What to look for in a new BP

[j_h_smith]

well, I'm HOPING to pick up a female pastel in the near future and was hoping for some guidelines regarding what to look for when purchasing. what would you say the minimum size recommended would be? no signs of old shed, clear of mites/ticks(how to best check for these at a sale?) other stuff I don't know about? Any help would be appreciated.

If this is your first snake, learn from other's mistakes. Read a bunch from this forum. We all made mistakes. Learn from their mistakes and don't repeat them.

Get your enclosure set up and running a week before you buy your snake.

Make sure you have a nice warm place inn the house to keep the enclosure.

Have a supply of food prey for your snake. What I mean is to make sure you have a pet store that will have the food prey available when you need them.

When you go to buy the snake, hold the snake, feel for anything that doesn't feel right. Any lumps where they shouldn't be. Look at the eyes for retained eye caps. Mites will cluster around the eyes too. Take a paper towel or two with you and rub the paper towel down the snake's body. You should see mites on the paper towel if they are present. I know you may have to have a little experience for this one, but make sure the snake feels as heavy as it should be. Look at the head, make sure there's no crust around the mouth or nostrils. Make sure the snake is flicking it's tongue as it should. Watch it breath, does it look like it is laboring to breath. Look for old retained sheds anywhere on the snake. Look at the tip of the tail too. Look at the belly scales, are there any off coloring in any one spot. Look for scars from llive prey bites.

As far as size. If this is your first snake, I wouldn't suggest a newborn. Too many issue may arise and cause you and the snake to stress. Look for something that's older, more established. A regular eater. If it's gotten to 250 grams, you know it's eaten. If you buy an 80 gram newborn, you don't really know if it's a good eater or difficult to get to eat regularly.

If you do buy a newborn, don't worry if it's a little bit nippy. This is actually a good thing. The bites won't hurt, even if they would clamp down on your hand. Usually they just strike at you because they are afraid. But an agressive baby can be a sign of a good agressive eater.

If you can, buy from someone you know or someone that you've been referred to. Be careful buying off of Craigslist, the internet or local newspaper. Many times you're buying from a flipper (someone that buys a snake and resells it for a profit). They won't have a real history about the snake.

I'm sure I've missed a lot of information, but if you read the forum's past posts, you should be able to come up with an answer to almost any question. If you can't find it, many here are great at helping.

Good Luck!
Jim Smith