often in very poor shape and need extensive medical treatment.

Recommendation: If you have experience and are willing to take on a project, yes. For the average person no.

General chain pet stores

Depending on the store they may or may not have snakes for sale. Usually it depends on the particular franchise as in one store they are selling them and in another in the same town they don’t. These aren’t at all hard to find. Just look in a local phone book under “pet store” and you’ll probably see a good number of them. Then you just have to get there to have a look around.

Advantages: Local

Disadvantages: Poorly cared for overly priced animals.

Recommendation: Absolutely not

Specialized reptile pet stores

The challenge with these types of stores isn’t if you can buy a snake, but locating one can be a difficult. Not every town has one but if you’re will to do a little traveling you’ll usually be able to find one within a reasonable distance. These stores specialize in moving exotic animals. Particularly lizards and snakes. Staff is generally knowledgeable and pleasant to work with when it comes to their snakes.

Advantages: Knowledgeable staff, local, and pricing is usually competitive

Disadvantages: Less of selection and often times they only specialize in 1 or 2 species.

Recommendation: In 99.9% of all cases yes, but as always buyer beware.

Online reptile markets

If you have an internet connection and a credit card (or paypal account) you can easily buy a new snake and have it shipped directly to your door, usually within 24 hours. Sites like Fauna Classifieds and King Snake provide a centralized location for people from all over the world to buy and sell their snakes. These sites don’t actually sell snakes instead they allow buyers and sellers to network together.

Advantages: Huge selection and potential for some really good pricing.

Disadvantages: Lack of face to face contact and buying animals sight unseen.

Recommendation: Yes, but be sure you read and understand the Board of Inquiry at Fauna pay attention to member feedback on both sites so you don’t fall victim to a scammer.

Genetic manipulation is responsible for a wide variety of colors and patterns among pet snakes. If you’ve ever spent any amount of time in a reptile section of any pet store you can’t help but notice the stunning difference in snakes of the same species due to the tireless efforts of breeders. In zoology these differences are known as morphs. Generally you won’t find many physical differences in snakes of the same species when it comes to morphs, but color differences is very common.

You will frequently see the term wild-type while looking at this and other guides to morphing. This refers to a snake’s appearance in the wild. It doesn’t mean that you won’t find any genetically morphed snakes in the wild, but that it is the “normal” appearance of the snake when found in its native habitat. All morphs originate from these wild-type animals so we use them as baseline examples of the particular snakes appearance.

What causes morphs in snakes?

Before we answer the question of what causes it is important to understand “what is” a morph. Boiled down to the most basic form a morph is a mutation, a departure from the expected and normal appearance. This happens at the DNA level. It should be understood that a morph occurring in a snake doesn’t mean it is genetic. It must be proven-out over several generations of breedings to exhibit that the trait in question is passed along to other snakes within it’s lineage.

In snakes these genetic mutation (morphs) are caused by humans selectively breeding the snakes for different color traits. Almost all animals have been selectively bred by humans at one point or another. Dogs and cats are prime examples. Those animals have been selectively bred for thousands of years to obtain hundreds of different types with all manner of looks, temperments, and color patterns. The same thing happens with snakes except it has only been the past 20 or 30 years that people have really been working on making morphs of their natural appearances.

On a more scientific level morphs are the result of a living creatures dna not producing the expected or “normal” results. For instance an off-white color isn’t normal for Ball Pythons, but as you can see by the picture to the right they exist. Now the python in the picture wasn’t the result of an accident. It came by way of very deliberate breeding designed to make them more and more hypomelanistic over the years. This selective breeding has produced an animal nearly free of melanin I say nearly free because if you look closely at the picture you can still see its natural pattern emerging through the white. Obviously snakes that look like that wouldn’t fair very well in the wild because of their total lack of camouflage.

How can I tell if my snake is a morph?

One way to tell is simply by looking at it. If you’ve done your research about choosing a pet snake you should certainly know what your snake looks like. If you get a snake that looks like yours physically, but is a different color and/or pattern there is a good chance it is a morph. Most breeders will charge you more for morphs than they will for normals as well.

But what if you have a morph that isn’t displaying any color or pattern aberrations that can distinguish it from a normal snake? In that case you have what is known as a gene. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist just that it is “pushed away” by a dominant or co-dominant gene. You might remember from basic high school biology class when you were taught about eye color. The usual example is one parent having brown eyes and one parent having blue eyes. If you remember the lesson usually stated that the offspring of both parents would have brown eyes, because brown is dominate while blue is recessive. When you see it written out in punnet square the dominate gene is always expressed as a capital letter (eg; A,B,C, etc) while the recessive is expressed as a lower case letter (eg:a,b,c, etc).

Suppose that you have a yellow snake and a red snake that you breed together. After they hatch you find that all but one of them is red. That one that isn’t red is kind of an orange color. So you set that one aside and sell the rest. After a few years you breed the orange snake to another red snake and they have all red offspring. You keep all of their offspring and a few years later you breed them to other red snakes of the same type. Each of those four snakes has four snakes making a total of 16 offspring. Out of that 16 offspring 4 of them are yellow, 11 are red, and 1 is orange. In this example the red is the dominant gene, yellow is co-dominant, and orange is recessive. Notice how it took multiple breeding’s and generations for the recessive gene to show up? Think of it in terms of gambling. You may or may not hit the jackpot in trying to get a recessive gene to prove-out, but it’s fun to try.

Why are morphs of snakes worth more than the wild-type?

In the simplest of terms it is because they are rarer than their normal counterparts. How rare depends on too many factors to list here, but their pricing will reflect how rare (and in demand) they are.

The real question is why are they so rare? The main reason is because they aren’t normal. They take extra effort to produce. Sometimes it’s easier than others, but it is always harder than producing wild-types of the same species. In the final equation they are worth more because you and I as buyers are willing to pay more for them. It is simple market economics in a supply and demand industry.

Are colors the only things that genes affect in snakes?

No, snakes are just like any other living animal and a variety of factors can be affected by genetics. One example is the “dwarf” lines of Reticulated and Burmese pythons. Someone manipulated the genetics of normal sized animals to come up with dwarf versions of them. Basically they created a midget snake by breeding and proving out a gene in their bloodlines which causes stunted growth.

Sometimes the genetic “manipulation” isn’t intended and causes abnormal behavior in otherwise normal animals. An example is the “Spider Ball” (pictured left). The Spider mutation has not only produced amazing animals, but also has left a strange side effect in some of those animals. It is called “spinning”. I’ve seen it twice in one instance the snake looked like it was bopping its head to some unheard music. In the other instance it looked like it was having a seizure. We know that this condition of spinning is genetic because it has been passed down from one generation to the next.

How much money will I make off of morphs?

Probably not much. Unless you happen to prove-out a morph that no one else knows about. There’s money to be made in the snake industry, but it is like anything else in life. You’ll have to work hard and you’ll probably spend a considerable amount of time, energy, money, and resources before you even begin to turn a profit, let alone “make money”. Go into it with the idea that you’re going to have some fun, learn a few things and consider the money you spend towards morph projects as disposable income that you’ll never see again. And if you do see it again be pleasantly surprised.

This was meant to be a very basic introduction to genetics. It is not meant to be a “be all end all” authoritative guide. There are many resources available that are more suited towards that end. This guide is only meant to briefly introduce you to the idea of morphs and the endless possibilities that are potentially out there.

What is scale rot?

Scale rot is a bacterial infection often found in captive reptiles, especially snakes. It is caused by the conditions being too moist and also by improper husbandry practices involving failure to properly clean the animal’s enclosure. Basically they slither around in their own excrement and come down with an infection on their stomachs. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Left untreated and allowed to grow scale rot is fatal, literally eating away at the snake from the outside. If you have a snake with scale rot, or you suspect scale rot get on it right away.

How do you tell if it’s scale rot?

Scale rot will usually initially show up as ulcerations on a snakes belly, reddish brown in color. It will begin to compromise and errode the scales on the snakes underside with large blisters not being uncommon. You shouldn’t confuse a reddish colored belly with a snake preparing to shed as both scale rot and shedding are often marked by red underbellies on many snakes.

Inspecting your snake should be a thrice weekly event where you take an inventory of it to ensure there are no health problems. Snakes won’t tell you they’re hurting so you need to learn to observer for your self.

How to treat scale rot

If you notice the scale rot before blisters begin to form you will often be successful in treating the condition by taking some simple steps.

1. Get the temperature right
2. Get the humidity right
3. Get the tank cleaned up
4. Use triple anti-biotic ointment (WITHOUT painkiller)
5. A bath in a betadine solution (10% betadine)

If you don’t catch it until blisters are forming it is necessary to take a trip to the vets. It might even be necessary before they form, but only you know your own snake well enough to know what it needs. You should always err on the side of caution when it comes to dealing with your pets health. That’s why it is always important to chose a vet for your snakes before an emergency happens.

One of the most challenging tasks for any pet snake owner is keeping the humidity where it needs to be in order for the snakes to not only thrive, but also to simply be content and healthy. Not all snakes require a great amount of attention to the humidity in their tanks or tubs, but many of them do. Especially tropical and sub-tropical species.

Why humidity is important to your snakes

Before we get too much into the hows of humidity it is important to take a look at why humidity plays a vital role to the well being of snakes.

First you need to realize that snakes do not adapt well outside of their natural environments. That’s not to say that they don’t do well in captivity, but that the place they are kept in captivity needs to mimic their natural range as closely as possible in terms of temperatures and humidity.

When a snake sheds higher humidity helps them to get their old skin off. If you’ve ever seen a snake that has old crusty pieces of skin stuck all over it there’s a good chance that the humidity was off (meaning too low) and caused the shed to not go smoothly.

On the flip side of the coin humidity that is constantly too high can contribute to scale rot and other afflictions which can put your snake into great danger health wise.

Beyond the concerns with health and shedding there is also the issue of comfort. A tropical or a sub-tropical snake is naturally more comfortable when kept in higher humidity than something like a Western Hognose would be.

Humidity needs of commonly kept snakes

In this section we’ll take a look at some of the more commonly kept pet snakes and show you what the normal range of humidity is for each snake both during shedding cycles and normally.

Species	Normal	Shedding
Ball Python	50-60%	65-75%
Carpet Python	60-70%	65-75%
Red Tail Boa	50-60%	65-75%
Burmese Python	50-60%	65-75%
Green Tree Python	75-80%	85-90%
Reticulated Python	50-60%	65-75%
King Snake	"Household"	"Household"
Corn Snake	"Household"	"Household"

The above chart is in no particular order and is not meant to indicate any one species of snake is better than another. As you can see the ranges don’t vary a great deal except in a few instances. If you’ve ever been to a large snake breeder who deals with more than a few kinds of snakes you’ll normally see them keeping their temperatures and humidity pretty even across the board despite what kind of snakes they might have on hand. This isn’t to say that humidity levels aren’t important, but it is to say that you have some leeway as long as you fall within the general ranges.

Methods of regulating and manipulating humidity for your snakes

Fortunately with a little effort getting and keeping the humidity at the levels you need them to be for you snake is actually quite simple. First you need to start with a basic understanding of what humidity is and what can affect it.

Humidity is simply:

Moisture; dampness; a moderate degree of wetness, which is perceptible to the eye or touch; — used especially of the atmosphere, or of anything which has absorbed moisture from the atmosphere, as clothing. - Source In plain English that translates to how wet the air is.

Airflow (wind), and heat are the greatest culprits when it comes to humidity issues for pet snakes. Both conditions cause evaporation which lowers the humidity. Controlling humidity levels in your snake’s environment is largely an exercise in controlling these two elements.

The first thing to consider is the living quarters you are going to give your snake. Most average consumers with pet snakes have them as display animals. By that I mean they enjoy looking at them. This of course necessitates the use of a glass tank. Often these tanks are large and elaborately setup. Then you have the breeders. They don’t have time to mess around with glass tanks and fancy setups. Their snakes are usually kept in plastic tubs in racks, or large very spartan setups. In between both of those extremes you have people like me who have snakes as pets and as a part of the family yet have no desire to deal with glass tanks. We tend to come up with solutions involving stand-alone tubs or specially made “cages” which take very little work.

By far the glass tank is the most popular habitat for the average pet snake owner so we’ll focus on that for now. The average glass tank setup has either a hood with a light fixture built into it, or a mesh screen. Neither of which lends itself too maintaining humidity levels. The first thing you should do is cover the top of your glass tank and size a hole just large enough for a heat lamp if need be.

The easiest way to do this is with some tinfoil. Get a piece large enough to easily cover the lid of your tank and tape it, shiny side down, to the lid. Some people use one layer, some two. I myself use and recommend two when I’m using a glass tank (which isn’t often). This one step alone should bump your humidity levels in the tank up by a good 8-12% just by virtue of it severely limiting the amount of evaporation that is occurring.

Once you have the top covered with foil you can always cut out an area just large enough for the heat lamp (if you use one) to fit. I’m referring to the round heat lamps in this case and not the hood systems. Using one of those would totally eliminate 95% of the benefit you get from the foil.

The other option is to have a piece of plexiglass cut and fitted to the top of you tank. It certainly looks much better than foil and isn’t really all that expensive. If need be you should also have a hole fitted for your light cut into the piece of plexiglass. It will only make your life easier.

What’s inside the tank has a large impact on humidity levels as well. Certain substrates help retain humidity better than others. Cypress bark for example is well known to help increase humidity levels in a snakes enclosure. The size of the water dish plays a role. The bigger (meaning wider in this case) the water dish is the more the water will evaporate and the more moisture is released into the tank and the higher the humidity gets. Place your water dish over the heating element in your tank will help promote humidity.

Where the tank is located also has an impact on the humidity. If the room is as dry as a set of bleached bones in Death Valley there’s a good chance your humidity will be difficult to raise. Or if you keep the room like a sauna expect it might be harder to lower. You want to keep the tank in a room that is kept at average temperatures and average humidity levels. The goal is to micromanage the environment of the tank not the entire house. Keep it away from drafts as well.