How long is too long? Snake poll

Point taken, I didn't mean it to be judgmental, but I guess people will be people.
It seems a question a lot of newbies ask, and also it's interesting to see the reasons behind the choices people make.

My choice is 6-12 feet max. I don't want any animals that can kill me. I had a retic put the squeeze on me once. She was only 16-18 feet at the time. Fortunately, I had a rule about only taking her out when I had help so my roomie was able to peel her off of me, no big deal. Now I'm married though and my wife is also completely "hands off". If she saw a snake killing me, she'd close and lock the door so it couldn't get out after it was done. Same with venomous, I'll never have any of those. I do however, think that people should be able to have whatever they want in their house as long as it doesn't negatively affect anyone else, including their family. Oddly enough, I think you should be allowed to negatively affect yourself with a risky pet though. If you're an able minded adult, you should be able to choose to keep a 30+ foot snake. Even if you're a 5'5" 110lb chica. It's probably still safer than driving to work every morning. Especially if you have to drive down US19. Geez those people are maniacs.

There's a lot of difference in animals inside some of those size ranges on the poll... The difference between an eight or nine foot constrictor and a twelve foot constrictor can be substantial.

The poll also sort of seems to assume that it's boids that are being discussed- there are some pretty long colubrids that do not represent the same kind of handling challenge that a heavier bodied boid might. An eight-ten foot long Pituophis really can't do anything more harmful than spraying loose stool everywhere for example.

I tend to keep smaller species but it's because I like them, their maximum size didn't really have as much to do with it as their phenotype, their behaviors or some of the ways they have evolved to fill their particular ecological niche.

I have had several snakes over the years. I have owned Retics, Burmese and RTB in the past. I know own Cornsnakes and Ball Pythons.
I came to the decision awhile ago that sometimes snakes get too large to be safe. Also with my son in the house there is no way I am having a large snake around. NOT because of the snake.. but because the kids that run around here. Any parent out there would understand that fear of some kid opening the enclosure and letting one lose and then teasing it until it did something. I actually had one kid break the screen on the top of one cage once.
Also I have to admit I can never understand the need to keep venomous snakes around. I will defend someone elses right to own them though. I believe people should be allowed to own whatever animal they have the knowledge and finances to own.

Ralph

Originally Posted by oldgoalie915

I have to admit I can never understand the need to keep venomous snakes

I feel the same way about ball pythons, lol. Given the choice, and a less restrictive state - I'd go back to hots in a hearbeat....but that is another discussion entirely

I generally think it's a bad idea to keep any of the truly huge boids without assistance. They *can* be handled by a lone person, but what if your forget to wash the smell of your friend's pet bunny off, or they get injured and lash out? They're very powerful animals, and I really doubt that any person, regardless of experience, can successfully fight off an adult retic that's mistaken them for dinner. If someone wants to keep something I consider too big, I won't stop them, but I also will lose a bit of respect for their judgement.

Personally, the biggest snake I own at home (or have ever owned) is a 9 foot BCI, but he's very slender for a boa of his length (only ~25 lbs), and I know from direct experience with other boas that I can handle him if he "freaks out" for any reason.

However, I generally find that handling bigger snakes than the BCI above is honestly more of a chore than a pleasure. They're too long and massive to manipulate easily, and require me to keep my guard up at all times in case of any problems. I doubt I'll ever get anything substantially bigger (maybe some of the long, thin Morelia pythons, but certainly no burms or big retics).

i have to agree with moore again. i don't the idea of having any limits put on my ability to do things that i want to do. that being said my limit is 12-15 and thats only for thin snakes like mambas and scrubs. having never owned a retic, burm, or rock python, not for lack of space time or skill, i just don't want the feeding bill. with my current obsessions getting in the 10-14 range i guess i can't complain if someone wants to keep one of the big five.

on hots i got a few more yrs till i can keep them again right now the kiddo is to young and i cant guarantee that he won't open the cage, so as such no venomous. also being one of the reasons why i dont own any of the giants. ok not so much cause of him, more his little friends cause he is actually pretty good about leaving them alone but when he has friends over its all i can do to keep them out of my scrubs cages.

Considering my husband is in the Army and has already been deployed twice; I wouldn't want any of the really BIG snakes. I used to have burms and a retic.. but when he's deployed that would leave me handling the big snakes solo.. so the largest I am willing to keep are 10 to 12 footers. Right now we have 13 snakes.. an assortment of corns, rat snakes, king snakes and rainbow boas...

atm, the biggest snake I would be comfortable with would be a BCI that I had raised myself. But, considering I'm fairly new to the hobby and I am always wanting more, I will most likely get into burms and retics someday.

Space isn't a problem for me. Yes, I am pushing in others' opinion the "max capacity" of snakes in one small home, but I think I would probably replace my bed with a cage if it meant getting a new snake. There is no such thing as 'I don't have room'. I will make room for anything!

In case you haven't seen it, one of the things that prompted me to put up this poll was this post:

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=125323