Baby vs. Older snakes-

[CptJack]

At some point after a bit more experience and education we're going to get another snake - I can see it coming from here - and I'm wondering if there's an appreciable advantage in buying a baby snake over an adult, besides price? Help the newbie out?

[Kodieh]

I wouldn't see a bonus. I mean, I get to see them grow and their pattern develop which I like. But they can be pickier or hungrier, you need different enclosure sizes and the like. It's overall the same as getting a reasonably priced adult unless you're throwing the baby in an adult sized tub.

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[CptJack]

Yeah, enclosure (not having to switch tubs) and having a well established animal I *know* eats was the appeal for me. I will certainly get more experience under my belt with the little(ish) guy I have now, but I really would prefer to skip this stuff if there's nothing I was missing in my reasoning.

And because I'm a contrary suck, it'll probably still be a male normal, but that's neither here nor there.

[John1982]

Other than a couple instances I've always bought young animals. I like to grow them up myself so I know it's done right. I also fret more when dealing with older animals because they've had more time to possibly pass through more hands/collections and pick up lord knows what kind of nasties along the way.

[bigt0006]

Certant snakes will tame down if you work with them and handle them while there babys. Like carpet pythons most of the sub adults ive seen sold are pretty aggressive and pretty wild acting because they dont usually handle the snakes alot.

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[CptJack]

Hm. I was thinking another ball python. Any idea how much handling affects temperament there?

[CryHavoc17]

The thing is you really always want to buy your snake directly from a quality breeder who produced the animal themselves. And they are only going to be selling babies for the most part. Any snake that they've put the work in to raise up is going to be used for their breeding projects 9 time out of 10. The only exception are animals that no longer fit there breeding plans, which do come up occasionally.

Buying an adult or subadult is risky, because you may be paying someone to taking a problem animal off their hands (crappy feeder, only eats live mice, ext)

You also run the risk of getting an animal that has been passed around a bunch, and that can be problematic.

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[CptJack]

Background is definitely something i'd have to consider - I don't have the experience to do any serious amount of rehab or handle really major issues.

I may check with the breeder I got my normal baby from. If there's any chance of him having adults who no longer fit his program I'd happily wait, I think. If not, well - I know where to get another baby.

Thanks, guys.

[sorraia]

I've purchased 4 adult and 6 juvenile ball pythons. Haven't had any problem with the adults, either behavior, temperament, or health. Haven't had health problems with the juveniles, but a couple have been kind of nippy. Asi understand this is fairly normal for the small ones, but 2 have retained this behavior (haven't weighed recently, but they are over a year old now), so I'm having to give them extra attention and handling to try to calm them down.

[CptJack]

All right. My thoughts are basically this, at this point:

I would prefer and adult snake. If I can find a specific snake from a source I trust that I can SEE feed and that will allow me to do a vet exam (at my expense) and will let me bring the snake back if the vet finds something wrong that I'm not prepared to handle, I will go that route. Nothing shipped, nothing online, nothing unknown.

If I can not do that, I'll go baby.

My only concerns are the snake be reasonably healthy, willing to eat reasonably well most of the time (it's a ball python), and not insanely aggressive.

Beyond that, I don't really care.