Is keeping snakes humane?

[bcr229]

Are any snake breeders really looking at temperament when pairing animals, though? It seems to me like it's low on the priority list, but I'm not in the breeder circuit so I don't really know if that's being taken into consideration. Is there really a notable difference between a captive hatched python and a captive bred one? The placid nature of ball pythons is one of the things that made them so popular in the pet trade in the first place. I don't think that can be called domestication.

It's low on the priority list for ball pythons since a nip from one typically won't send you to the ER. They are bred, purchased, and sold for their paint jobs not their attitudes.

OTOH people keeping the larger snakes are more likely to keep and breed the mellower critters, simply because they don't care to deal with a 15-20 foot snake that wants to rip off your face every day.