Oh that is an awesome story! hah hah! Most pet stores have those hand sanitizers close to the display cases now. It's really handy. The one close to my house even has a paper-towel dispenser right next to the sanitizer.

Corn snakes are great starter snakes especially if you live in the US. They like the tropical American weather so they can go with 80-85 on the hot side and 70-75 on the cool side which is what your house is normally set. So, all you need is an under-tank-heater or a heat lamp on one side of the enclosure and you're good to go and you can even drop the temperatures at night a bit. They're good with whatever humidity your house provides so no humidity checks are necessary. And, they will normally eat whenever you put some rodent infront of them. They come in a lot of different colors and they are cheaper.

Ball pythons are cool. They are more "macho" than the corn snakes. What's really great about ball pythons, in my opinion, is they are great "trainer" snakes - meaning, they will train you on how to take great care of pet snakes! Because they're African, they need more heat than corns - 90 on hot, 80 on cold. This is too warm for most houses unless you're like me who keeps the house temperature at 80! So, constant monitoring of the temperature is needed (or you can use a thermostat). And, ball pythons need humidity to be around 50%. Which, in the USA, is not always the case in most houses. Like in Florida, it gets up to 80% during summer and fall and then goes down to 20% during winter. So, you'll need to monitor humidity as well. And then on top of that, ball pythons are known to stop eating for months on end. Although this does not necessarily hurt the snake, it sometimes gets stressful for the novice snake keeper. But, owning a ball python is very rewarding. Because of the extra attention that it requires, it gives you that sense of accomplishment everytime your ball python eats and even a greater sense of accomplishment when it gives a perfect, full shed! A ball python is a great step towards the more intermediate or advanced snake species like the bigger snakes or the arboreals. That's one of the reasons I got a ball python instead of a corn snake for a first snake.

Another snake to look at is the Western Hognose. We got ball pythons first, then we got a western hognose and man, I am IN LOVE with the hognose! He is sooooo very different from ball pythons that it is awesome to just observe the two. They're not as easy to take care of as corn snakes. They're probably on the same level as a ball python. Although native to the US (from Texas all the way to New Jersey) and would have the same temperature requirement as a corn snake, the hognose needs a confident keeper. Hognoses will hiss, stand up like a cobra, strike (with mouth closed) when scared/startled which can be really scary to see for a first timer. It's all just for show. We've had ours since Christmas, so he doesn't do that anymore (he's used to us now) but the first week that we had him, boy, he was such a hissy fit! Hognoses also stops eating sometimes for months on end like a ball python. Oh, and they have venom - but not lethal, of course. Probably similar to getting stung by a bee. They don't bite unless you smell like a mouse. And then it takes a lot of chewing before the venom is released. So, it's very rare that a human gets injected by western hognose venom.

Wow, I can go on and on about these snakes... I just got home from a show-and-tell at my son's school so I got snakes in my head!