The Starter Snake

 As is so often the case when I'm researching a species fact profile on a reptile, some of the best sources of information that I find are those from reptile hobbyists and pet keepers.  That was certainly the case for Boelen's python, an incredibly gorgeous, sought-after snake that I've always wanted to work with, but have never gotten the chance to.  I come across the species occasionally in zoos, but never at reptile stores or expos - I get the impression that one has to really seek them out.  All of the sites and blogs that I looked at while writing this profile agreed on one thing - this species requires advanced care.

It's not a starter snake.  And that got me thinking.

When people talk about "starter snakes," they mean the most commonly kept, "easiest" pet snakes, like the corn snake, king snakes, and ball python.  The lizard equivalents would include the bearded dragon and the leopard gecko.  I've always been a little uncomfortable with this designation.  Sure, these guys are a lot more tolerant of keeper mistakes and variances than the more delicate species, with very strict, narrow requirements for temperature, humidity, and diet.  It's possible for even a somewhat inept keeper to keep one of these guys alive for many years; I know, because I have.  Which isn't to say that countless hordes of them don't die every year at the hands of even more inept keepers.

There's an unspoken belief among some hobbyists that such animals are disposable; you use them as practice to build your skills for working with "better," "cooler" pets down the road.  This opinion is trash.

We need to reframe how we think of "starter species" as meaning, pets which have environmental, veterinary, and behavioral needs which are much more easily satisfied than those of other, more "advanced" species.  That doesn't make them lesser, or their needs less important.  To the extent that they have self-awareness, I doubt that a ball python thinks any less of itself than a Boelen's python does.  All animals under human care require a nutritious diet, an appropriate social group (which, for many species, can mean being solitary), an enclosure of adequate size, and the opportunity to express natural behaviors.

I recently saw images of a zoo in the UK with a ball python exhibit that measured 6 meters long.  6 meters - that's almost 20 feet.  Forget that I've seen reticulated python exhibits smaller than that... I've had apartments smaller than that.  It might have been a little overkill for a snake that size, but I liked the idea.  Just because an animal's needs are "simpler" than a more complicated animal doesn't mean that they aren't deserving of being met to the best of our ability.  Especially in zoos and aquariums, where animal welfare is our mission, every animal deserves our very best.