Snakes...

Hi,

Interested to know what opinion is like on keeping Snakes as pets ?

We have a friend who is in to them but while they are several feet long head to tail, when in their enclosure ( most of their life) the have little room to move around, let alone forage around as they would in their normal habitat.

We have kept dogs and cats that normally get all the freedom they need and even our fish tank is scaled and built in a manner to replicate their natural environment, yet the snake owners do not seem to believe they need to supply such things ??

 

From my days working in a pet shop...we would feed our snakes lab mice, that had to be warm in order to be detected. So you either go buy one live mouse a week or you breed them yourself. Like? Other than the look more or less colourful, snakes do tend to be still most of the time. Always good to provide as much space as possible, right temperature and humidity and replicate the kind of environment where that particular specie comes from. If I was going exotic, I would rather get a set of piranas.

 

Just dont see the point in keeping animals that you cant really replicate their natural habitat, wrong for you and the animal.

 

I consider it a good point when observing a an animal or bird that suddenly realises the cage door has been left open. It's as if the creature suddenly feels free. And usualy puts as much distance betewwn what was and what now is.

At home we always bred rabbits, chickens and ducks, sometime the odd goose. These were kept for the table and not in the general sense of pets. Tropical and cold water fish and birds such as canaries, finches and for me at one time, racing pigeons.

Keeping pets is and will remain a controvercial matter. In many cases it can educate and bring about a special respect and relationship between children and their hamster, gerbil or whatever.

I have always gone out of my way to provide the best possible conditions of captivity. I learned from Dad. Tend to the livestock first. He'd come home from work and straight away feed and water the livestock. His statement was. I can ask for my food and drink......they can't.
My sincere apologies if I have plundered this interesting thread. I honestly believe that although birds etc should be free, if kept as pets. Then they must be treated as VIP's. Kinds of kept pets. IMO keeping snakes and the like. Being a gardener. Might not keeping some insecttorvarious plant fit the bill.