Does anyone own a Corn Snake?

[Sark79]

I have always had mixed feelings about keeping reptiles as pets. On one hand it is great to care for a pet as they offer company if you stay by yourself , on the other hand I was always under the impression that a reptile is kind of pointless as they don't have a personality as a dog or cat does. A few months back I visited a friend who was about to go and buy a corn snake for his Daughters upcoming birthday. I tagged along as I wasn't busy.

We went to Pets At Home in Glasgow and while there we handled a few snakes and chatted to the staff about corn snake care. In the end he bought a King Snake from a friend at work and the snake and his Daughter are now getting along famously.

As I have now spent some time around the snake while visiting I have come to see snakes differently. Snakes clearly do have personality even though perhaps not as unique as a dogs or cats.  As I am a nerd I have also read a few books on rat snakes now as it wasn't an area I had a great deal of knowledge about. I would even consider getting a snake at some point in the future if I wasn't able to have a dog for any reason.

One or two questions to snake and reptile owners.  

Why did you want a reptile as a pet?  

I have heard negative things about buying from a high street pet store such as Pets At Home compared to a private dealer.  Why is this?   from what I saw they seemed healthy and well cared for

What advice would you give a new owner of a snake?

For snake owners, do you feed live or frozen food?   My Sister owned a milk snake for a brief time as a kid and fed it live mice. This put me off owning a snake straight away. After reading and watching numerous youtube videos I have since learned this is not only dangerous for the snake it can also be a cause of illness for the snake.  What are your reasons for live feeding?  

[willrobrobu]

most pet reptiles are kept poorly in bad environments and on poor diets. more so than cats and dogs their needs are incredibly varied and often very specific. don't keep them IMO unless you do you a shedload of reading/research and can afford to care for them should they become ill.

[clementine]

this is another reason not to feed the snake with mice:

Click to see full-size image.

[Horus]

owner: Morning, pet!  The food ate my pet!

[Sark79]

Yea Clementine, that is shocking. I have read in many books that Royal/Ball Pythons are difficult eaters and often refuse frozen rodents. That is a Royal Python shown in the picture above . I asked a snake breeder recently about this topic and he said that there is no need to feed any captive snake live food.