Snakes as pets; get your mind wrapped around that concept.
I used to have a pet iguana, a few anoles and several bearded dragons as pets over the years that I enjoyed very much. I even had pet rats, the intention being to raise pinkie rats to feed my meat-eating beardies but the rats became pets instead.
Lizards are totally awesome. A tamed iguana actually enjoys sitting on you to enjoy your body warmth. Dreamy-eyed snake lovers say the same thing about snakes, adding that snakes are so …sensual.
They tell that snakes love to wrap themselves
around you for your warmth. All snakes do that. If you have a genuine fear of snakes it is not difficult to imagine a really large snake throwing a few coils around your chest and neck and squeezing you until all the heat is gone. Isn’t that after all, what snakes do? Then they slither off to find someone else to terrorize.I had a ball python for a pet named ‘Julias Squeezer.’ My ball python never bit me, never acted well, ‘-snakey.’ If you fear snakes you will understand that last statement.
Just for motivational reasons, if I were ever to have another pet snake, my choice would be to have a Kingsnake. A shiny, bright tri-colored kingsnake!
Many Varieties of Kingsnake
Kingsnakes come in many sizes and colors.
Kingsnake in Florida
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How would you like to step on one of these in the tall grass? Non-venomous of course, this gentle pet eats mice, rats and birds. The size of this particular pet is rather intimidating but the beast seems rather docile.
Kingsnake in California
(image source)
When I think of kingsnakes however, I mostly think of the species with brilliant coloration. Many kingsnake species have bright stripes.
that mimic the venomous coral snake. In nature, bright colors or patterns usually serve as a warning. This strategy only works if the predator knows that the prey is either venomous, poisonous or at the very least, taste nasty.
Mimicry in the Animal Kingdom is More than Flattery: It Means Survival
Such is the strategy of Monarch Buttery:
Having fed upon the bitter milkweed plant as a caterpillar, the adult Monarch retains a bitter taste that birds do not enjoy. If a bird catches at attempts to eat a Monarch butterfly, the life-lesson is learned and the taste causes them to abstain from similar-looking butterflies in the future.
Any non-venomous specie that chances to evolve similar colors and/or patterns enjoys a status afforded to few prey; predators tend to avoid you by association. This leaves you free to live and reproduce, creating
offspring that look just like you. The more mating individuals avoided due to warning colors increases the likelihood of pairings that produce similarly-colored progeny. A random mutation that causes an otherwise bland-colored creature to resemble a brightly-colored albeit venomous one is an evolutionary advantage.Grayband Kingsnake
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Just remember, red next to black is a friend to Jack. Hmm, -I wonder who ‘Jack’ is? I know someone back from my homestate of New York that travels around the U.S. on ‘herping tours’ where he collects snakes and brings them home. I think he has a licence to do this, or collects species that are not protected.
At a reptile fair once, this snake collector told me about a ‘herping tour’ he attended in the state of Arizona where another collector in the field had captured an albino kingsnake. This snake-collecting guy (let’s call him “Jack”) wanted it for his own collection and paid a few hundred dollars for it right there on the spot. I mean, -wow.
Kingsnake on a Patio Chair
For me, THIS is the quintessential kingsnake oh be still my heart! The non-venomous and brightly-colored kingsnake. If I could have a pet snake, let it be a colorful kingsnake!