Beginner Snake Keeping Recommendations: Nine Easy-to-Keep Native Chinese Snake Species

The most common question newcomers ask is what snakes are suitable for beginners, with posts asking this almost every day. Here is a summary. For first-time snake keepers, a large proportion are students with no source of income, who can't afford expensive toy snakes. Of course there are plenty of wealthy folks too; I've even seen people starting out with royal corns. For poor kids like us, native species are a good choice. But most native snakes are wild-caught, and those from farms are actually harder to keep than wild ones. First, they don't survive; second, it harms the environment. So I recommend keeping native snakes as snakelets - although many snakelets are quite fragile, they're hardier than wild-caught ones and more suitable for keeping. Let me add one more thing: refuse to keep wild animals, please do not buy wild-caught individuals. Snakelets adapt to their environment more easily, and for many snakes, as long as you control your urge to handle them too much and manage food and temperature properly, keeping them alive isn't a problem.

1. Black-bellied Rat Snake (Oocatochus rufodorsatus)

The easiest native snake to keep, bar none, is the black-bellied rat snake. You could say that if you can't keep one of these alive, you might as well give up on snake keeping. Keeping one alive doesn't count as a skill. Not to say much more - its main traits are being docile and a good eater. After keeping one for a while, it'll take food from your hand and let you handle it freely. It's the type that remembers food but not discipline. If you like large colubrids, don't miss out on this one.

Black-bellied rat snakes develop their coloration as they grow, which is something worth looking forward to, even though they all end up looking the same after coloring up.

2. Chifeng Rat Snake (Elaphe anomala)

There's also the often-overlooked big cousin of the black-bellied rat snake - the Chifeng rat snake. Originally the Chifeng was a subspecies of the black-bellied rat snake, later elevated to full species status. But the two really aren't very different. The Chifeng is also called the southern black-bellied rat snake. It's just as easy to keep as the black-bellied. Neither has high temperature requirements; both can survive above 20 degrees Celsius. The most suitable temperature is 25. One more thing to point out: every year, many people buy black-bellied rat snakes that later turn out to be Chifengs when they grow up... The Chifeng has a wider distribution than the black-bellied and is slightly cheaper. The picture shows an albino Chifeng. The black-bellied belongs to the dark-toned group, while the Chifeng is a not-so-dark dark tone. To each their own - if your black-bellied rat snake grows to 50 cm and still hasn't turned black, it's most likely a Chifeng. Either way, take good care of it.

3. White-striped Rat Snake (Elaphe dione)

There's another often-overlooked native species——the white-striped rat snake. This small colubrid, widely distributed in our country, is actually very suitable as a pet. You could call it the native corn snake. It's highly adaptable, has low temperature requirements, and is inexpensive. White-striped rat snakes from different regions of our country have different body colors, following the same pattern as most native species - darker in the north and lighter in the south. Feed them pinky mice, though in fact white-striped rat snakes will eat frogs. The only problem is that newly hatched snakelets are too small and may need to be fed pieces of pinky mice.

4. King Rat Snake (Elaphe carinata)

Among native snakes there's also a colubrid overlord——the king rat snake. It could be said to have the largest hatchlings among native snakes, thicker than a finger at hatching. As a common species in breeding farms, its keeping difficulty isn't very high. As for people who say king rat snakes stink, they just have well-developed scent glands that secrete chemicals when startled. Many other colubrids have scent glands too, including the black-bellied rat snake and others; with normal keeping there's no smell. If you insist on handling them too much, there's nothing I can do. Their temperament is a bit aggressive, but once they adapt to the environment they're very easy to keep. They gradually develop coloration as they grow, which is quite worth looking forward to. If you like large colubrids, don't miss out on this one.

5. King Snake (Lampropeltis spp.)

As for foreign toy snakes, most are fairly easy to keep. The king snake is the top choice. The most common is the California king snake. Black-and-white kings, snow kings, and striped kings are all California king snakes. There are also black kings, desert kings, Brooks kings, and so on. I'm too lazy to find pictures, so I'll just borrow one from a forum member. However, the price is relatively high. In winter they need a heating device, kept at 28 degrees Celsius.

6. Hognose Snake (Heterodon nasicus)

Hognose - the problem is the hatchlings are too small. If you're getting into them, a subadult is actually a good choice. The price is on the high side, suitable for wealthy keepers.

7. Corn Snake (Pantherophis guttatus)

Regarding the corn snake issue: although corn snakes aren't hard to keep, newly hatched corn snakelets have very weak digestive systems and weak constitutions, so there's still some difficulty for beginners. There are always people who can't resist handling them or whose enclosure temperature isn't warm enough to digest food, causing regurgitation - and after a few regurgitations, a small snakelet is basically done for. If you're getting one, I suggest raising a larger juvenile: first, feeding isn't a problem, and second, their constitution is stronger. The first toy snake I got, and the only one, was raised from a hatchling to this size, staying on a heating pad year-round. With proper attention, it's not hard to keep.

8. Morph Ball Pythons (Python regius)

Here's a morph ball python. In fact, healthy ball pythons are very easy to keep. The reason I don't recommend keeping normal-phase ball pythons is that people always like to measure the value of life in money - morphs are very expensive, normals are cheap, and neither sellers nor buyers put much care into them. With morphs, because of their high price, both sellers and buyers treat them with great care. Normals often face various health problems. Another point is that morph ball pythons have high appreciation potential as they grow, while normals won't increase much in value as they grow.

9. Checkered Garter Snake (Thamnophis marcianus)

The checkered garter snake, also known as the checkered garter snake, is native to the Americas. This snake's habits are similar to our country's Rhabdophis genus and the belly-chain snake genus. Compared to common toy snakes, it has one advantage: it can eat fish. For newcomers who want to keep snakes but are afraid of mice and have no source of pinky mice, this is a blessing. The common varieties are albino and normal. As for food, you can feed small fish from rivers, small frogs, and tadpoles. Note: do not use ornamental fish - goldfish, tropical fish, etc. contain various additives in their feed that are harmful to snake health. Stone moroko and loaches are fine; it's recommended to freeze them before feeding to avoid parasites. It's fairly tolerant of low temperatures; in the north with central heating, you don't need a heating pad year-round. However, it's not very common. The market price for albino is 300 to 500, and normal is around 200. Of course it can also eat mice; the benefits of feeding mice need no elaboration - more nutritious than fish, avoids parasites, and the snake will be sturdier. By the way, the first time I saw one of these was in a physical store - the hatchling was very, very small. A rather cute snake; adults don't exceed 1 meter. Those who want to keep one at school could try this. However, I don't recommend keeping snakes at school.