Aussie snake for first time owner?

[Ehveh]

I've googled good snakes for beginners but have only found suggestions for exotic snakes :/
What's a snake/python native to Australia and good for a first timer?
I love the look of GTP's, lucy's, californian king snakes but am open to all sugggestions. I want to be able to handle him/her a lot.
Thanks in advance

 

[Asharee133]

Hey hun. We can only keep native species My first snake was my Spotted python, She's bitten me 3 times from the 2 years I've had her

 

[abnrmal91]

What size aussie snake are you wanting big or small.

Small
Stimson or children's. Easy to handle, dont get very big 1.1-1.2m max normally. Wheatbelt stimsons look great.

Medium
Jungle pythons can be snappy, same as Darwin's they normally range 1.6- (depending on locality for the jungles)
Woma's are awesome look great and generally handle very well.

Large

Bredlis are meant to be placid generally and make good first snakes.

It depends on what size snake you are looking at getting. Most pythons are easy enough to keep. All snakes temperaments are different so it depends on the individual if it like being handled or not.

 

[StellaDoore]

We're only allowed natives in Oz, so no lucy's or king snakes. I also wouldn't recommend GTP as a first snake as they can be quite tricky to look after.
Set yourself a size limit, and be sure to consider handling, enclosure (length should be 2/3 the length of the snake) and food size.

Small snakes (~1 to 1.2m) like Stimson pythons I highly recommend. Wheatbelt, Windorah and Broome are particularly nice locals. They can be fussy eaters so be sure to get an established feeder. They generally have excellent temperaments though. Small pythons also include childrens and spotteds, but these don't look as good in my opinion and spotteds (aka macs) aren't as placid as Stimmies.

Medium snakes (~1.5 - 2.5m) include most carpets, waters and woma pythons. With the carpets I'd highly recommend Murray Darlings, although diamonds are also pretty good (just be sure to research their husbandry as they need cool temps and UV light). Jungles are gorgeous, but usually snappy and the same goes for water pythons. Womas are great, can't recommend them enough. Beautiful animals (especially Tanami and Uluru locales), are quite charming and amusing, and incredibly placid, yet hardy. Just watch out; they love food!

Large snakes (2.5m and upwards) can be a bit of a handful and do need huge enclosures and food, but are very rewarding if the keeper puts in the effort. Bredli and coastals are gentle giants, and the former can have stunning red colours that are quite impressive. Black headed pythons (BHPs) are great; again very friendly, incredibly handsome animals, although they can put on an intimidating "bluff" in the cage where they hiss, race around the cage and pretend to be big and threatening. It's usually for show and many are the biggest sweet hearts when out of the cage.

I really should put a big asterisk next to all of these animals when mentioning temperaments; although there are general personalities within species, it all comes down to the individual animal. I know many people have amazingly calm jungles and waters, but have bitey Stimsons and bredli. I recommend getting a yearling so you can get a better indication of temperament and have any feeding issues sorted out.

Best of luck choosing an animal, make sure you put up pics when you have it! And please be sure to do lots and lots of research on it before you buy.

 

[Ehveh]

Sorry I meant I like the LOOK of those snakes so if there are any native Aus pythons that LOOK like those that are good for beginners
Thank you StellaDoore, that's a really helpful list, I shall look into them all more. And yes I promise to do lots of research haha, can't wait to be able to post pics! Will keep everyone updated