Other Good Beginner Herps

Howdy all

So my question is as follows:

What are some other good beginner reptiles that you would recommend that a new snake owner (like myself) get into to help widen my variety of herps??

I don't really care for bearded dragons (kinda boring IMO), and only am really familiar with Ball Pythons. I know Corns and Kings can be temperamental too.

Thanks for your input; If you could include some pics of your setups for the types you may have or links to info about them that would be great!!

Leopard geckos and crested geckos are pretty easy and have wonderful personalities.

If you're looking at snakes, you can't go wrong with a BCI (if you don't mind the size).

BCI??

Cresteds look interesting; are there any differences in husbandry between them and Leopards??

Corns and Kings are wonderful: I highly recommend both for a starter herp. Easy to keep, easy to feed, and most are very well mannered and calm with handling.

BCI: "boa constrictor imperator" (boas). The most common BCI boas in the hobby are Colombians, in which females will most likely need a 4-6 foot cage and males 4'. Hog Island BCI boas are considered dwarf boas and should stay on the smaller side: some keep these and central american dwarf and mexican dwarf boas in tubs without issue.

Cresties are great but can't tolerate higher temperatures.

So BCIs are pretty similar to Ball Pythons??

BCIs are similar to ball pythons only as far as temps and humidity goes. Their basic care is fairly simple other than the fact that they need a large cage. A fully grown male BCI should not be in anything less than a 4x2x2 enclosure and females should have closer to a 6x2x2. Tubs do not work well for an adult BCI, although you can easily grow out babies in progressively larger tubs until they are adults. While boas are not giants, you should be prepared to have a LARGE snake if you get a boa. Their strength is very impressive....

BCIs are amazing animals! They have so much personality and actually seem to enjoy being held. And there is NO comparison between a BCI and a ball as far as feeding response! Boas are not called garbage disposals for nothing and will often hit so hard they destroy the rat in the process....

I personally recommend starting with a baby and raising it up. That is very rewarding and satisfying - and allows you to get comfortable with their outgoing in-your-face personalities while it is still small.

But be warned - boas are addictive. Betcha can't have just one...... :D

^ boas are awesome and ditto on the garbage disposal thing!
Corns are great if your looking for smaller.
Cresties are such a fun little lizard! They like typical room temps, they get heat stressed at temps over 85 so you really have to watch that in the summer or you will lose them. They happily eat the bagged crested gecko diet with the occasional dusted cricket. And they have sticky feet!

African House Snakes... Python Heads with Viper Eyes on Colubrids Body... and a lot of personality... You cant go Wrong with Housies !!!

So what exactly is a coulbrid?? (Sorry, really dumb when it comes to stuff like this...really new to stuff like this)

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Originally Posted by Mephibosheth1

So what exactly is a coulbrid?? (Sorry, really dumb when it comes to stuff like this...really new to stuff like this)

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They're a family of snakes. Just like your Boas, Elapids, and so on. They make up the majority of snake species.

Also, to answer your original question, you can't go wrong with a Corn Snake. They've got almost everything you could ask for in a pet snake: good availability, simple care requirements, docile, and of course some morphs (if that's your thing). Mine has never been trouble; never bitten me, never even thrown a defense posture. They're great.