Reptiles - Geckos, Lizards, Snakes, and Turtles!

[Madel]

Hi! I've been thinking of owning a snake for years, and my mom is finally letting me own one! I'm so excited. I have done some basic research, but I was wondering if anyone had any other tips? There's a local snake rescue I'm planning on visiting this weekend to look at the snakes and ask questions. Thanks!

[Targaryen]

Hi! I've been thinking of owning a snake for years, and my mom is finally letting me own one! I'm so excited. I have done some basic research, but I was wondering if anyone had any other tips? There's a local snake rescue I'm planning on visiting this weekend to look at the snakes and ask questions. Thanks!

Definitely think hard about what kind of species you want and why. There are a plethora of different species available with totally different characteristics and husbandry requirements.

Some things I would consider are:
Size - how big or small do you mind the adult snake being?
Activity - Do you want something active or inactive, something nocturnal or something diurnal?
Temperament - Do you mind a more defensive snake or more food aggressive snake? Would you prefer placidity?
Handleability - Do you care much about handling a snake often? What sort of snake would be best for you to feel comfortable handling it? Something more active and curious? Something more slow and chill?
Hardiness - Is it important to you to have something more hardy and resilient to husbandry mistakes or errors?

Typically the go-to starter snakes are ball pythons (slow, easy to handle, docile, but hide a lot and get a little hefty) and corn snakes (a little faster, somewhat still easy to handle, very docile but can be quite food aggressive, more confident and will hide less, but won't get as hefty)

There are however other great options for beginners out there - kingsnake species, hognoses, garter snakes, nerodia, boa constrictors, rosy boas, sand boas, etc

[Sixx O'Clock]

I decided to buy some wax worms for my leopard gecko, in hopes it'll coax him into eating more often. As it is, he only eats maybe once or twice a week, and ever since his illness some months back, he's become skinny. He doesn't seem to be sick anymore, he sheds fine, drinks water, his droppings look fine, he just doesn't seem interested in eating. I have to feed him canned crickets for the moment because a) he didn't seem to like how squirmy the live ones were when he ate them, and b) I still can't figure out how to keep them alive for more than a week or so. They're not freeze-dried, just those ones in the can that you have to refrigerate after opening.
Anyway, back to the point! He ate one wax worm today, mostly out of curiosity I suspect since it was wiggling around unlike his normal food. He seemed to like it, he at least didn't spit it out like he tends to do if he doesn't like something. It did latch onto his face for a second when he bit it though, I don't think he liked that 'cause when I tried to feed him a second one, he got all pouty and turned away. I know I have to be careful how many I feed him because they can be addictive, so I was wondering how many I should feed per week? I was thinking maybe 3-4 each week, or 1-2 every few days in addition to his normal food. I just really don't want to deal with him losing weight again because he got addicted to the worms and won't eat anything else.

[pepsii]

I finally got back on my meds and was able to tidy up this guy's tank really well for the first time in a couple weeks! He deserves it after being given the bare minimum all that time ♥ I set up a lil hammock out of one of the long ones too and he likes it but his heart belongs to the driftwood on his hide LOL

[Sixx O'Clock]

-snip-

I finally got back on my meds and was able to tidy up this guy's tank really well for the first time in a couple weeks! He deserves it after being given the bare minimum all that time ♥ I set up a lil hammock out of one of the long ones too and he likes it but his heart belongs to the driftwood on his hide LOL

Mental/physical health problems do make things difficult, it's great that you're doing better. ^^ I went through some struggles myself and my poor little gecko Sobek ended up getting sick. That's what snapped me out of it, at least temporarily. I tend to find it difficult to care about myself, but I'll do absolutely anything to make my animals happy and healthy. He recovered and he's much better now, albeit a bit skinny, but boy was that scary. I love the tank decor you used! That tree stump hide actually looks pretty similar to one I used to have in Sobek's tank, that's a funny coincidence.

[DinosAreLife]

I have a snake, called Echo, who’s a royal python. At first the person I got him from told me he’s a mojave. Apparently it turns out he’s a pastel. I just want verification on what morph he actually is. Here’s an image of him.

[Voidmember]

Hard to tell just by one picture alone, but he does look like a Mojave-judging by the tan inside his cream colouring, as pastels' bodies tend to skew more yellow (but I could be wrong-I'm just going off of the picture)

There is a chance he could be both (a Pastave) with a pastel Mojave having a lighter body, with more yellow patterning-but again, hard to say 100% because we only have the one image of Echo

Hope this kinda helps!!!

[DinosAreLife]

Thanks! I’ll update with more images in the day!

Hard to tell just by one picture alone, but he does look like a Mojave-judging by the tan inside his cream colouring, as pastels' bodies tend to skew more yellow (but I could be wrong-I'm just going off of the picture)

There is a chance he could be both (a Pastave) with a pastel Mojave having a lighter body, with more yellow patterning-but again, hard to say 100% because we only have the one image of Echo

Hope this kinda helps!!!

Here’s another image of him

[vencrypt]

I finally got back on my meds and was able to tidy up this guy's tank really well for the first time in a couple weeks! He deserves it after being given the bare minimum all that time ♥ I set up a lil hammock out of one of the long ones too and he likes it but his heart belongs to the driftwood on his hide LOL

cute beardie! can I ask why there isn't a lid though? also, I'd def recommend that the uvb is facing down and not sideways as the angle right now has a narrow margin of usable uvb, while facing down is much more optimal since it has shaders directing the light. it could also potentially hurt their eyes.

[Sixx O'Clock]

So, update on the wax worms situation.

Sobek hates them lol. The first one I gave him latched onto the side of his face, so now he doesn't want them because he's a diva. I picked up some meal worms instead, to feed in addition to his crickets. Other than that he's doing pretty well, shedding fine for the most part, except for rubbing against his half log a little too hard and skinning his nose a bit. And he still tries to eat my fingers every time I feed him lol.