My friend's sister is currently training to be a vet, and recently started working at an exotic animal store. So today as promiced she said she'd show us around. Turns out the owner has the largest collection of snakes and lizards in the UK(even though he's American) so it was pretty impressive. On display were the usuals, boas, pythons, corns, hognose etc, but he also had a seperate room behind a glass screen with his 'hot snakes'. There was a green manba, egyptian cobra, puff adder and western diamond back rattle snake just to name a few, although there were too many to remember. He had many many more snakes in the back of the store but the owner was busy so I've
bin invited back next week to see the whole of his collection. The owner was very knowledgable and VERY passionate about his snakes(and had worked with Steve Irwin on many occasions) and apparently is very picky with who he sells them to, which is a good thing.

I told him I was interested in getting a ball python in the near future and that I had done my research about them on here and was confident I knew what was required, however for some reason he didn't seem to keen on ball pythons. Many things he said about them contradicted what I've read on here, especially about their temperment, however due to his large collection and outright experience with snakes, I didn't argue. He strongly recommend boas to me, and said that a Hog Island boa would make a great pet. He then disappeared out the back and returned with a gorgeous 5ft female which I handled for a bit, and was a lovely snake. When I go back there I'll be sure to take a camara and get lots of pictures.

Ed.