Are you thinking about purchasing a pet snake? If so, there are several things you need to look for when picking out your reptilian friend. Otherwise, you may inadvertently select a sickly snake, which will make it more difficult for you to properly care for your pet and may result in a shortened life span. In addition, you need to know how to properly handle your snake so you can form a good relationship with your pet that will be beneficial to you both.

Tips for Selecting a Healthy Snake

When selecting a pet snake, be certain to look for all of the following:

• A body that is both firm and round
• Easy breathing that does not involve breathing through the mouth or gasping for breath
• Pink coloring inside the moth, as a red mouth or a mouth containing a cheesy looking substance is a sign of mouth rot
• Skin that is shiny, smooth and free of sores or scabs
• Smooth movement without signs of tremors
• No signs of mites, which are characterized by dusty looking specks on the body
• Clear eyes without signs of discharge

Taming Your Snake

Ideally, you should also select a snake that has already been tamed. Chances are, however, that you will need to work on taming the snake after you bring it home. In addition, you should also look for a snake that has already been trained to eat mice that have already been killed. This way, you won't have to worry about live feedings, which can be difficult to do safely because it may require filing down the mouse's teeth and claws so it cannot injure your snake.

No matter what type of snake you purchase, you will need to spend some time handling it if you expect it to become tame. Before handling your snake, however, it is important to know more about the type of snake you are purchasing and how you should expect it to react to being handled. Milk snakes and king snakes, for example, are constrictors. Therefore, they are likely to wrap themselves around your body when being handled. This is harmless and, in fact, is generally a sign that the snake has become comfortable with you. If it begins to wrap too tightly, pull it away by the tail area, as the tail is weaker than the area by the snake's head.

If your snake is not receptive to being handled, remain persistent and gentle and you should be able to win it over. Keep your handling sessions short at first so you can build trust with your new pet. If your snake tries to squirm away or releases a musky scent from its anal glands, it is a sign that it still is not quite comfortable with you. Put the snake back in its cage and return at a later time and try handling it again. It is important to note that you shouldn't handle your snake after its feeding, as this may upset the snake and cause it to regurgitate its meal. By choosing the right time and by being persistent, however, you should soon be able to handle your snake on a regular basis.

Some people consider having an exotic pet as a companion in the home. For example a pet snake, Snakes are relatively easy to care for, but special handling and maintenance is necessary for your safety as well as theirs. A proper care must be enforce to make sure such incidents don't happen.
Aside from making the home similar to the habitat of the snakes, the most important thing is giving the right food. Should you feed your pet snake pre killed prey or live prey?

For your pet snake, feeding pre killed prey is recommended. A live prey can inflict some serious wounds on a snake in self defense. Also if your pet snake unable to quickly kill a live prey item, because hesitates or is not hungry, the snake is the one who might end up injured. Even a small mouse can cause injury to a snake.

Feeding killed prey also let you to buy frozen prey items and keep them in the freezer. It will be easier for you as you have the proper sized prey on hand at all times. Buying the live prey every time your pet snake needs to eat or raising the prey by your own will be more expensive and wasting the time. Many pet stores sell frozen prey or fresh killed prey which you can then freeze for later.

If your snake is eating live prey, you need to start out by offering fresh killed prey at first. Frozen prey need to be completely thawed and warmed slightly before feeding. Defrost it in cold water, not at room temperature. Don't hold prey with your fingers, dangling and wiggling the prey with tongs to entice the snake to take the prey.If your snake still unwilling to eat, you can try dipping the prey in chicken broth, or puncturing the skull of the prey to expose brain.

The size of the prey
A snake should be fed a size of prey that is about the same size around snake's body at the widest point. Meaning that as your snake grows; you need to adjust the size of prey fed to the snake to accommodate the snake's increasing size.To find the right size of prey on the pet stores, simply use a piece of string to take the measurement around your pet snake at the widest part of its body then take the string cut to the pet store. So you can do a quick check of the circumference of the prey available to find the best match. It doesn't have to be an exact measurement. Little bit smaller or slightly larger prey is fine too and a bit of variety never hurts.

A snake have unique jaws that allow them to swallow the prey that is larger than their head, but your pet snake may have difficulties to digesting overly large prey, resulting in regurgitation. This is considered to be a waste of money since your pet snake will just spit it out after.