Renting with any animal is difficult, but when you are trying to rent with a snake it becomes even worse. Here are a few tips to help find a place to live for both yourself and your scaled friend.

Don’t waste time looking in the wrong place

For some reason people love to call prospective landlords or rental management agencies and try to convince them to change their minds about the “no pets allowed” policy. Complete waste of time and effort. The first group that you should weed out are those people. Cross them off your list and put them aside. If you get really desperate you can always go back to them later.

Be honest about your snakes

Don’t try to hide your pet snake from them when you apply to rent their property. Tell them about it and give as many details as you can. Don’t lie and hope they don’t know enough. If you’ve got a 10 foot Reticulated Python tell them. They’ll find out sooner or later anyhow so might as well be up front about it. Sure there will be people who will turn you away simply because it is a snake and how large it is doesn’t matter. If they’ll turn you away because of what kind of an animal it is don’t think for a second they won’t evict you if they catch you with something you didn’t disclose.

Show them how knowledgeable you are

One thing that goes a long ways towards alleviating a landlord’s unease about moving into their property with a snake (or any animal) is that you display how much you know about it. Not just your snakes, but snakes in general. The more people know about things the less frightening they are. At the end of the day you want your landlord to view your snakes like you do. As a valued member of your family. Present them as such.

Know when to move on

Sometimes you just aren’t going to get into that rental you’ve been wanting for no reason other than you have a snake. Cross it off the list and move on to the next one. Don’t fret, don’t even think about it. You’ll find another place at least as good, probably better for yourself and your snake.

Getting your snake to switch to frozen food is a fairly simple task. There are many reasons the feeding it frozen food is the best option.

Making the switch from live to frozen

There are a few items you’ll want to have handy.

1. Rubber gloves (remember to avoid latex if you are allergic to it)
2. Feeding tongs or hemostats (ask your local pet store)
3. Zip lock bags, and a container that you can sacrifice for your snakes

We’ve found the best method for getting our snakes to eat frozen as follows-

• Make sure the snake is hungry. Skipping a feeding for a week will help out with this
• Thaw out the frozen food by putting it in a zip lock bag and submerging that in hot water in a container. DO NOT use a microwave to thaw out the rodent as this will cook it internally which is not good for your snake (most won’t even go near cooked meat) and it stinks!
• Place the thawed rodent in the thawing container after emptying the water and set it right next to the snake’s tank. Leave it there for about 30 to 45 minutes. This is called pre-scenting the room and it basically gets the snake’s attention
• Wait about 20 to 30 minutes with the room being pre-scented and then hold the rodent up to a heat lamp for about 10 or 15 seconds. You don’t want to cook the rodent at all, only to heat it up a little bit. Snakes that hunt by heat detection will appreciate your efforts as well as those which hunt by smell
• Present the rodent to the snake using tongs. Don’t jam it in its face let the snake come to the rodent. It can take several minutes before the snake investigates. All the while hold the rodent with the tongs don’t just throw it in the cage and leave.
• Once the snake is interested in the rodent and is approaching move it around a little with the tongs. That will give it the appearance of life. Can’t honestly say if snakes care on way or another but it seems to help in most instances.
• This is the part where the patience comes in. We’ve sat there for 2 hours playing “cat and mouse” with the snake and the rodents at the end of the tongs before the snake either ate or crawled off into its hide. If the snake strikes and eats great, but it might not happen the first time.
• If the snake doesn’t eat simply put everything away and wash up and try again next week. Sometimes the snake just has to get hungry enough. You can reuse the same rodent just refreeze it. Pet-Snakes.com does not recommend using it more than twice. If after the 2nd week the snake isn’t taking it throw it out and start with a new rodent.

Why it is best to feed a snake frozen food

First and foremost is the health and safety of your snake there have been many cases of rodents killing a snake that was supposed to have eaten them. If the snake doesn’t want to eat it won’t kill the rodent. The rodent after it runs around the tank for a while will then start gnawing on the snake and the snake won’t defend itself, nor will it be able to get a way. A frozen rodent on the other hand obviously won’t be chewing on your snake. Never ever leave a live rodent in with a snake unless under direct supervision

You’ll need a place to care for the living rodents that aren’t eaten by the snake. Much easier to buy 50 or 100 frozen mice from some place like The Mouse Factory and store them in your freezer than to keep live mice. Besides mice stink, really badly.

A snake constricting a living creature is a pretty brutal way to die. It is not peaceful or pleasant by any stretch of the imagination. Take a look at the below video at about 3:15 when the snake gets ahold of the rabbit if you think it is just a “nice” passing for the prey.

Please note the video is NOT the property of Pet-Snakes.com we are just using it from YouTube per their Terms of Use

There are other reasons to feed frozen instead of live to your snakes such as less likelihood of transferring mites or ticks in with your snakes, avoids the need to travel if you have them shipped to your door, and generally frozen rodents are less expensive than their live counterparts.

Choosing where to get your snakes frozen food

There are three possibilities for getting your snake frozen food.

1. The first and cheapest method is from an online source such as The Mouse Factory. There are dozens of other sources so just use your favorite search engine to look for “frozen snake food” and you’ll find plenty to choose from. We’ll leave the actual selection of your vendor of choice up to you.
2. A local pet store. The prices generally aren’t all that great and sometimes the rodents they give you can look a little questionable, but they are generally more convenient and quicker in an emergency
3. The final way is to make your own. You breed some rodents and then humanely euthanize their offspring using something like a homemade CO2 chamber. If you do decide to go this route we suggest you do some reading up on breeding snake food as it can become a full time job all by itself. This method is more often recommended for the keeper of numerous snakes.

Using the above method we’ve had over a 95% success rate with switching our snakes to frozen prey. It is inevitable that some will never make the switch but you’ll never know until you try.

Often we don’t appreciate how long a snake can live when housed in ideal conditions. The pet shops and breeders rarely ever tell us just how much of commitment it really is to care for a snake over the full course of its life. Fact is that snakes (as well as other reptiles) can live long, long lives especially when you compare it to that of other common household pets like cats, dogs, and ferrets.

This is not a full listing by any means it is simply designed to give the new potential snake owner some idea of how long these animals can be part of our lives if properly taken care of. Consider that snakes never stop growing for their entire lives though it does slow down as they get older. For however long it lives and is part of your home you will need to feed that snake.

Corn Snake life span

Corn snakes have a life span of 15 to 20 years while in captivity. Sometimes they can live longer but that is the average length of their lives.

Ball Pythons life span

Ball pythons have a life span of 20 to 30 years. While that is the “average” there are many people who find their beloved pet to get much older. The oldest on record lived to the ripe old age of 48. That’s just shy of half a century!

Boa Constrictor life span

Boas have a life span of 25 to 30 years on average, but like all other snakes it isn’t unheard of for them to live longer.

Burmese Python life span

The Burmese has a potential life span of 25+ years of age, but in captivity the average lifespan is closer to 10 years. The biggest reason for this is that people are simply not prepared to take care of an animal of this size. Given the right environment and conditions a Burmese will be sharing your life for a long time.

Reticulated Python life span

Reticulated pythons are like Burmese in both their life span (25+ years) and in their massive size. Again if Retic’s had the proper housing and care it could easily live to be 25 years old, but most people simply aren’t prepared for this kind of a snake.

Carpet Python life span

Carpet pythons have a life span of 20 to 30 years of age. There are several sub-species of Carpets (Coastal, Jungle, and others) but they all live to be about the same age

Kingsnake life span

The average life span for a kingsnake is 15 to 25 years.

Before you acquire a pet snake give some thought to how much it will really cost. The initial purchase price is only one very tiny part of the overall cost of a snake. Just like any other pet snakes require vet visits, food, shelter, water, and more. Unlike cats and dogs snakes require specially suited environments to live in. Heating pads and lights running 24/7 will run up your energy bills very quickly.

Cost of the snake

This is the cost of the snake itself. It is a onetime fee and can range anywhere from free to tens of thousands of dollars. If you only ever buy one snake this will be the only time you’ll need to count this cost in your figures.

Cost of equipment for snakes

We’ll start by assuming that you aren’t going to build your own snake cage and thus save yourself a great deal of money. Instead we will assume that you are going to buy the equipment from a pet store. Let’s take a look at the cost of this equipment to properly house and secure your snake.

• Glass aquarium: You’re very likely going to pay at least $100.00 for this piece of equipment alone
• Under Tank Heater (UTH): Around $25 to $30 for one of these
• Heat lamp setup: Prepare to spend between $50.00 and $75.00 on this stuff
• Substrate: About $15 to $25 for a bag of this stuff that will last about 4 to 6 weeks
• Miscellaneous: Hides, water bowl, climbing branches, fake foliage, and all the rest will cost you about $25 to $50
• Food: Figure that each mouse you need will cost between $1 and $2 and rats about 3/4 to twice that amount
• Literature: You’ll probably want to get a book (or 10) about your snake and how to care for it. Minimum cost will be $10 and it will go up from there
• Vet Checkup: Since you’re a good parent you will get your snake to the vet as soon as possible for a basic health check. Because snakes are a specialized animal you’ll likely pay more than you would for a dog or a cat
• Heating the room: No matter what you use to heat a snakes cage you’ll also need to factor in the cost of heating the room they are in above and beyond the rest of your house

Now take all of those costs mentioned above and any others you might think of on your own and add them up. Once you do that consider that snakes can live to be 15 to 40 years old and multiply those costs over that amount of time. For example you will go through at least three or four tanks as the snake reaches its full size. Bulbs burn out, food gets eaten, books become outdated. All of which means you’ll be buying it more than once.

Emergency costs of keeping a snake

What if your snake bites someone? Are you prepared to pay their medical bills and lawyer fees if need be? How about if your snake gets sick? Will you be able to afford a vet to take care of it? It’s always a good idea to set aside $800 to $1200 just for covering the cost of snake emergencies that you might not even think of until they happen.

Other costs you might not have thought about

If your snake is a high value animal (let’s say worth over $1,000) you might want to have it insured. You might want to have it insured if it is a large species of snake. You’ll have to buy cleaning supplies. Gas for taking it to the vets or running back and forth to get it food if you don’t breed your own

This isn’t to discourage anyone from getting a pet snake. It is just so that you can see that actual cost of keeping a snake as a pet. Sometimes we find someone giving away a snake and it never occurs to us how much free can really cost.

One of the most frustrating things for any snake owner is watching week after week go by and not being able to get your snake to eat. It is also a very dangerous time for the snake. Not because it isn’t eating, but because stressed owners will do some bizarre things to try and convince the snake it wants to eat. There are a number of factors to consider when your pet snake is on a hunger strike. We’ll cover those in a moment.

First it is important to realize that snakes are reptiles and their metabolism is much, much slower than a mammals. In other words they don’t need to eat on a daily basis and doing so will have many undesirable complications including death. So don’t worry that because a snake isn’t eating as often as you might that it is sick or needs you to help it along.

Take the following situations into consideration when your snake isn’t eating:

Husbandry Issues

Snakes are incredibly sensitive to their environments. They either thrive or die depending largely on your ability to replicate what would be found in their native habitats. Perhaps the greatest culprit when it comes to a snake not eating is poor husbandry. Temperatures too high or too low can cause them not to eat. Too much outside noise caused by foot traffic. Too much or too little humidity. Basically anything that isn’t within acceptable tolerance ranges can impact a snakes eating habits.

Every snake has its own husbandry needs specific to that particular snake and that’s something you will only discover by working with a particular animal. There are also the general husbandry needs that the various species of snakes have adapted to over the ages. In most cases if you can get the general husbandry issues straightened out your snake will eat (if husbandry was the cause of them not eating), but sometimes it requires a more personal touch. For example I once had a snake that refused to eat if not on plain white paper towels.

You’ll have to do your own research when it comes to husbandry issues with your snakes. Spending the time sorting out any problems will go a long way towards getting your snake to eat.

Illness

With their inability to vocalize it is often difficult for a novice to spot when a snake is sick or in distress. One of the first signs of trouble when the husbandry is right is a snake that doesn’t eat. Consider this to be a clear warning sign that something is wrong. Snakes are naturally gluttons and would often gorge themselves to death if given the opportunity.

If you suspect illness get the snake to a qualified vet of your choosing who can properly treat the animal.

Too soon after last feeding

While snakes are gluttons once they have switched from feeding mode to digestive mode they aren’t likely to want to eat anything for about 5 to 12 days while their food digests. If you start waving food in front of their faces after a day or two not only are you wasting your time, but you are also encouraging regurgitation which is an absolute no-no for snakes.

Give your snake at least 3 days to digest its previous meal before you offer more. Personally I feed on an alternating schedule. On Saturdays I feed the large meal and on Wednesday I feed a meal about 1/4 to 1/3 the size of the large meal. I want them to grow, but I don’t want them to become obese because just like anything else that lives an obese snake will have health issues.

Your snake needs time to settle in

Most snake owners subscribe to the idea that most dog and cat owners do when it comes to bringing a new animal home. The first they want to do is stuff water and food down its throat and spend several hours coddling it. While that works well for dogs and cats it doesn’t work so well for snakes. In fact the most often prescribed and successful method is to have everything your snake needs setup before it gets to your home and immediately transfer it into the new habitat. You then leave it alone for about 5 to 7 days never disturbing it except to change water and clean up any messes. I’m a little more liberal with how much I handle my snakes when I first get them, but if one of them isn’t eating I will stop handling it to allow it to settle in.

The 5 to 7 days suggested isn’t a hard and fast rule. Sometimes they are settled in within a few hours and other times it can take a couple of months. The important thing is to have the self control that is required not to mess with them while they go through that process.

Prey item is too large for the snake to eat

The common rule of thumb that most people go by when it comes to feeding snakes is this. The prey can be no larger at its widest point (usually back hips) than the snake to which it is being fed is at its widest part.

A snake can and will eat a meal a great deal larger than that, but doing so can cause internal injuries to the snake. If the meal is way to large the snake simply won’t even attempt to eat it. After you feed your snake and it has had about 30 minutes to maneuver the food into its stomach you should be able to see a slight bulge. If you see a huge distended belly with what looks like a balloon in there you gave it a prey item that was too big.

It’s that time of year

Certain snakes simply stop eating when winter rolls around. Ball Pythons are a prime example of this. Some will go off feed for up to 8 months. As long as the snake isn’t losing a significant amount of weight it shouldn’t be a problem. Just offer the food once every 1.5 to 2 weeks if this is what’s happening. If the snake doesn’t take the food put it away for the next try. Obviously I’m talking about frozen/thawed food. Live prey presents issues for you to resolve all its own.

There of course could be other reasons why you can’t get your snake to eat, but taking care of these will often get it on the road to recovery. The keys are patience and the ability to “read” your snakes body language. With time and observation you’ll be able to tell when your snake is ready to eat, when it wants to hang out with you, when it wants to be left alone and much more.

If you’re a snake lover there is nothing, well almost nothing, cuter than a little baby snake. Yes, God has even made baby snakes cute. In fact many people are so enamored with a little baby snake that they throw down some money to buy it and everything it could possibly need. Then they get home set everything up and begin to enjoy their new found friend.

That is until they realize the thing is growing, and fast. It’s getting longer, stronger, and heavier. It eats like a machine and week by week they can literally see it growing “before their very eyes”. The cage they had bought for the snake is no longer adequate so they go out and buy another larger one. Family and friends who thought the little version of the snake was interesting if not cute aren’t so enamored by it now. In fact they often refuse to be in the same house with it. Other household pets are in mortal danger of their lives if left unattended with the snake.

The above, while just a contrived scenario is one that is too often played out in the reptile world, especially when it comes to how large a snake is going to get. Since snakes can live 20, 30, 40+ years and they never stop growing there is a potential to have some very large snakes. Many snakes are genetically wired not to grow beyond a certain point, but others can easily reach over 15 or 20 feet and hundreds of pounds. Sadly that’s not something the pet store on the corner is usually going to tell you because it would probably cost them a sale. So like everything else you are your own last line of defense. You’re the one who needs to be educated about what you are getting yourself into when you get a pet snake.

How big your snake can get is a product mainly of genetics. Some people claim that by feeding a snake more or less it will get larger or stay smaller. This is simply not true. What will happen is that it will either be emaciated or obese. It will still grow as God has created it to grow. It is also not true that keeping it in a smaller cage will cause it to grown more slowly. It will however cause it to be a big, cramped, grumpy snake that will not be a pleasure to handle.

Before you go out and beg, borrow, or steal a snake keep the following in mind.

• It’s fine to buy a baby snake but make sure you get up close and personal with a fully grown adult version of that snake BEFORE you buy one. There’s something humbling about having a 18 foot python crawling across the shoulders of 4 grown men
• Make sure you can afford to feed it. A mouse or two a week for a dollar or so is nothing, but a pig a week at a few dollars a pound adds up quickly
• Make sure you have a place for it to live both as a baby and as an adult. Don’t wait until it grows that large have a setup all prepared
• Study up on the snake you are getting so you aren’t surprised by whatever size it reaches
• Expect the snake to grow big fast. It might take less than a year to reach 8 to 12 feet

By no means is this an exhaustive list it is just meant to encourage you to consider a few things beyond the “Oh I gotta have that snake response!” so many of us often have.

Some snakes can actually get so large that they need to have a spare bedroom turned into their permanent enclosure. Think about how big something would need to be to have their very own dedicated room. The state of Florida is having a huge problem with people releasing large snakes such as Burmese and Reticulated pythons into the Everglades because they have gotten to large for the owners to handle. This has huge repercussions for everyone.

The point of this article isn’t to strike fear into you about getting a snake that will grow large. It is just to encourage you to educate yourself and take a deep breath before you go out and do something you wind up regretting. I’m writing this from experience once having picked up a Burmese python without thinking about it first. Fortunately the place I got it from was willing to take it back the next day and let me get something else.

Commonly sold large snakes and how big they will get

• Reticulated python: commonly 19-22 feet - about 250-350 pounds
• Anaconda: around 20 to 25 feet - about 350 to 500 pounds
• Burmese python: 15 to 23 feet - about 175 to 250 pounds
• Red-tail boa constrictor: 8 to 12 feet - about 60 pounds

There are several other snakes that are commonly sold which grow to be a decent size, but these are the most popular of the large snakes. Also please note that the above mentioned numbers are what the snakes can grow to be, but not necessarily what they will grow to be.