Why I tell people not to get a ball python as their first snake.

When people get their first snake, I want the experience to be a positive one.  For this to happen, the snake should be easy to take care of and predictable, there's more to it than a snake that just doesn't bite and is small.

The fact is, people who don't know about snakes do their research and what they're usually looking for is a snake that doesn't bite and is small. They want a ball python, and just to top it off, ball pythons are beautiful.

What people don't know, is taking care of a ball python is a lot like taking care of an anorexic teenager. These snakes as a whole have some pretty solid eating problems. There are exceptions to every rule, and the majority of ball pythons don't have eating problems. But there are a large enough percentage of ball pythons that are finicky eaters that I think it's a bad idea to get one as a first snake.

I've had 3 ball pythons, and two of the three were bad eaters, and I see a lot of people on snake forums who are having similar problems. I'm not saying 66% of ball pythons are bad eaters, I probably got unlucky, but it's mostly agreed upon in the snake community that ball pythons aren't great eaters.

Some ball pythons will go 6 months without eating for no reason at all, and then start eating again for no reason at all. This can be a pretty big problem when someones snake hasn't eaten for 3 months and the owner is freaking out and taking it to the vet.

All snakes have a chance of refusing to eat altogether and potentially starving themselves to death. The only ways to solve this are actually pretty disgusting, such as cutting into a mouse with a razor blade and exposing its brain. This happens more with ball pythons than most other snake species.

If you like live feeding your snakes, beware of ball pythons. I once had a ball python that strangled its food for a good 7 hours without managing to kill it, and then got to a point where it just ate the thing alive.

If you want to know what type of snake to get as a first snake, I say corn snake, king snake, or milk snake. These snakes are small, they aren't biters, but they don't have the pretty coloring of a ball python. I've found all of these snakes to be great eaters. To top it off, you can usually get these for less than half the price of a ball python.