Jacky as long as it isn't a protected species, and you aren't collecting it for commercial purposes, most places here have no problem with you collecting and housing a snake. Where you get in trouble is with snakes that have protected status. The reason that we generally advise against keeping a wild caught snake is they may be infested with diesease or parasites and may not settle down and feed in captivity. This is particularly true for novice keepers who do not have the experience and knowledge to overcome the problems inherent in wild caught snakes. It is generally best to stick with captive bred snakes. However if you stop and consider it all our snakes were wild caught at one time.

95% of the time!!!!!!!!!!! Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!! That 5% would get me!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

To add to what Merlin said, a captive species reintroduced into the wild can also spread diseases which can be disasterous to the native species. My opinion is once you make it a pet, it's a pet for life. If we have to relocate a wild snake we have rubbermaid containers designated for that purpose, and the snake never comes into contact with my pets. If I can't relocate it until the next day, it sleeps in the garage (which is heated). I have no problem with someone taking a common native snake in as a pet, some of my first pets as a kid were garters I caught in local fields, as long as it complies with local laws, but too often the novelty will wear off and it gets let go in the back yard.

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Answers are great. But I prefer questions!

Visit me at www.jaysreptiles.com

Thanks guys! But doesn't it interfere in nature,if you know what I mean? It's like with the wild caught ball pythons which are now rare in the wild because of us humans.Perhaps you can't really compare it with those,but imagine if at the same time thousands of people all over America find a rat snake and keep it.I hope I can explain it ok what I want to say.
Paul sure is not the only one that takes a wild snake home to keep.What about the mice and rat population? The whole balance is broken,if you know what I'm trying to say.
Merlin,sure our snakes were from wild caught ones,but we got their 'kids' and 'great-grandkids'(lol!) already.So it's a diffrent thing.It's just my opinion on that.I'm against keeping wild caught animals in general. Please don't get me wrong,I'm just worried about natures balance.

Jacky there is a big difference between the two situations. The COMMERCIAL collecting of snakes for sale is much different than a herper here and there taking a snake from the wild. The collecting of wild BPs is tantamount to clearing an area of them. They collect all the eggs, hatch the young and ship them out by the thousands. BPs are not a very prolific breeding snake to begin with.
I am opposed to such mass commercial collecting!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Yeah, as Merlin said, commercial collecting is the one that's responsible for depleting their populations so much. Many of my current pets were WC by me. One of them is my eastern garter snake, Medusa. In this area, she runs a very high risk of being run over by a car, killed by a human, hit by a lawn mower (we use the BIG ones), or eaten by a feral cat (they run rampant on military bases!). She already has severe scarring on her head and neck from a run in with something, probably a cat. The way I see it, she didn't stand a very good chance of living a long healthy life anyway. Since she eats good for me, and since I can help her shed when she does (her scarring makes it difficult), I decided to keep her. As stated before though, CB is always better.

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+5 bonus points to whoever finds me a job!

"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield

Hi folks, i'd like to add my two cents .....

I agree with Jacky on this one. Aren't there already enough snakes out there that need a home? That would be like breeding Iguanas! If every person who found a snake in the wild kept it and made it a pet, wouldn't that eventually make the species extinct. Wild herping is great to look at, but maybe should stay ...wild!

Steve

Texas rat snakes are abundant. By far the most common snake in Texas. They're not going extinct any time soon. They even do quite well in human habitated areas, which generally drives out most snake species. There is little commercial market for the normal colored ones, even though they do vary quite a bit. The ones west and north tend to be dark like the picture, the ones down south tend to have a lot of orange, the ones in the Austin area are yellow. Theres even a couple morphs, including hypo, albino, orange... and the only one that seems to be sold regularily the leucistic. Their notoriously bad attitude may be the reason they're not particularily desirable for pets.

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There is a fine line between a hobby and a mental illness.

Besides when you really look at it, one of us taking a snake or two out of the wild is no different than them being taken by any other natural predator!
Our intention is just a bit more gentle!

Far more will be taken by natural predation and road kills.

Not to mention the loss of habitat due to housing developments and Walmart construction!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

But wouldn't those things be reason enough NOT to take them? The snakes' natural predators wouldn't find enough food,because of us taking away their habitat and killing them by car.Taking them from the wild would just be another human interfering to the ones they already have,like the ones you mentioned.That would be a reason more not to take them! That's just my opinion on that.

Jacky no one is taking offense for your opinion, just having a nice friendly exchange. Everyone is welcome to their opinion here and I think I can safely say that we all understand, up to a point, each other's side of the arguement. Some people have an interest in species outside of what is available in "the pet trade". Commercial breeders focus on what is bought by the most customers. This generally means flashy colors or designer morphs. If theres not a market for it they don't bother to breed them in ay quantity. If you want something else you have very little choice but to aquire it from the wild.
Going out on the limb a bit furthur,....If you consider the rate of natural habitat loss its not impossible that at sometime in the near future that the only existing specimens of some species that are left may be in some herpers collection.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!