Should i buy a ball python?

[Skiploder]

Hello BP.net members

Thank you for taking the time to read my thread.

About 6 months ago me, my son and daughter were out getting some materials for her betta fish and decided to take a look in the reptile section for fun. we were very fortunate to see a few pie-bald pythons the store had on display and we were even allowed to hold them as long as we wished! My daughter whom is 4 years old loves snakes and showed absolutely no fear when asked if she wanted to hold snake, I myself have always loved snakes as i worked in a tattoo shop for years which had one as kind of a mascot, i watched my daughter holding this snake and noticed she gave this animal great respect and was very good at handling it. so what happened next? of course she wanted me to buy her the 2,000 dollar snake! i told her to ask me later when i had the money as a ploy to see if she actually wanted one or was just caught up in the moment. 6 months later im getting really sick of her bugging me all the time to buy her a snake.....but there are a few issues im having with my lifestyle and schedule i need to address before buying a snake for me and my children that im hoping you guys could give me some advice or just straight up put a stop to my plans before i buy a snake i cant give the attention it needs. let me explain my situation

i am a single father of two children with shared custody, my work schedule is 4 days on 4 days off in which i spend all 4 days with my kids. the first 2 days of work i leave the house at 4:30 am and do not arrive back at home until 10:00 pm that night in between the 2nd and 3rd day i have a 24 hour split, leaving for my night shifts at 4:30 pm arriving home at 10:00 am. i am home every night at 10pm or everyday at 10am. my four days off are spend taking my soon and next year son and daugther to school and lazing around the house working on my bike and doing work around the house as im abit of a loner and a home body. so my question is, with this lifestyle and work schedule would a ball python be right for me?

a few other things i have to mention is that i am an avid drummer and my children have been showing an interest in the drums as well, would this in any way stress out my snake? if im going to buy the family a snake i really want it to be the happiest snake in the world! im not afraid of them but i am worried even though i was the only one in the tattoo shop that would handle the python and feed it that i may be overlooking some very important things here, please....enlighten me with your opinions

I'm going to go against the grain here and recommend that you NOT get a snake. Unless the snake is for you....or unless you have a deep abiding interest in keeping one.

I've sold a lot of snakes to a lot of people and I learned early on to talk people who were interested in purchasing snakes as pets for their kids out of purchasing one. We get calls all the time from my wife's friends who ask us if we want to take in a ball python or a corn snake that they bought for their kids. The interest wanes, the parents aren't interested and the snake goes on Craig's List to the next buyer.

For most kids (not all) the novelty of owning one wears off fairly quickly. Their friends stop being impressed with the "different" new pet and with most species, the level of interaction is a step above owning a pet rock. Ball pythons for example, can be easily stressed by repeated handling sessions. The woma python, which was brought up by another poster, needs more room as an adult and can be nippy. While they are less stressed by handling as adults, as babies they are prone to defensive strikes. With young kids, being bit once is all it takes to put them off interacting with the animal again.

It then falls on the parent to care for the animal - hence my warning that YOU should be the one desiring snake ownership...not the kids.

My very biased opinion is that as a parent you develop any interest in the natural world through trips to zoos, aquariums, reptile gardens, science academies and even some of the better specialty exotic pet stores. Encourage any burgeoning interest with books - starting from basic to more advance as the kids age.

If the interest you child shows with the tattoo parlor mascot flourishes and intensifies as she ages, then consider a basic entry level species such as a corn snake. There are other good entry level animals that are less common, but the idea should be to purchase and animal that cannot be easily killed or stressed by either husbandry lapses or handling.