by Sebastian-

Created on: January 25, 2007   Last Updated: May 24, 2010

Snakes as opposed to other small pets are extremely unique not only between species but also between individuals. Between species snakes vary wildly in their feeding habits, temperature preference and overall personality. Yes, snakes do have a personality that changes between individuals of the same species. They also have preferences that make them a very unique animal to care for.

Assuming your buying a young snake you need to learn several things from the people you are buying from. Firstly you need to know their eating habits and their preferred environment style, along with anything else that they know about this particular snake and its species - especially how big it gets.

After buying a snake try to recreate a very similar habitat to the one it's leaving or its natural habitat. A heat lamp and/or under tank heater are mandatory in nearly every climate. At least one place for it to hide from the heat and a water container large enough for it to submerge itself in completely are also musts. Some snakes are fossorial, which means they burrow, so buy enough substrate accordingly. Generally one inch is fine to cover the bottom of the tank. There are several types of substrates ranging from things much like sand to shredded coconut husks and most are effective for doing the job but as with most everything some snakes will dislike certain substrates so don't buy it in gallon jugs beforehand.

Feeding is very personal for every snake species and nearly every snake itself. Most young snakes are likely raised on frozen mice and you shouldn't have any problem with that. Talk to the people you are buying it from as snakes can eat anywhere from three times a week to once or twice a month depending on species and their environment. Frozen mice must be thawed beforehand; most ways you can think of for warming something up are fine for the snake as long as you don't cook the mouse.

Snakes often prefer to eat in the dark and simply turning off the heat lamp while they eat may be fine or you may need to feed them in a darker environment. Generally speaking if you have multiple snakes then they shouldn't be fed together in the terrarium.

I cannot emphasize this enough; you should never feed a pet snake live food. People may say it's more natural for them but it's extremely dangerous. It's more natural for humans to capture their own food to but if you shut the average suburbanite in a room with an elk they wouldn't fare too well either.

Although this as accurate as I could make it and I put all of this into practice with my own snake don't take my word as law; Talk to a snake expert and a veterinarian before and not long after buying your snake and be sure to take it to a vet fairly often.

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