I was reading the comments on Dr. B’s brief query on ethical lines in response to a horrific story about the feeding of a live puppy to a large snake for the “entertainment” of teenagers, and I could not help but recall a conversation I had with my children a couple years ago about the feasibility of a pet snake.
While visiting friends in Santa Barbara, we went to a farmers market, where we encountered a guy with a backpack full of snakes. He handed one of those snakes (a cute little gartery guy) to the younger Free-Ride offspring. Apparently, the guy worked with the local snake rescue group, and was spreading the word. As the market was winding down, he collected the snakes and put them back in his backpack for his bike ride to his next snake-outreach destination. The younger offspring asked, rather plaintively, “May I please have my snake back?”
So, as we were walking back, after we explained the subtle differences between being given a snake to hold and being given a snake, the kids asked, “Can we get a pet snake?”
“Kids,” said I, “I agree that snakes are really fascinating creatures and fun to hold and all that. But I don’t think I could handle feeding them.”
“Why not?” they asked, no doubt imagining 50 lb. bags of Purina Snake Chow.
“Snakes generally eat live food,” I answered. “Other animals, like mice or goldfish.”
“But we like mice and goldfish!” proclaimed the younger offspring.
“Me too,” I replied. “I think we’d be very sad feeding creatures we liked to another creature we liked.”
The elder Free-Ride offspring thought a moment and then said, “It would be OK if we fed the snake mean fish.”
“Mean fish?” I asked.
“Yeah, like salmon or trout.”*
While rendered temporarily speechless, I was thinking:
- Good luck finding a pet store that sells salmon or trout feeder fish!
- Just how big a snake are you kids planning on having?!
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*Planting the idea that salmon and trout were mean was pretty clearly Uncle Fishy’s doing.
What, you didn’t know fishes had moral standing? Shame on you. For penance, go read Isidore’s Etymologia…
All salmon may be mean, but Rainbow Trout are sweethearts!
Actually, you usually get them frozen in bulk. Places like The Mouse Factory sell them in 25-packs. (There are a number of similar places; that’s just one that I toured and was clean and well-run.)
Also, a regular diet of goldfish is very bad for snakes; they cause thiamin deficiency. Get shiners from a live-bait shop instead.
Once you’ve satisfied the basic requirements of heat and hide (get something low that the snake can feel snug under, not those big tall monstrosities that they sell in pet stores), snakes are convenient in many ways. You can leave for a weekend without needing to worry about them. Even a week is okay if you leave two water bowls in case one gets upset or fouled. More than that and I usually like to have someone check on things, but two weeks is not going to do any harm.
The main problem with kids is that they sometimes play with the snake too much and stress it into a nervous decline. They are not social animals that enjoy the interaction! That, and people tend to overfeed snakes. Feeding a snake more than once a week is bad for any but a very young and rapidly growing snake. Two weeks is better, and three weeks to a month is quite reasonable for a large snake.
As for ethics, I’ve fed live rabbits that I was too lazy to kill myself. I bought them from a woman who raised them for food. Puppies are different exactly how? Although if it needs to be coated in oil, it’s probably too big. Prey that is too big can rot in a snake before it is digested, making the snake sick.
I used to keep garter snakes as a kid, and again for a little bit when I had kids. They ate worms, which are quite a bit less attractive than puppies. The worms were also nutritionally complete. My snakes would also get an occasional small toad (which was actually rather interesting to see as the snake first caught it and then manipulated it so it would go down head-first).
So, if you want to get a pet snake, that’s probably the way to go.
By the way, after a while (once the snakes got used to me), I was able to feed them just regular pieces of meat (chicken, beef). This was most useful in the winter when worms were in short supply. I’d tie a small thread to the meat and make it hop/wiggle around the cage. Then once the snake snagged it, I’d cut the thread (which I could do without scaring the snake into upchucking because, as I said, the snake was now used to me).
As was mentioned previously, there are a variety of locations from which you can purchase frozen rodents in bulk. Given that my family currently has 12 snakes (8 pets, and 4 rescues which will (hopefully) eventually be adopted), we go through a 200-mouse order every four to six months (depending on what type of rescues we have). There is the occasional snake who will refuse to eat dead food, but they are uncommon, especially amongst the species best suited for a first snake (corn snakes, in my opinion). That said, snakes are long-lived and can be difficult to care for, so it’s definitely worth researching the field before getting one.
You know you want a pet snake! Just make sure you get one that is already feeding on frozen rodents as was previously mentioned, and it’ll be just fine. I would suggest a corn snake, but not because that’s what I have or anything like that.
Ever watch what a dog does with a snake? Sometimes the shaking’s so vigorous those little ophidian heads can go flying off twenty feet or more. Sure to entertain the kids.
Reason #1,259 for not getting a pet snake.
The thought of a pet snake makes my skin crawl. Not sure why this is, but the condition affects all the women in my family.
Just ask my herpetologist-in-training brother about the time he tried to bring his kingsnake home for winter break… and had to give it to his advisor instead.
Anyway, am wondering: 1) Why do I have this visceral reaction to Things Without Legs? 2) What happens to a snake if you run over it on your bicycle? 3) What are the chances a striking pit viper could, in fact, bite the tire and cause it to become flat?
The trial involving the puppy is a little sad. My pet isn’t quite up to full size rabbits or puppies yet, though adolescent rabbits should be fine (I currently use full grown guinea pigs). He’s an approximately 4 metre Australian Carpet Python, who is both friendly and calm, though at that size I always make sure I have a knife on me, and at least one other person watching while handling him.
Objectively the only moral entanglement that I see in the puppy-case is the feeding for entertainment purposes, that and the vegetable oil part (which sounds to me just a little weird). Protein is protein after all, and a snakes gotta eat.
Nothing wrong with a pet snake, you do get used to the culling and growing animals for food, and unless you are also vegan you grow, kill and eat animals for your own purpose anyway, just outsourced to other people with stronger stomaches.
Is it ethical for a human to kill another animal (even animals we like) for the purpose of food?
I’m sure I never said any such thing. The only mean trout or salmon I ever met snapped my fly right off the line in the Deschutes river. I think those memebers of Genus Oncorhynchus are kind of cuddly. Other genera of trout have weider slime making them somewhat less cuddly.