Thought I'd put in a totally out of the box comment... Have you thought about Kenyan sand boas? I had one as one of my first two snakes (the other is a hognose) and she has been awesome.

They stay smaller than balls / corns, but if you get a female, she could get up to 3 feet and they are more chunky than corns. Females can live their whole life in a 20gl long and males in a 10gl. I have two females and I must say that they are great starter snakes. Not very picky on temps / humidity (they do like it hotter though, my hotspots stay at 95), and they need a humid hide when shedding.

They don't need hides... and bury themselves under the substrate. They are somewhere between corns and BPs in price... I paid $150 for my anery (overpriced) and $200 for my nuclear female. Oh, and they eat... boy do they eat... My largest female was on a 5 day schedule until she got over 150 grams, then we moved her to a 7 day schedule. They will also take multiple food items (when we've been between prey sizes).

As far as activity goes... I find that it varies, our anery will chill and crawl slowly around looking for a digging spot, our nuclear, well, she's like a corn.. always moving and fast. My only BP moves about as much as my Kenyans, but she is still small so she may grow out of this.

I would say that a Kenyan is just as good of a starter as a corn and may fit your specs. more like a BP would if you're cool with a smaller snake (keep in mind that females are much larger than males, so I'd suggest a female if you want a snake closer to a corn in size).

If you want something that will permanantly be happy in a 20gl long, is easy to care for, and a great eater, then I'd say consider a female Kenyan (also, check out all of the cool morphs they come in).

Here's a pic of zelda, my anery Kenyan. Keep in mind that she's not quite half-way grown in terms of length and should get up to 4x bigger weight wise.


If you're interested, pm me and I can send you links to sand boa groups and tell you who I got mine from.

Now... More on topic, I only have experience with a BP (corns are illegal in GA) and I can say that I got one that is a good feeder and as long as you keep your humidity up and temps right, they are not hard to keep... I would seriously consider doing a tub setup though to help with humidity (there's a sticky somewhere on this site on how to setup a tub, can't remember where). I would really advise getting one from a breeder that is already feeding f/t and has had several meals consistently.