Pets, pt. 2
My second pet was a corn snake, whom I originally named "Corny". He was a pretty mild-tempered fellow, almost never striking (I think he bit my Dad once) and never minded being held. Corny was a great first snake to have, but I must not have done too good a job, because he died relatively early. I probably didn't keep his terrarium warm enough, I guess.
Mom was dead set against my getting a snake, but once I conned her into it, she soon liked Corny well enough. I seem to remember her saying that watching Corny eat was fascinating, and Corny was certainly beautiful to look at. These days, corns come in all kinds of colors--they've bred combos so intensively that it's more difficult to find the basic/natural colors for sale than it would be to find some whacked-out albino striped green thing, most likely, which just doesn't seem right.
Here's the standard, found-in-nature color scheme:
Or this one:
Cute, eh? And beautiful, I think (and I'm not that much of a fan for fall colors). Corn snakes don't get all that big; they might reach 6 feet long and maybe get to a 1 inch diameter at their thickest point, so handling them is not the production that holding a thick, heavy python or boa would be. These guys are sleek and pretty. Some of the other breeds are simply weirdly colored by comparison, imho, and don't even look like corns at all:
Some don't have the right patterns:
Heck, this one below doesn't have anything in common with my corn snake except bits of DNA!
That being said, though, if I were to get another Corn snake, I might consider one of these:
But I think I might just have to work at finding another Corny:
Mom was dead set against my getting a snake, but once I conned her into it, she soon liked Corny well enough. I seem to remember her saying that watching Corny eat was fascinating, and Corny was certainly beautiful to look at. These days, corns come in all kinds of colors--they've bred combos so intensively that it's more difficult to find the basic/natural colors for sale than it would be to find some whacked-out albino striped green thing, most likely, which just doesn't seem right.
Here's the standard, found-in-nature color scheme:
Or this one:
Cute, eh? And beautiful, I think (and I'm not that much of a fan for fall colors). Corn snakes don't get all that big; they might reach 6 feet long and maybe get to a 1 inch diameter at their thickest point, so handling them is not the production that holding a thick, heavy python or boa would be. These guys are sleek and pretty. Some of the other breeds are simply weirdly colored by comparison, imho, and don't even look like corns at all:
Some don't have the right patterns:
Heck, this one below doesn't have anything in common with my corn snake except bits of DNA!
That being said, though, if I were to get another Corn snake, I might consider one of these:
But I think I might just have to work at finding another Corny:
posted by bryduck at 9:43 AM
3 Comments:
Well and these guys have several advantages over gerbils...
Legality
Cool factor
The cat won't mess with them
Corn snakes it is!
The cat will almost certainly mess with them, given her inordinate and quite fearless level of curiosity. My mom's cat used to climb all over the top of my previous snakes' cage, fascinated by these strange and wondrous animals, and that cat was the very definition of "scaredy". In fact, I would hazard a guess that our current cat would probably help them escape by prying any terrarium/cage lid/door open to get a closer look at her new pals . . .
Okay, any "pet" about whom we have to say "almost never strik[es]...and never mind[s] being held" doesn't appeal much to me. It's really not an ick factor. I think snakes are beautiful and interesting, but I like pets that (at least pretend to) look forward to interacting with their human companions...I feature "Corny House-of-Horrors" will be VASTLY different than "Kitty House-of-Horrors."
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