- When choosing a snake, you are making a long term commitment - many can be expected to live longer than 20 years.
- You must be willing to feed prey animals to your snake (though frozen, pre-killed prey is the best choice), and you will probably have to devote some freezer space to frozen prey items (i.e. rodents).
- Snakes are very adept escape artists, so make sure you have an escape-proof tank, keeping in mind that snakes are persistent about finding and squeezing through any small gaps.
- Finally, as beautiful as they are, I strongly recommend against anyone keeping large constricting snakes or venomous snakes.
Get a captive bred snake from a reputable breeder, if at all possible. Wild caught snakes tend to be more stressed and prone to parasites and disease, and more difficult to tame. For more about the advantages of captive bred reptiles, see Should I Get a Wild Caught or Captive Bred Reptile?
You will also want to do a cursory exam of your snake to check for any signs of illness: see Choosing a Healthy Reptile for areas and signs to look at.
It also doesn't hurt to ask for a feeding demonstration, to make sure your new snake is readily taking pre-killed prey and feeding well. Ball pythons are somewhat notorious for having feeding problems, so this is especially a good idea with ball pythons (though if you get a captive breed ball python it seems less likely that feeding problems will crop up).
Recommended Beginner Snakes
These are all reasonably sized, fairly easy to care for, and tend to be quite docile:
Snakes to Avoid
Beginners should avoid large constricting snakes, venomous snakes, and snakes with more difficult care requirements, including such snakes as:
- Boa constrictors / red-tailed boas (not as large as some constricting snakes, but still a handful, especially for beginners)
- Burmese pythons
- Tree boas or pythons
- Water snakes
- Green snakes
Snakes Not Recommended as Pets at All Snakes that are potentially very dangerous (to their owners or others around them) are best avoided as pets, including:
- Reticulated pythons
- Anacondas
- Any venomous snakes
