Re: Dumeril's a good choice ?
I was asking myself the same sort of questions about 6 months ago. I ended up getting a 3 month old female Dumeril's in March. The advantages are that they are very slow growers, you will maybe see 3 1/2 feet at the first year and 4-5 feet at year 3 or 4, which will give you time to set up the final enclosure. They also don't need as hot of an environment (75 - warm side -88 hot side) or a high humidity. And finally, they are quite calm, well at least mine is. She hasn't hissed or snapped at me once, not even at her food. She just calmly swallows it without striking.
Some negatives might be that they are not a display snake. All I see on mine is her nose sticking out of the shavings. They are ground snakes and will probably be quite clumsy in your hands when the get larger. And although the don't get long, they can get heavy and that can be equally as difficult to manage as a much longer, thinner snake. And depending on the snake itself, they can be pick eaters as juveniles.
I have no regrets and I would make the same choice again, even if money was not a factor.
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