Snake newbie

[AllGeckos]

Hello folks, I have been considering getting a snake, a California king snake in particular
and have a few questions.

--If I was to get a captive KS should I get a young one or does that not play a part in temperament/getting use to it's new owner?

--If I was to later breed a couple could I release the young seeing to it I live in the Sonoran desert?
I could just catch a wild one but I prefer to leave whats in the wild, wild.

--I have only handled a snake once and it was about 8" long (don't remember what kind)
I want to get hands on experience first or does it matter?
Take a look at this guy and his nasty CKS seems like he is a little to aggressive with him? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14uEmdnQL5E

I know there are probably better beginner snakes like corn snakes, however I am only interested (currently) in CKS.

Aside from properly caring for/following a proper care sheet anything else I need to look at? Do you have any advice or things I could learn from your start?

Here is a picture of one crawling around the backyard, I wish s/he would come back around so I could observe a little closer.

 

[capoeirajosh]

I would get a young one personally. They are usually pretty docile though. As far as letting the babies go, I am not sure. You could always try and sell them if you wanted to breed. That is a beauty crawling along the house!! One advantage to getting a young one is you can get them used to regular handling at a young age so they don't poop everytime you pick them up, haha. Good luck!!

 

[Dimidiata]

Get a young one, but not a hatchling. Make sure they are an eater and not having any issues there. King snakes normally eat well, but there are always exceptions and im not entirely sure on CKS.

Releasing young CKS into the wild is a nono. They may have picked up any number of pathogens in captivity that arnt native to the area, your also adding to the population in an unnatural way. AND they dont have immunity to common diseases that the wild snakes may be used to. Its a very irresponsible thing to do. No, if your going to breed ANYTHING your responsible for finding it a good home.

So, you dont want ANY keeping advice?

 

[Jlassiter]

Get an established captive bred king.
And never release a captive animal into the wild for reasons mentioned above and because the genetics in most captive californiae is a mixture of many locales. You would be tainting the local gene pool.