Looking at corn snakes...best enclosure?

[Bogertophis]

I have done some research about using them, it is thankfully not unheard of so I can show data to my future boss in favor of it. I even tested out taking my daughter's BP to my internship school and had a rotating group of students joining me for lunch so they could see/touch the snake. Even a couple of kids who were afraid touched it. It was a super positive experience that even had my mentor thinking about getting a snake of her own :-D

Actually, over my decades of keeping many snakes, I've enjoyed sharing them via lectures or informal "meet & greets", and I'll never get tired of changing minds.

I've seen so many adults stand way back & watch others (even their own kids!) touching & meeting my snakes up close, & eventually most of them come over find out their mind has changed too. They say things like "I NEVER imagined I'd ever touch a snake, much less enjoy HOLDING one!?" And they mean it. One of the funniest episodes was many years ago, I was asked to do a snake talk for a large group of kids in a summer camp. The man in charge told me confidentially that he hated snakes & not to be either surprised or insulted when his own son (in the group) would likely be the first to duck out. Turned out his son was in the first row & he couldn't wait to see a snake up close & touch one..."sorry dad"!

The main thing is to have snakes that are unafraid of people...I've never had one "misbehave"- they're so tolerant that I have to run interference so they are touched gently, & are never mishandled. You can't trust really young children not to squeeze, drop or even hit animals, so I've always stayed right "on top" of any handling allowed, but the only time one of my snakes was ever dropped was by an older teenager, which was really surprising. Happily my snake was fine, & with a dirty look, I told they group of teens they were "done". (the gal was just not paying attention, she didn't mean for it to happen, but...)

I'm delighted that you're doing this...do keep us updated?