Beginner Snake

[lbrent-hurst]

Have you considered a corn snake? Easy to care for, simple caging, good eaters, and they come in many different paint jobs.

You could go to a pet store or two, if there's a good one near you, and ask if you can handle the snakes they have for sale and see what species you connect with, gravitate toward, or just like. If you do, try and find out when they are least likely to be busy and go then; don't go on a nice Saturday afternoon when they're packed with kids who all want to see all the animals and then expect a lot of attention from the staff while you're still in the tire-kicking stage.
Most of the snakes that are common pets are not terribly difficult to care for, once you have everything set up initially. Just keep in mind their future needs in terms of space and prey, and the fact that the bigger they are the bigger they eat and the bigger they excrete.
Your snake will be with you for a long time, so you might as well go for the one that captures your imagination, within reason.

I always have and probably always will advise a corn, or(my favorite close cousin) gray ratsnake, as the best first time pets. Sure, there are plenty of great candidates but I think they are the best options for someone that likely wants to handle a fair bit and will almost certainly make some mistakes along the way. Even wild examples, 9/10 of the time you can pick them up and only get bit a couples times(sometimes not at all) before they're chill. A couple years ago I found a rather skinny looking gray rat in the yard and walked him over to one of my known tree frog haunts and held him up so he could pick off a few easy meals while wrapped around my fingers. He didn't bite me at all as far as I remember but the main point is, he didn't get turned off food by the encounter. A year or two before that some heavy rains drove a hatchling gray rat to take refuge in my home. He was a fresh baby, that had just got the poop scared out of him by some crazy dogs, but took a couple pinky ASF like an old pro the same night. I released him the following day after the rains stopped.

If you're willing to do a lot of research online in the right places, buy all the necessary equipment of good quality/brand, then I'd say to pick whichever snake you personally like more (corn snake or BP or whatever). Corns are good for beginners in the way that an owner that did almost no research can make childish mistakes on them, and they will live and still have a decent appetite. While ball pythons are quite intolerant of husbandry mistakes.

I have looked at corns before, but to be honest, they just don't interest me as some of the other snakes I have mentioned. I have only seen normals, hypos, and albinos at pet stores, but I am going to a reptile expo at the end of the month, so maybe I will see some cool morphs which are a little more intriguing. I have done lots of research on all of the snakes that I have mentioned (housing, feeding, temp, humidity etc.), so I feel that I will be able to care for them all. I am just wondering if anyone has personal opinions on whether or not they are suitable for beginners, and which ones are better/worse.

Liam