Common pets can be overrated at times. I mean, yes, we all adore cats and dogs, but we know what they love and do not. We know nearly everything about them. Keeping a pet loses its novelty if we are stuck to the more popular ones. In this article, thus, I intend to branch out to some outlandish pets for some quirky pet owners.
So, I take it that you are a potential pet owner, trying to find your kind-of pet. To start with, I think you should give snakes a thought. Snakes, with their slippery, slimy bodies, seem to promise adventure for the exploratory. However, you need to understand that they are not the ideal pets for everyone. A great deal of research is nonpareil before committing to keeping a pet snake.
First things first, you have to keep in mind that fortunately or unfortunately, if you choose a snake as pet, you have to be ready to make a long time commitment because snakes generally live longer than twenty years. Therefore, in case you are not happy with your pet, there is no chance in hell that you can pray for it to die, and it will! Now you do have one hope though. Snakes are adroit escape artists, so unless you make an escape-proof tank of some sorts constructed without any gaps, your pet might just escape. Remember that snakes are very tenacious about finding and squeezing through small gaps.
Another very important fact that you have to consider is that you have to feed your pet, at times if not always, living prey animals. Now, you might want to pull the trigger beforehand and give frozen or pre-killed rodents to your pet just to save yourself from witnessing the slaying, but you still have to reconcile with the thought of keeping a dead animal in your freezer.
You might be bothered with the question whether to get a wild snake caught or adopt a captive bred snake. I would say, if possible, get the latter. Snakes in the wild, when caught, are more frazzled and susceptible to carry diseases and parasites and incidentally are more difficult to tame.
Choosing a healthy reptile is paramount. You need to conduct a cursory exam to look for any signs of illness. It is better if you ask your pet-dealer to give you a demonstration about the feeding procedure. This becomes more important if you have or intend to keep a ball python, which are known for their eating disarrays.
Now you need to have a clear idea about the snake you want to keep. Needless to say, they come in all shapes and varieties and you need to be well aware of the dangerous ones. This is one of the reasons for adopting a captive snake as opposed to bring home a wild one.
Popular choices for beginner snakes are corn snakes, king and milk snakes and ball pythons. They are mostly submissive, fairly easy to tend for, and most important of all, reasonably sized. Trust me; you would want a colossal constrictor coiled around your neck, sending shivers down your spine.
For that reason, there should be a well-defined list citing which snakes to avoid. To begin with, it is advisable to avoid venomous snakes, enormous constricting snakes, and snakes that require more care than you can possibly provide. These would include boa constrictors, tree boas and red- tailed boas. Burmese pythons are venomous so I would advise you not to have anything to do with them! Green snakes, in general, are a bad idea. More often than not, they are extremely venomous and even cause death. Now if we were to make a list of the extremely deadly snakes, anacondas and reticulated pythons would top the charts. Under no circumstance are you, the potential pet owner, to get one of these as your reptile pal.
Until now we had been concentrating on a potential snake owner. Let us digress to consider people who have already got themselves a snake as pet. I understand that you are a digression in yourself and very different from the dull louts who go for safer and of course saner pet animals. I also understand that feeding is one of the most problematic part of keeping a snake. To top it all, the idea of raising live animals for your pal to feed on is petrifying. In my opinion, it is definitely better to go for pre-killed preys since there is a chance of your pet being seriously wounded in the combat if you put a live rat or mouse inside its tank.
Now, you must remember that snakes are not easy pets to keep. They can actually be quite a handful, cold-blooded as they are! They need to be able to regulate their body temperature by blending itself to both warm and cool areas. Now, the snake fends for itself in the wild, and had previously adapted itself to the diversity around, in terms of temperature. However, in captivity, it is helpless and depends on you to provide it with a comfortable home. For that purpose, you need to introduce a thermal gradient into its tank to make sure that it is warm enough for your pet to be able to digest its meals.
Pets are a constant source of companion, and pet snakes are not exception. So, whatever snake you chose or have already chosen, do take good care of it, with all the commitment required to keep a slithery pet happy and in good health.