Corn snakes make wonderful pets.  I should know since I have had one.

By their very nature, they are calm and easy to handle.  Like any pet, they take a little time to get used to you, but with handling and just being around you, they quickly fit into your life.

Don’t be misled by the skiddishness of a baby cornsnake.  These hatchlings, come genetically disposed for self protection.  So, even though they hide and try to get away when handled, and even sometimes nip at you, this is just the baby instinct in them that helps to keep them alive in the wild.

For the most part they are very nice and gentle animals once they get used to you.  So have some patiences.
Corn snakes are not venomous, and the nip of a baby cornsnake doesn’t even hurt. As they get older, they naturally become more tame and more docile.  All of my adult snakes are great to be held, and none of them would ever think of biting us. I have seen some pet corn snakes that seem to have gotten so used to people that they are happy to just sit on top of a cage and not even try to get away.
Corn snakes have many advantages.  First, they are very low maintenance.  Baby cornsnakes only need to be fed every 3 to 7 days (depending on how fast you want them to grow), and adults only eat every 7 to 10 days on the average.  So the cost of food for the cornsnake is very low.  Also, if they are kept at the proper temperature and you give the cornsnake the right care, they will usually stay healthy and will seldom, if ever, need to go to a vet.
Corn snakes can go a very long time without eating. So if you are going on a short trip, you don’t need to worry about finding someone to baby sit your snake, like you would with a dog or cat. Just make sure that they have a nice big water bowl filled with clean water before you leave.
Cornsnakes come in a variety of different colors and patterns, so once you get one and see all of the possibilities, then you may just want to get another one, or two, or three. Some of us find it difficult to control our desires for just one more different type.

Pet Snake #1 – The Corn Snake

This snake shows up on a lot of people’s lists of best pet snakes and for good reason. Corn snakes meet all of the criteria I’ve outlined above: (A) they rarely grow to over six feet long, averaging just over five feet; (B) they have good temperaments and can easily be tamed when handled once a week or so; (C) they will generally accept frozen / thawed mice or rats on a consistent basis; and (D) they will generally live long, healthy lives if their basic needs are met.  I personally like them alot and are good for the home enviornment.

On top of all this, corn snakes come in a wide variety of color “morphs” with names such as snow, pewter, blood red, candy cane and creamsicle … just to name a few.

It’s hard to go wrong by choosing the corn snake as your type of pet snake! I put the corn snake on the top of my list of pet snakes — especially for the first-time keeper.

Pet Snake #2 – The Kingsnake

There are actually a wide variety of kingsnake species and sub-species, and many of them make good pets for the reasons outlined above. The California kingsnake(Lampropeltis getula californiae) is one of the most common types of pet snakes in general, and one of the most popular kingsnakes among keepers. Other kingsnakes commonly kept as pets include the grey-banded kingsnake, the Florida kingsnake, and the mountain kingsnake varieties.

The kingsnake species mentioned above (and several others) meet the four criteria I’ve outlined for good snakes to keep as pets. Depending on the species, adult kingsnakes will average between four and six feet in length. They can be tamed easily, they eat well, and they do well in captivity.

Also, because of the wide variety of species and sub-species, you can get a pet kingsnake with many different colors. Some are speckled, some are striped, some are banded — but all are interesting in their own way. The kingsnake is truly a great type of pet snake for any level of snake-keeper.

Pet Snake #3 – The Gopher Snake

I have an albino San Diego gopher snake (one of several gopher snake species), and I refer to him as my “ambassador” to the snake world. He is my ambassador because he has the best temperament of all my pet snakes. So he is the snake I get out whenever a curious — but somewhat intimidated — houseguest wants to learn about snakes. I tell them, “Wait right here. I’ve got just the snake for you to meet.”

I’ve shared this story because it’s indicative of gopher snake behavior. When you raise them by hand, they become extremely tame and are very predictable when outside of their enclosures.

Also, in the six+ years that I’ve had him, my gopher snake has only turned down a handful of meals … out of hundreds of meals! Usually, it would be because he was going into shed. So that satisfies another of our pet snake criteria — feeding behavior.

Gopher snakes reach an average adult length of just over six feet (though some species can grow a foot or so longer than that). Gopher snakes are the longest snakes on my list, but they are still a manageable size, and they do well in the 4′ x 2′ cages that you can find everywhere.

In addition to the San Diego gopher snake that I keep as a pet, there are Sonoran gopher snakes and Great Basin gopher snakes. While they don’t come in as wide a variety of colors as corn snakes and kingsnakes, the gopher snakes are still beautiful to behold.For all of these reasons, gopher snakes are an excellent type of pet snake for the novice and the experienced keeper alike.

Pet Snake #4 – The Ball Python

I’ve put the ball python last on my list of best types of snakes to keep as pets for one reason only. They can be a bit more finicky with their eating.

For example, I currently keep four ball pythons that are the same age and kept in the exact same types of conditions (cages, heat, etc.). Nevertheless, they all have their own eating habits. Two of them will eat frozen / thawed rats on a fairly consistent basis. One will sometimes eat frozen / thawed, and sometimes not. The last one has only eaten frozen / thawed rats once — all the other times I’ve had to offer fresh rats. Yes, that means regular trips to the pet store!

As long as you accept this characteristic about ball pythons, and you’re okay with it, then I would still recommend them as a pet snake. They are very docile and reluctant to bite (I’ve never even had one strike at me). They rarely get longer than five and a half feet. And they do well in captivity if you take care of their basic needs. In fact, they can live for 25 years or more in captivity. So be sure you’re in it for the long haul if you choose a ball python as your type of pet snake.

I hope this list become helpful for those searching for a pet snake.

The discovers of the snake named it Titanoboa cerrejonensis (”ty-TAN-o-BO-ah sare-ah-HONE-en-siss”). That means “titanic boa from Cerrejon,” the region where it was found.

Titanoboa’s size gives clues about its environment. A snake’s size is related to how warm its environment is. The fossils suggest equatorial temperatures in its day were significantly warmer than they are now, during a time when the world as a whole was warmer. So equatorial temperatures apparently rose along with the global levels.

Their sense organs are uniquely different than those of other animals.  Unlike mammals, snakes rely primarily on their senses of smell and touch.  They do not have moveable eyelids, but transparent caps called “brille” as protective eye coverings. Because of this, their eye movement is fairly limited. They also do not have an external ear, middle ear, or tympanic membrane (eardrum). Instead, they use a small ossicle (ear bone), called the “columella,” to detect vibrations of sound waves conducted through the ground. They are able to pick up some sound waves conducted through the air, but only at very low frequencies.

Snakes also smell in a different way. Mammals bring air particles into contact with the olfactory (smelling) nerves by breathing them into the nasal cavities through the nostrils. Snakes have both nostrils and nasal cavities, but they are not used to smell. Instead, the flicking tongue is actually a smelling device. There is a small organ on the roof of the oral cavity called the “vomeronasal organ”, or “Jacobson’s organ.” The forked tongue is used to bring minute air particles into contact with this organ, and the snake then perceives and identifies the smell as prey, predator, or otherwise. So, unlike mammals, the tongue is not used to taste or aid in swallowing, but simply as an accessory smelling organ.

Some snakes also have a “sixth sense”. Vipers, rattlesnakes, and other members of the family of snakes known as the ‘pit vipers’ have special pits located between their eyes and nostrils. The pits are used to sense minute temperature changes as infrared rays, as an aid in locating warm-blooded prey such as rodents. A pit has two chambers. The interior chamber is naturally the internal temperature of the snake itself. The exterior chamber heats up when it is close to a heat source, and the snake is then able to detect the temperature difference between the two chambers. This system is so accurate that pit vipers are actually able to detect temperature changes as little as 0.002° Celsius.