So yesterday we went to a reptile show. They have turtles, frogs, monitors, alligators, every kind of lizard you could imagine, and every kind of snake you could imagine (well, non-venomous since this was a non-venomous show). They even had an anaconda! Yikes! When my son started asking for a snake, I started adding everything up in my head on how much it would initially cost for the snake, housing, etc. and I was expecting a $100-$200 chunk out of my pocket but we didn't mention that to my son (after spending an outrageous $1600 on propane for heat over the last three months and struggling - good thing for tax refunds eh...they can pay for your heat *sigh*), I was trying to figure out how we were going to pay for his snake set up). He's been wanting his own pet for sometime now. N is always surrounded by girls since he doesn't see his brother often (well actually hasn't seen him in almost two years and before that every few months). I wanted him to have something "boy" for himself. My son being the sweetheart that he is, picked out the least expensive corn snake he could find because he didn't want us spending a lot of money. So we walked out of there with a baby corn and its house and little hidey when he wants to be shy for all of $27! Can you believe that? He's a cute little guy. Here's a pic:
If he takes good care of him, we told him we'd get him a regular reptile home with branches and stuff in a few months when this baby outgrows his plastic home we bought for $9 yesterday. For now, he has his hidey, his crock of water to drink and lay in, and a piece of greenery to make it look more homey for the little guy (yes, it is a male).
Oh yes, I almost forgot, my six-year-old girly girly daughter who adores pink and everything girly wants a ball python. She was anxious to hold one yesterday when they took them out for us. She held it and pet it. I was quite surprised (I wouldn't touch any of them, lol). That is the pet she is asking for. Ball Pythons are supposed to make GREAT beginner snakes for children so depending on how my son does with his corn snake and how well they take care of it (and assuming they don't forget about it in a couple weeks when the novelty wears off), maybe she'll get one for her birthday. We'll see.
As long as daddy helps the kids feed them, because I won't feed anything pinky mice, then we'll see.
More Information on Corn SnakesMore Information on Ball PythonsWe bought ours from a doctor/instructor from
Bowling Green State University's Herp Lab. She was very helpful.
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