Which Snake to Work With?

FosterHerpetological

FosterHerpetological

FosterHerpetological
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So basically, over about the past year and a half to two years, I have been selling off my smaller snakes and all of the lizards I had to focus on the larger type snakes.

The problem now is, I really can't choose which species to work with! Thats why I am asking for any opinions.

I'm wanting to work with the larger snakes. Carpets, bloods, burms, retics, Afrocks, and boas.
I just can't choose which one to focus on. I only really want to work with one species and focus on them.

I have had one carpet python before(sold), a baby burm(sold), I still have my large male tiger retic, and I have had a couple different types of boa constrictors. Afrocks have always interested me, and so have bloods.

It doesn't matter to me either if the snakes lats eggs or has live young. And I know most people will be like, "choose what interests you the most", but thats the problem, I can't choose!

Help!

Stephen
 
I don't have a lot of experience with any of them. But the first thing I would do is seriously assess how much space you have to devote to the adult snake. If you're a little limited, you may want to hold off on burms, retics and Afrocks for the time being!

Carpets are spunky, arboreal and make great display snakes as well.

Bloods are like a giant python in a little python's body; big, but not too big. If you like fatty snakes, maybe bloods are for you.

Boas are always a favorite for many. (I'm assuming you're referring to "red-tailed boas" BCC and BCI ). Lots of variation with the sizes and localities.

Do more research on all. Sooner or later, you'll start leaning in one direction!
 
Well I have a full room for space. I have a 2 bedroom apartment, with one room being open for whatever I want in there. I already have 3 8ft cages in there, one with my big male tiger retic in it.
Here is how I have them broken down as of now:
1st-Retics. Love the patterns and colors, and their size isn't really any problem for me.
2nd-Afrocks. Many people over look these because of their temper reputation. I would like to work with them because not many people are taking the time to get captive bred babies.
3rd-Burms-I like burms because they are big but most of the time really tame. And what can I say, they have the best albinos, IMO.
4th-Bloods-I just love the look of the normal blood python. Love the albinos too.
5th-Boas-Love the temperments, but the morphs on these guys don't look the best to me, IMO.
6th-Carpets-Kinda weird, but I like that they are smaller as babies, and kinda the fact that there aren't many morphs.

But, still looking for more opinions. Which would you work with? And why?
 
Given the choice, I'd go with retics. Big snake without the weight of some of the other biggies; and IMO the prettiest of the giants, even in normal form. Although carpets are great snakes as well, and boas--well, their popularity speaks for itself. I find myself in similar situations frequently--and narrowing it down to one or two species can be daunting.
 
zooherper said:
Given the choice, I'd go with retics. Big snake without the weight of some of the other biggies; and IMO the prettiest of the giants, even in normal form. Although carpets are great snakes as well, and boas--well, their popularity speaks for itself. I find myself in similar situations frequently--and narrowing it down to one or two species can be daunting.
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I agree. Retics are the front runner at this time. But this might sound crazy, anyone work with green/yellow anacondas? I have the space, and temper issues don't bother me at all. Too many good looking snakes to choose from......
 
i would go with the retic, it is much easier to get food for them, because if you look into the future with anacondas, most people who have them must feed them very large prey such as piglets and bigger. how hard is that going to be to find, but hey, if you have the resources go with what will make you most happy
 
I've kept burms, rocks, retics, bloods, carpets, boas, and yellow anacondas (my experience with greens was limited to caring for a friends, and one that got dropped off at our shop). My favorite was the Afrock. I know they don't have the prettiest colors, and there aren't a lot of morphs; but I found them to be great snakes. Keep in mind that I've been doing this for some time, and most of the rocks I encountered were imports. Several of them were - well - rough around the edges, initially; but (with one exception) all of them settled down quite nicely. (And that one was quite predictable, and I knew what I could get away with, lol.) I think that most of the rocks available today are CBB, so you would be starting a step or two ahead in the game. The problem being that if you are considering breeding, there probably won't be much of a market.
Yellow annies are probably my second favorite in that group.
 
While i do keep retics, i think you should start off with AfRocks. they're cute babies, the morph market is just now starting to get a little more well known/out there (the patternless) and if you can, you could see about becoming an importer for them as well. it would give you a chance to see new/exciting things that may or may not be a new morph.
 
hhmoore said:
I've kept burms, rocks, retics, bloods, carpets, boas, and yellow anacondas (my experience with greens was limited to caring for a friends, and one that got dropped off at our shop). My favorite was the Afrock. I know they don't have the prettiest colors, and there aren't a lot of morphs; but I found them to be great snakes. Keep in mind that I've been doing this for some time, and most of the rocks I encountered were imports. Several of them were - well - rough around the edges, initially; but (with one exception) all of them settled down quite nicely. (And that one was quite predictable, and I knew what I could get away with, lol.) I think that most of the rocks available today are CBB, so you would be starting a step or two ahead in the game. The problem being that if you are considering breeding, there probably won't be much of a market.
Yellow annies are probably my second favorite in that group.
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Thanks for the input. May I ask why you put the yellows second? Ive handled a green anaconda before, and loved it, but never been around the yellows.
 
Because the rocks were my favorite, so the yellows couldn't be first, lol.
I like yellows - even kept mine for a couple years after they became illegal here (but, yes, I did finally part with them). They've got that same nasty reputation, but my experiences with them have been similar to what I described for rocks....except I haven't housed nearly as many yellows. I had a trio for quite a while, then got two pairs when I got back into reptiles. All but one of those was bitey and flighty when I acquired them, and they were all easy to deal with after a short period of time. (The first female did go absolutely ballistic if I had to restrain her, though....luckily, I only had to do that once or twice, lol)
 
hhmoore said:
Because the rocks were my favorite, so the yellows couldn't be first, lol.
I like yellows - even kept mine for a couple years after they became illegal here (but, yes, I did finally part with them). They've got that same nasty reputation, but my experiences with them have been similar to what I described for rocks....except I haven't housed nearly as many yellows. I had a trio for quite a while, then got two pairs when I got back into reptiles. All but one of those was bitey and flighty when I acquired them, and they were all easy to deal with after a short period of time. (The first female did go absolutely ballistic if I had to restrain her, though....luckily, I only had to do that once or twice, lol)
Click to expand...
^ That must've been fun. Lol

I personally out of curiosity would go with the green anaconda. I know it wasn't in your initial list, but i saw one at a pet shop (avatar picture) about 2 weeks ago and it seemed pretty tame. The guy at the shop let me hold it while i browsed at the other reptiles for about 20 mins. It was pretty cool.
 
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