Obviously you are going to find out what it eats before you buy it and the person selling it will be able to advise you anyway............  Are you sure?

Read on..............................

A friend of mine owns a pet shop and has been breeding various species of snake for years.

He received a phone call from somebody who had bought a hatchling Corn Snake from another source. He was having problems getting it to feed.

When asked about his set up and temperatures, everything seemed fine.

He was asked if he could bring the snake in and my friend would try and get it feeding for him (some young snakes can be difficult feeders).

When the guy turned up he brought out an extremely thin hatchling.

My friend agreed to take it to try and get it feeding then return it if he was successful and it had got back up to normal body weight.

During the conversation the guy said ‘I don’t know what’s wrong, it just won’t touch the fish!’

As most people reading this will know, Corn Snakes eat rodents not fish.

It turned out that the place he bought it from had told him otherwise. (Thankfully, they no longer sells reptiles.)

The hatchling died that night, it was too weak to even try feeding.

With stories like this, no wonder groups are trying to stop people buying reptiles!

Moral of the story?

Always read up as much as possible on the animal before buying.

Go in knowing your subject and ask questions that you know the answer to. If you get the wrong answers, don’t buy anything!

Jim Lind