Quote Originally Posted by MasonC2K View Post
I think it really depends on the 12 year old and how responsible and confident he is.

Ball Pythons make good starter snake IMO as long as you do the research first. They are docile and slow. Odds of you getting bit are low and if you let one escape out of your hands, something is wrong with your hands.

Corns and Kings are more forgiving on the husbandry is you screw something up. But they are not slow. They are quite fast and can take off on you. You have to pay attention to them while handling especially while sitting down. They are quite docile as well but more likely to bite than a BP from my experience.

So you have your pros and cons. In the end though it boils down to personal taste. The kid may prefer on over the other on looks alone.

Just my 2 cents.
This probably doesn't apply to the OP anymore since it sounds like the family in question have made their decision. But I wanted to say that I think Mason makes a really good point here. It doesn't matter how easy it is to care for a corn if it gets away from you while handling. This is actually a big part of why our family decided to get a BP first, although I'd sort of forgotten that in the meantime. We had some concern that a speedy little corn might escape out of the hands of our then 5 yr old, or she might easily injure a young corn without meaning too (perhaps in trying to hold on to it while it was dashing away so zippily) because they are so small & delicate.