Hello everyone. A few weeks ago, I took my 7 year old son to Repticon and decided to let him get his first snake. We narrowed it down to a Ball or a Corn, but I've largely decided in favor of the Ball. My reasoning is that even though the husbandry seems easier and more forgiving for the Corn, the Ball seems more relaxed when handling. The Corn looks like it always has to be moving and that might be frustrating for a young kids first snake. Although all handling will be supervised by me, I'm a little worried a Corn may get away from him and the Ball just looks so calm. As for the husbandry, I will be heavily assisting and I have experience keeping a Dumerils Boa for nearly 10 years in the past. I'm curious if there's any reason to second guess the decision on the getting the Ball for a 7 year old?

I've read the Ball can be nippy, especially as a baby. Is this really individual snake dependent or are most of them this way at first? I'm totally fine working with a young snake to get it to be more docile, but it might not be a great experience if he gets intimidated by his 1st snake. Would I be better off with a less young one?

Besides the humidity, is there any huge difference b/t keeping a Boa and a Ball?

My intent is to start the Ball in a 20gal which I will get all dialed in ahead of time. Then, we'll upgrade to something nicer once it gets a little bigger. I used a Boaphiles in the past, but I'll probably go with an AP T8 this time around.


Thanks for reading!