I have never had a snake and would like to know what kind would be best. I would like to be able to handle it not just have it sit in the tank. I live in a desert climate and was thinking about a king snake, as it has been recomended by a few breeders but i would like some more options/opinions. I plan on doing research before i buy also.

king snakes are excellent starter snakes! nice choice!

What about corn snakes? Arent they supposed to be great starters? Beautiful colour too

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mel

corns are good yes! very easy to look after though other snakes kind of get missed when corns are mentioned
milksnakes , kingsnakes , corns etc all excellent starter snakes , depends what you want out of a snake and what colours and patternations you are attracted to.

Royal/ball pythons are good first snakes, just make sure you get one thats feeding well or they can be a pain to get eating!

Corns are good too, and no trouble with eating!

Corns
milks
kings
trinkets
royal (to a point)
hognoses
boas
childrens python
some ratsnakes
etc etc

it really depends on what you like the look of, any snakes (pretty much) can be a good starter snake IF you put the time in to research them.

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Harvey - staffy
Chance - american bulldog (rescue)

19 snakes, 5 geckos, phibs, T's, inverts, fluffies and hedgehog.

I am off to look at a corn snake or two tomorrow!
First time snake for me and my daughter. We are also possibly interested in a Cali King Snake althought the man breeding the corn snakes said Cali's have to stay as an only snake whereas if we wanted another corn one day we could put two in together as they like company. What do others think?

cali`s do have to stay as an only snake yes as they have canibalistic tendancies cali`s are delightful snakes and a nice choice for a starter snake , have one myself and he`s gorgeous!

Thank you for your advice and help :-)

if you plan on keep snakes together it will be worthwhile doing some research on co habitating it`s worth mentioning that all snakes can have canibalistic tendancies , some more so than others. i were advised to always bare this in mind as a general rule of the thumb when i first started out , snakes are snakes they don`t rely on the companionship of another snake