7 Precautions if You Have a Snake at Home
Snakes have become popular recently, and many people nowadays keep them as pets. But let’s be realistic, as much as you may like snakes, they’re not like dogs; they require very different care from other pets. Let’s see what precautions you need to take if you have a snake at home.
Precautions if you have a snake at home
Make sure it has enough space
Before deciding to get a snake as a pet, you have to take into account that there are more costs involved than with other types of animals. To keep one at home you’ll need a terrarium with a suitable temperature and certain accessories to mimic its natural habitat. Seriously, they cost a lot of money, probably more than you think.
If you’ve decided to keep a snake at home, choose a terrarium that’s big enough for it to move around easily. Put it in a high place in the house and make sure its lid is in good condition, as this is what prevents the animal from escaping.
Temperature
As mentioned above, snakes can only live within a certain temperature range. As cold-blooded animals, they don’t have the ability to adapt their body temperature to the environment they live in.
The ideal temperature for them is between 70 and 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Although there are terrariums that have a temperature controller, these tend to be quite expensive and you might not want to pay so much. In that case, you’ll have to keep the snake’s terrarium in an air-conditioned room within that temperature range.
Their food
There’s no specific pet food for snakes. They feed on insects, lizards, and mice. Although you can buy these in some pet stores, they’re not very common and you may even cringe at the thought of feeding your snake food like this.
Think about their average lifespan
A snake can live up to 15 or 20 years. This is a long time and there’s a lot of responsibility involved.
Beware of children
Not all pet snakes are friendly, and even less so with children, who are curious and will definitely want to reach inside the terrarium. Think about this before getting a snake and make sure you get one which is suitable for children.
It’s best to teach your children to stay away, and explain to them that they can only touch it when you take it out. Better safe than sorry.
Precautions for snakes at home: be careful when feeding them
You probably think you’ll have to reach into the terrarium to feed your snake. However, it’s actually better to throw their food into the terrarium or use a pair of tweezers to drop it down to within their reach.
Always keep your hands away from the snake, especially when there’s food involved; it might attack you thinking you want to take the food away, even if the opposite is true. This is what snakes do.
It depends on the snake…
For the more daring among you who decide to get a venomous snake, you’ll need suitable tools to handle them, as well as a special terrarium and padlock. And of course, you should keep a supply of anti-venom on hand always.
Whether or not to get a pet snake is up to you. They say that you either love them or hate them. If you’re a snake lover, go ahead; as long as you take the necessary precautions there’s no danger.