I personally love corn snakes. I have two. Easy to keep, inexpensive, great demeanor (although they can be a little nippy when very young - not that they can do any damage at 10g), come in a variety of colors and patterns, eat great and happily take F/T.

I would also recommend Trans-Pecos Rat Snakes. They are generally very docile and have cool eyes that cutely seem too big for their face.

Both are pretty small as babies, but they reach full size in about 2+ years if fed properly.

At full size they are not bulky like a ball python, and are more active, but they are solid snakes.

Solana is about 360G now and close to 4ft while Figment is about 590G and closer to 5ft. Solana is more typical of corn snakes in terms of adult size (although she will probably level off closer to 400G).

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...nder-Corn-Baby

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...ow-Motley-Corn


Pros of both species is the ease of which to care, appetite, acceptance of F/T, docile nature and reasonable size.

Cons are they both start off really small and somewhat fragile. They also may not be substantial enough for you.

However, if you start getting into larger colubrids like king and milk snakes, which I don't know as much about, they have their own pros and cons.

In my experience, corn and trans-pecos rat snakes tend to be more docile and calm and less "movey" and active than king and milk snakes.

However, others here may disagree with that.