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Kids and snakes 4 things you should consider before you buy one (a snake that is)

PetSnakes — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:38:19 +0000

Kid and Garter Snake - GerryT (flickr)

Maybe you have a passion for snakes yourself and want to pass that along to your children. Or it could be that they have been bugging you about getting one and you’ve finally, after swearing to the highest heavens you never would, broken down and agreed to consider it. Whatever the case there are somethings that you should take into account before you buy a snake for a kid.

#1) They harbor salmonella
Snakes, like all reptiles, carry salmonella on their skin. Your child needs to be old enough to know better than to lick the animal, or handle it and then chew on his or her fingers. They say 3 or under is too young, but I don’t believe that is the case. It depends on the child and only you know your kid well enough. I’ve seen full grown adults who shouldn’t be handling snakes because they pick their noses and bite their nails without considering the animal they were holding a few minutes before.

#2) Some are simply inappropriate for children
All snakes are incredibly and deceptively strong, but there are some that just have no business around kids. I’m talking about full grown Burmese Pythons, Reticulated Pythons, Boa Constrictors, and others like those. Even adults should only handle them with assistance, but kids should never be responsible for animals of that size. Another type of snake, regardless of size, that you should avoid giving to a child are venomous ones. Not that we need to get into a great deal of discussion about “hots” in this article but we do need to make mention of it.

#3) Age isn’t just a number when it comes to snakes
Keeping any pet is a major obligation for a kid. But a snake is a whole new level of responsibility both for the child and for the parent or guardian. More than age it requires maturity. I’m going out on a limb here and assuming you’re not interested in cleaning up snake poop, feeding dead rodents to a snake, disinfecting the cage, or any of the rest of the mundane activities required for your child’s snake to thrive. But is your son or daughter mature enough to do it?

#4) They cost more than you think
First you have to buy all the supplies necessary to properly house a snake. Next you have to buy the snake itself. Finally you need to be prepared to continually invest in the animal. Food, bedding, electric to keep the heat and humidity right, vet bills, and all the rest of it. If your kid isn’t working you will be paying for all of those things. Don’t get me wrong I believe it is well worth the investment but if your budget is already thin getting a snake might be more expensive than you are prepared for.

This article did not cover every concern you could possibly have and it wasn’t meant to. It’s purpose is to get you to think about a few things you might not have as you’ve started looking into getting a snake for your kid. I’d like to recommend the following snakes as good candidates for children. I’ve also included a link to appropriate reading materials about the species on Amazon.

Ball Pythons:
Small, docile, and relatively easy to care for. These are great children’s snakes. A great reference for parents and guardians is – The Complete Ball Python: A Comprehensive Guide to Care, Breeding and Genetic Mutations

Corn Snakes:
Even easier to care for than Ball Pythons! Written by Kathy Love one of the foremost experts on Corn Snakes in the pet trade – Corn Snakes: The Comprehensive Owner’s Guide

Three ways snakes kill and eat their prey

PetSnakes — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:17:52 +0000

Even though there are approximately 2700 species of snakes in the world they only kill their prey in three different ways. We’ve included 3 examples of each of the three ways snakes kill and eat. In some of the videos you’ll notice the prey is already dead (frozen thawed) while in others the snake has to hunt it and kill it. Regardless if the prey is alive or dead you will see the snake going through the process of capturing and killing it. For some people the following videos will be disturbing. They show snakes killing and eating other animals.

Eating their prey alive
This method is neither eloquent nor impressive, but it is effective. These snakes simply overpower their prey and start swallowing it alive. Due to the fact that snakes have hundreds of backwards curved teeth once the prey is in the snakes mouth it is all but impossible for it to escape being swallowed.

Garter Snake (genus Thamnophis) eating minnows:
Eastern Indigo Snake (genus Drymarchon couperi) swallowing FT pinkie headfirst:
Eastern Hognose Snake (genus Heterodon platirhinos) catching and eating an American Toad

Constricting their prey to death and then eating
With the popularity in the pet trade of medium to large sized constrictors this is the most widely known and observed method a snake uses to kill its prey. The snake seizes the prey animal with its mouth, throws some coils around it and then begins to constrict. When the prey exhales the snake tightens the coils preventing the prey from inhaling. This continues until the prey is dead. It was recently discovered that Boa Constrictors can sense that the heartbeat of the prey has stopped at which point it will begin the process of eating the meal.

King Snake (gensu Lampropeltis getula californiae) catching and constricting a mouse
Boa Constrictor (genus Boa constrictor constrictor) killing a rat
Ball Python (genus ) constricting a frozen thawed mouse

Envenoming their prey with deadly saliva
The final method snakes use to subdue their prey in order to eat it is envenomation. The snake bites through the skin of the prey and injects saliva into the wound. This saliva is known as venom and causes a deadly reaction in the prey animal’s body which leads to death. Please do not attempt to keep venomous snakes of any kind without the proper training. One mistake is likely to kill you.

Timber Rattle Snake (genus Crotalus horridus) striking and killing a mouse
Black Mamba (genus Dendroaspis polylepis) envenoming a hamster
Gaboon Viper (genus Bitis_gabonica) striking and killing a mouse

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Snake feeding lesson 101: Learning from the mistakes of others

PetSnakes — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:48:46 +0000

Today I came across an article about a man who called animal control on his pet boa at 3am in the morning. Here’s a short excerpt so you are caught up on what we’re going to discuss and why.

CINCINNATI — A Covedale man called animal control overnight Wednesday when his boa constrictor became aggressive during a nighttime feeding.

“He’s normally pretty docile, but he’d gotten a little aggressive when we were trying to get him out of the cage,” said Mike Simpson, who bought the six-foot snake earlier this year from a friend.

Simpson said he placed a jumbo rat into his apartment’s bathtub before turning loose the snake, which he said would typically eat quickly.

But Lucious, the snake, still hadn’t eaten after more than an hour with the rat, and Simpson became impatient.

Read the entire article

Initially when I read the article I was angry. Angry that Mr. Simpson was already planning on getting another snake. Angry that he had so easily turned the one he had over to animal control. Then I thought about it for a moment and realized that this could easily be myself or anyone else. It’s only through experience that you begin to learn how to deal with having an exotic pet such as a snake. They are entirely different and are not comparable to any other pet a person might have.

In the past I’ve written about both of the subjects that this man was dealing with. Most recently I gave my reasons why I believe that you should feed a snake in its own cage. A couple of readers disagreed with the idea that it is better to feed a snake in its own cage. The incident described in this news report is a prime example of why I believe very strongly in feeding a snake in it’s own cage. Before anyone winds up with the written barrage of reasons that I’m wrong let me say this; Had this boa’s owner (Mr. Simpson) fed his animal in its own cage you would not be reading this article right now.

What went wrong?

Since I wasn’t there I can only speculate based on the news article but it seems the following mistakes were made:

The feeding was an after thought
I base this on the fact that in the article it says it was 3am in the morning and they had to be to work by 8am. It was like they had a “Oh no! We forgot to feed the snake!” moment.

They weren’t ready to deal with an aggressive snake
Sometimes we forget that a snake is a wild animal and will act (or react) like a wild animal. I believe it is safe to say that we’ve all made that mistake. When the animal that spends hours draped around our shoulders becomes a monster straight out of a horror movie it can catch us off gaurd.

One of the first articles I wrote for this site was about handling aggressive snakes. There’s nothing to indicate that Mr. Simpson improperly handled the snake, but thought this would be a good opportunity to take a moment to look at some basic tenants of handling aggressive snakes.

The snake was cold
It says the snake was in the tub with the rat. I assume it was in a cold empty tub. Going from a warm, climate controlled cage to a cold bathtub could easily make the snake decide it wasn’t hungry. Snakes aren’t known for their tolerance of temperature changes, especially extremes. Now of course I could be wrong and the tub could have been heated prior to putting the boa in there, but given that this sounds like it was a last minute feeding that would be surprising.

They got impatient
Ultimately when the snake wouldn’t eat and it was time to put it back in its own cage the snake wasn’t cooperating and the owners got impatient with it. It was late, they had to be up in about 5 hours, and now this six foot long boa was cranky. I’d probably be a little impatient myself. Unfortunately being impatient leads to irrational actions which probably just irritated the snake even more.

What could they have done differently?

Once again this is speculation, but it is food for thought:

Plan the feeding
If you have a snake you know it needs to eat approximately once a week. That’s just a general rule of thumb for most snakes. It’s hard to believe that after having had the animal for any amount of time feeding day just snuck up on them. Sometimes I feed my snakes at 2am but I know well ahead of time when feeding day is. All my animals are fed on either Friday or Saturday. It’s not a surprise. I don’t suddenly walk past the cages and realize they haven’t been fed so I need to drag them out at the last minute.

There could have been circumstances beyond their control which prevented feeding Lucious (the boa’s name) at any time other than this but based on what was reported that is doubtful.

Always expect the unexpected
People say it all the time “Oh my snake would NEVER harm a flea!” Which I’m sorry to say is complete nonsense. A snake is not a domestic animal. It is a wild animal. It might get used to you, and even put up with you but in the end it is a creature driven by the instincts that God gave it. For someone to assume that a snake, just because it has been a pet, is actually tame is at best foolish. It can also be deadly if you are working alone with large contrictors.

A warm snake is a happy snake
Since snakes rely on their surroundings to regulate their temperatures putting it in a cold bathtub is going to leave the snake very few options. When a snake isn’t comfortable (being cold as a prime example) it isn’t going to eat. Mistakes in temperatures is a major reason that people have trouble getting their pet snake to feed. Now it sounds like being fed in the bathtub was fairly routine for this snake but for some reason on this particular night it wasn’t having any of it. Another reason to feed the snake in its own cage.

Waited until the next day
Snakes are known for going for weeks and even months without eating. Just going to bed and feeding it the next day (or even a week later) would have been the best course of action.

Ultimately they gave up the boa after having to call animal control because it had become aggressive. Had the snake been fed in its own cage they could have just gone to bed and either dealt with it in the morning or the rat would have been eaten. Of course I’m assuming this was a pre-killed or frozen/thawed rat and not a living one. If it was a living rat then obviously they would have had to deal with it before heading off to bed.

What are your thoughts on this? Would you have done anything differently? Agree or disagree with what has been said here?

The myth of feeding a pet snake in separate tank

PetSnakes — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:37:48 +0000

New snake owners are sometimes told that their pet should be fed in a separate tank from the one it lives in. There are several reasons why this is false.

It is stressful

By feeding it in a separate tank you are forcing the snake to endure twice as much handling as is necessary when feeding it in its own tank. A snake that is picky about eating will be even more if you force it to endure moving from place to place as it is eating.

More likely to bite

If your snake starts to associate being picked up and placed in another cage with eating it will start to go into “hunt mode” when you pick it up. Not just when you pick it up to put it in its feeding cage, but also for other reasons. Then it is much more likely to bite if it catches any scent of food.

So look at it like this: You’ve gotten the snake’s food out and it is thawing on the counter and the entire house smells like a rodent. You can’t smell it but the snake can. The snake is excited already because it is smelling its food. You then reach in, grab the snake and carry it to its feeding tank. As you place the snake into the feeding tank it suddenly goes into hunt mode and it bites you. Why?

It associated being moved to the other cage with eating
It could smell its food everywhere
It homed in on a heat source (you) and struck thinking it had found some food

It could cause your snake to regurgitate

Handling a snake after it has eaten can easily lead to regurgitation. If you feed in a separate tank and then have to pick your snake up and move it to its own cage you are putting yourself at risk that it will regurgitate its meal.

A word about ingesting substrate

There is no reason to be concerned about your snake eating some dirt or bark or whatever you use. They do it all the time in the wild and there’s no shortage of snakes out there. Their digestive systems can handle it.

Choosing the right size food for your pet snake

PetSnakes — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:46:50 +0000

A common question for a new owner is how big can the food they give their snake be. An easy and reliable rule of thumb that many people with snake use is as follows:

First measure your snake (a rough estimate is fine) at its widest part. This will likely be about midway along the snake’s body. Second measure the food item (again a rough estimate is good enough) at its widest part. This is normally across the back hips. Now compare the two measurements. They should be close to the same size.

If you use that estimate to gauge the size of food to give your snake you will never go wrong. That’s not to say that a snake can’t eat much larger or even much smaller food but that will keep it nourished without causing it to become obese.

Don’t worry about the fact that 9 times out of 10 the food will look like it is about 5 times too large to fit into your snake’s mouth. As you can see by the picture to the right that has absolutely no impact on the snake. Their jaws and skulls are designed to separate and allow them to ingest much large food than you might expect.