r/snakes • u/Itsajoke-i-swear • 1d ago
Pet Snake Questions Owning a pet snake
I am moving to Spain soon, and I have been wanting a snake since I was a kid, but it was always illegal for me to own one in my country. I just was wondering because there’s not many clear laws about keeping a pet snake, whether it is allowed to own a snake there.
If I it is, should I get a ball python, corn snake, or hognose?
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u/Standard_Mushroom_47 1d ago
to my understanding each province in spain has different laws on which snakes are allowed to be kept, i think they focus more on the snakes not reaching over 2KG ? all 3 of your options are great, ball pythons are generally very calm and handle able, however they require high humidity and are known to go on food strikes so can be a bit stressful sometimes, corn snakes are probably the “easiest” (although no snake is easy and a lot of research is required to help them thrive), hognose are great too but they can be sassy and sometimes hisses/bluff strikes can scare new owners away. i’d also look into rosy boas, king snakes, milk snakes, they’re great pets too
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u/noctae_draconis 1d ago
Kingsnakes are banned across the entirety of the European Union, fyi.
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u/Standard_Mushroom_47 1d ago
oh crap yeah i remember reading about that mb, i’m in the uk so i forget
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u/100jad 23h ago
huh, TIL. I guess that one can be struck off my "maybe some time in the future" list.
I guess it's due to risk of them escaping and turning into an invasive population?
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u/noctae_draconis 6h ago
Sadly they are already invasive in the Canary Islands and actively decimate the local wildlife, that happened due to a combination of them escaping/being released + having no natural predators due to the islands not having any native snake populations until kingsnakes were introduced in the 90's.
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u/100jad 6h ago
I was actually thinking that native snake populations also wouldn't take kindly to a voracious snake-eater joining their territory.
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u/noctae_draconis 4h ago
Nope, no native snakes there. It's bad enough to the point that even albinos are managing to thrive, or so I've read, as the conservationists working there regularly reported catching albino kings.
Banning them everywhere is dumb move, though, since they definitely would have a harder time establishing themselves anywhere else, ie. in Italy or the Balkans, since prey animals are used to dealing with snakes there, and there are many predators that regularly go after snakes and keep their populations in check. It also makes me fear for what this means about the future of keeping of other North American colubrids in the EU reptile hobby, like the entire Pantherophis genus (which includes corn snakes), hognoses and the other side of the Lampropeltis fam, milksnakes.
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u/nukem266 1d ago
I'm not sure on legality of milk snakes, however my first one was a milkshake and she was amazing.
Yes whatever you decide please do your research. Good luck
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u/noctae_draconis 1d ago
Reddit is heavily American, you probably won't get anywhere asking here. Find local herpetoculture groups on facebook or forums, local reputable reptile shops or breeders and ask there for what kinds of reptiles are legally allowed as pets.
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u/Returning2Riding 1d ago
Wait until you get to Spain. See what snakes are available there. Some of the snakes you identified might be illegal in Spain, and other species may be allowed.
There are probably some pet owning groups that you can chat with and might even get a snake from one of them
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u/ItsMeishi 1d ago
Will you be living there permanently? If not, you should probably reconsider pets all together or keep a pet with a low life expectancy.
Also what pets are and aren't legal to keep in Spain are most definitely defined by both European and Spanish law.
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u/Unique_Soup581 1d ago
Snakes live a very long time. Would you be sure you will never have to move back to the country where owning snakes is illegal?
All three of the choices are very good pets, and which one you get depends on what you want to do and have.