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Pet Snake:Pet snakes are quite a popular fancy of people all over the world with a penchant for the serpentine.
Snakes have been quite a fascinating, revered and reviled part of human culture for years and years. There are many varieties of snakes and most of them feed on smaller reptiles, mammals of sizes that correspond to their own size, and even birds. Snake identification is something that must be done very early on to avoid getting into something that you aren’t prepared for.
In the States the most popular pets are the ball python and the corn snake; both of which are manageable species that require little maintenance and bother. It is important that you understand some snake facts before you decide to adopt one as a pet because they do require a certain amount of care, especially when they are placed in a non-native environment. This is especially true of the ball python, which is an African bush native.
Snakes are cold-blooded reptiles much like all reptiles. What this means is that they do not have a mechanism to control their body temperature. This is also the reason why most reptiles are usually found in tropical and temperate regions that do not have severe winters. Cold-blooded does not mean that the creature does not require heat; in fact, heat is a very important part of their existence. Without heat, a reptile cannot digest its food or even start its day. For this reason, it is not uncommon for most reptiles to spend some time basking in the sun to get their daily start up dose of heat. This is common behavior in reptiles like crocodiles, lizards, and snakes. Heat plays a crucial role in digestion in reptiles and without it for a long period of time, can actually cause food to rot inside a reptile and kill it.
A snake baby is independent from the minute it hatches from its eggs. Unlike crocodiles that do spend some time with its mother – in some species, even being helped to hatch – snakes either hatch from eggs outside the mother or inside the mother as is the case in the anaconda. Because of their unique metabolisms, snakes only need a meal once in a few months and this is sometimes what makes them preferred pets. Pet snakes are usually fed mice that are sometimes pre-killed and frozen. This is especially true of snakes that have been bred in captivity and are not familiar with hunting or constricting skills.
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