So you think you want a Snake?

	You know you want a pet, but are you sure you want a snake.
There are many things you should consider before you rush out and bring
snake into your home. These are not like cats and dogs.

	The first thing you need to do is RESEARCH.  These animals have
very special requirements and they are different for depending on what 
kind of snake you have.  For instant, my Ball Pythons need to be at around
90 degrees and my cousins Kingsnake needs only to be in the 70's.  You
must know what it takes to sustain these animals or you could spend a lot
of money at the vet, or worse have a short lived pet.

	Snakes are carnivores, that means that they only eat other animals.
You need to be prepared to feed snakes mice, rats, and even rabbits or 
whole chickens, depending on the species of snake.  You must also be ready
to kill the above food items if pre-killed is not available.  Yes, I said
kill the food.  Pre-killed food items should be offered to not injury the
snake unless your snake will not take prekilled.  My oldest Ball Python
will not eat prekilled, because she was adopted and may not have been feed
pre-killed before I brought her home.

	You need a appropriate sized enclosure.  Most importantly, it needs
to be escape proof.  All snakes are good escape artist, and one more 
escaped snake means one more reason for people to ban the keeping of snakes
as pets.  In some cases you may need to have very large enclosures made or bought
which can get expensive.

	Another thing, snakes, especially larger ones, are high maintenance.  You will need to clean cages weekly, I mean thoroughly clean.  Daily chores are spot cleaning,checking the animal, filling water bowls, and monitoring equipment and temps/humidity. You must also feed the animal, but when you do this depends on the animal.	

	If you can handle everything I have discussed above then you are most likely
able to keep a pet snake.  The only thing I recommend is start with a young
captive-bred animal.  Young captive-bred snakes tend to easier to deal with and are 
generally parasite and disease free.  This has been general things that first time
snake owners need to know BEFORE you get a snake.  This is by no means
the end all, be all of snake guides, so please read more and ask people questions.