Available Snakes

[Lady Serpent]

All right.. to the tune of getting things sorted out, and downsizing, I'm selling off a few of my pet snakes.

These guys are all quite tame, and have been used for educational shows with kids for a few years.  They're all very used to being handled, and eating frozen-thawed mice and rats.  (Sometimes baby chicks, too.)

If any of you guys are interested in owning a snake, feel free to let me know and we can discuss.  I'd like them to go to good homes, to someone who's going to look after them properly.  Snakes are easy to take care of; they just need their water bowl cleaned about once a week or so, and to be fed a frozen mouse/rat every two weeks or so.  (The boas can go longer; otherwise captive snakes get quite fat and lazy if fed too often.)  They also need adequate heat to keep their tanks at a comfortable temperature for them.  (With a hotter 'basking' side and a cooler 'air temperature' side.)  There's lots more to learn by reading caresheets, of course.

I can deliver to FurBQ, and possibly elsewhere in BC if we can arrange something.
All of these guys are legal to own in BC.

Here are the critters I have available:

Sub-adult male redtailed boa.  (I don't have pics up currently; he's a little smaller than the female with much more black colouration.)   

Adult male redtail boa.  Spoken for.

Male adult Sonoran Gophersnake:







Female sub-adult Sonoran Gophersnake:  (She's bigger now than she is in these pictures!)



I'm looking for them to go to good homes; I do have reptarium mesh cages available as well as some tanks without lids.
Any of these snakes, to the right person, I would let go for $75 plus $25 for any tank.  (And all accessories.)

Cheers;
-Lady Serpent

[Daakshi]

Aww... Too bad I am in Alberta. I miss my two snakes. (They were corn snakes, but I had to give them to my cousin. I helped her take care of her boas too.)

[Lady Serpent]

Always good to see fellow herpers who also happen to be furry. 

-LS

[AlanTabby]

I've been thinking about a lil snake, I love cornsnakes. Its very hard to find a apartment with them though, I don't lying to my landlord.  How friendly do you find them? 

I've only had mammals & fish as pets before. Fish were the best pets ever, my (RIP) baby boy's species  was featured on River Monsters!!

[Cobalt Wolf]

I've been looking into getting a snake, as it would be my first  does anyone have any advice about keeping them? I'm thinking a Ball Python or a corn snake.

[Daakshi]

Corn snakes are really easy to take care of. You just have to make sure you handle them regularly so that they are well socialized.

[Lady Serpent]

I've been thinking about a lil snake, I love cornsnakes.

As far as friendliness, fun colours, and good eaters are concerned, cornsnakes are probably one of the best pet snakes out there.

Personally (and don't let this deter you); I find them not quite as exciting to watch in a tank, as they tend to be fairly inactive during the day unless they're being handled.  They're very pretty, but as far as I've seen they're not the most exciting snake behaviour-wise.  My preferences go to things like garter snakes (captive bred ones), bull/gopher snakes and indigos, just because they seem to have more interesting in-tank behaviours.  Of course, garters aren't the best snakes for handling, and gophersnakes aren't quite as colourful as corns tend to be, and can be a bit quicker to handle.  Most cornsnakes are very easy to handle.

Best advice is to read lots of caresheets, ask lots of questions, and buy from a breeder or from someone trustworthy.  Buying from petstores is generally much more expensiv, and you often end up with sick reptiles, unfortunately.  (And it's not that hard to keep a reptile healthy, as long as it has the proper conditions.)  Most good, healthy cornsnakes can be had anywhere from $50 to about $150.  Sometimes neonates (babies) are a bit less, but that's a general price range for the more common colour morphs.



Cheers;
-Sephren

[Cobalt Wolf]

I've herd about keeping them in a plastic tub is ok is that true or would you opt out for a glass tank

[Lady Serpent]

Eh.. people can, and certainly DO keep them in plastic tubs.  Usually people who have a lot of snakes and are breeding them have entire 'rack systems' full of snakes in bins for the purpose of breeding them.

Personally, I tend to avoid the idea, as most of the time plastic tubs don't give enough room for the snakes to adequately move around and get enough exercise.  The majority of snakes in captivity these days are under-exercised, over-fed, and basically kept for the purpose of breeding.  Unfortunately, the mindset of a large part of the hobbyists today is that snakes should be grown up to breeding size, bred, and sold, and to get as many different crazy morphs developed as possible.  It never used to be quite as bad as it is now, but a lot of people these days don't enjoy keeping snakes for the sake of enjoying the snake itself; only for what it can do for them.  When dogs are bred this way, we call people 'hoarders' and operations 'puppy mills', and condone them for terrible conditions and shoddy breeding practices.  When reptile people do it, it seems to be turned a blind eye upon and celebrated for productivity.

Anyways, you can keep a reptile in a plastic tub, and you can keep it in a big enough plastic tub that meets its needs, yes.  But if you're keeping a snake for the enjoyment of it, and for the experience of learning about and handling and enjoying a reptile, why not have a tank or display cage where you can actually see it?  But, as long as whatever enclosure you use meets the needs of the snake (enough room, adequate ability to get to warm/cold sites in the cage, enough places to hide and clean, fresh bedding and water,) and is escape-proof, then really, what you keep it in is up to you.  Plastic can sometimes be less expensive.  You can also find tanks and lids and other reptile-related enclosures on Kijiji or wherever, often for quite cheap.

[/mini-rant]
-Sephren

[Cobalt Wolf]

Good to know, I would rather have it out to display, its just I've herd that bins are better, wow snake hoarder we should call them snake mills