I went to the pet store today to get some more filters and some snails for my sister's Betta tank. While I was there I took my time browsing the animals and saw a cat up for adoption that particularly pulled on my heart. Knowing full well I don't have the room or desire for the expense of owning a cat, I turned to the reptile department. Owning a pet snake has been on my mind for a while recently and just watching the animals really started tugging on that idea.

My local PetSmart offers California King snakes and Corn snakes, both being among the most commonly kept snakes. They seem to only offer very young snakes. It appears most of the species there aren't more than a year old. For an animal with a well-documented life span of 20+ years, that's definitely a commitment. Much more than my sister's Betta which I seem to end up caring for more than her and about 4 times of a dog or cat.

King snakes usually grow to about 3 to 4 feet, but individuals a little over 6 aren't rare. Typical pet snakes are feed frozen thawed mice. Wild adults are known to feed on other snakes, particularly rattlesnakes. Pet snakes are generally feed a couple of mice a week. PetSmart sells a box of 6 small mice for about $12. Coupled with the monthly substrate change, I'd probably be looking at a cost of $20 a week to keep this snake.

If I could find a space for it. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but my family lives in a small two bedroom condo. Space is cramped, especially when you throw a lot of somewhat horded stuff in. My family doesn't horde, but there is a lot of stuff that we're a little reluctant to get rid of. And then there's stuff we can't get of, like my tools, which take about a quarter of the living room's free space. This snake would probably live in a very commonly carried tank of 18x18x30.

Maybe some spring cleaning is in order.