my first snake corn or milk or king

Sorry...double post was an accident.

I have never heard of keeping any species of pituophis with a hot spot above 85°F. As for them holding down pinkies and not larger sizes, pituophis are know to take smaller prey items much better than larger prey items. I don't know why. I would recommend feeding one or two pinks every 5-7 days for the next 4 or 5 feedings, and then trying to move to a larger prey item.

It depends on what you mean by "friendly".
For a snake that is amenable to being handled, I vote Corn.
For ease of husbandry, I vote King.

Originally Posted by Sand&SunReptile

TAKE THEM OFF THE PINE!!!!!! Pine is horrible for snakes. It can be toxic and fatal.
Also, give them a 95ish degree basking area.
I'd use aspen, or even newspaper/paper towels.
Hope this advice helps.

95 ish isnt too bad if you are talking the temp right on the hotspot. like if you used a infrared tempgun. with the hottest area's "surface temp" at 95, the surrounding hot side would still only be around 85.

Originally Posted by coyote

It depends on what you mean by "friendly".
For a snake that is amenable to being handled, I vote Corn.
For ease of husbandry, I vote King.

oh yeah... the topic.

I think Corns/Rats are a little nippy... and I'm mostly partial to any tricolor-mountain kings, and milks.

My first snake, Baby, was one of the calmest I have had the pleasure to own or spend time with. I purchased him from a private dealer outside of Pittsburgh while I was in college. He was a wild caught Columbia boa yearling. By the time I acquired him he was about 13 months old. He was a voracious eater, but not a biter. He only struck at me once in the 5 years I had him.

Although he did puncture my buddy's lower lip - he was drunk, not the snake - my buddy, and holding him but flicking his tongue out at Baby. Before I could warn him not to - bam - his lower lip / chin was bleeding. He stopped messing with him.

I was able to handle him at any time and he loved to walk the campus in summertime with me. He would simply find a comfortable position around my shoulders and come along for the ride. The funny part of it was most people didn't notice Baby on my shoulders and I would have to shift around to get Baby to move so that he would be noticed. As you can imagine some reactions were better then others.