Snakes and Babies....

[gozetec02]

Ok my wife and i are planning to have kids in the future. And i love snakes too. What danger if any do snakes pose to babies? Oviosly a 16' burm is dangerous to a baby but i am talking about smaller species of Boids like ball pythons or children's pythons or carpet pythons or BCI's.

And do any of you have small children and how do they react to the snakes.

[RPlank]

I have 4 kids- 9, 6, 4, and 22 months. They all love to hold them, as I have had them long enough to spark their interest. I have BCI's and BP's, as well as Kingsnakes. The only issue we have had is a couple cases of salmonella, but I blame myself for those. Salmonella is easy to avoid if you practice good husbandry (frequent hand sanitizing, etc). I actually trust my BCI more than most of the BP's with the baby, although the BCI is larger.

[Marla]

I had a ball python in the same household as 2 and 4 year olds almost 10 years ago now, and they were just fascinated with the snake, who never threatened or harmed them in the slightest. Judy and Rusty both have little ones in the house, and I know a couple others here do, too. I personally wouldn't choose to have a giant python in the same house as a baby or toddler, but I wouldn't hesitate to have a ball python, kingsnake, or several other varieties of snake in the same household.

[CrazyBoutHerps]

My daughter who is 3, loves pauliocho. Wants to hold him all the time. Haven't had any problems with them together.

[RandyRemington]

I've had snakes a lot longer than I've had my two kids, now 4 and 5. We've never had a problem. My wife actually talked me into getting rid of the big ones (burms and boas) when we first got married because she was scared they would somehow get her 30 – 40 lb dogs (theoretically the burms could have). With ball pythons and corn snakes I've been more worried about the kids hurting the snakes so I keep them in a locked basement (the snakes . The kids occasionally come down while I'm working and ask to touch or hold one and we always wash up with soap right after and I always wash up as soon as I come out of the basement. I think any risk with ball pythons is minimal but of course you want good caging. Probably the biggest danger apart from salmonella is the electrical cords and the chance that a kid might adjust a thermostat so keep these up and out of the way and best to keep even well locked secure snake cages in a room away from small children.

[MacWin]

We have 2 kids a 5 year old boy and a 8 year old girl. Both will hold Bob and love him to death. Now Nanners on the other hand is still just a baby and a little to wiggly still. Honestly I am the only one he really trusts to hold him even he and the Mrs. still don't see eye to eye :wink: .

I have never had a concern with Bob, my daughter absolutely loves Bob and likes to carry him around and he likes her too. My son likes him but honestly he is more into Power Rangers at this point lol.

We all watch Animal Planet together and I do my best to pass along my love and respect for all animals especially reptiles. The one thing that is off limits is I do not allow the kids to watch the boys eat in a few more years sure but at this point it might be a little to graphic for them.

All in all I would say a BP would pose no more threat to a baby than a cat or a dog maybe even less. Just make sure to have everybody washes up afterwords

[JamminJonah]

I planned WAY ahead for this same question Gozetech .. I'm not even married or engaged yet but I know I will be within the next five or ten years so I figure I'll plan ahead. I handled gardners,bulls, and rats when I was young (we thought it was fun to catch 'em - musk is nasty though) I also handled a BP in middle/high school. BPs don't really get big or strong enough to pose much of a threat - and even if it were big and strong enough any violence goes against their nature so I am confident that my BP will be perfectly fine around kids as long as we all wash up. (I have a big thing of Dial anti-bacterial and a big re-fill jug and right next to the cage I picked up twho big pumps of that alcohol based disinfectant waterless hand cleaner in case I have to rush somewhere or something comes up where I don't have time to wash my hands (or if I get to lazy to) also for cleaning the cage I got those latex gloves you find in doctors offices.. the sell them at Walmart in a big box so I've got those for cage cleaning just to be double sure.
So if you've got some good hand soap, some of that alcohol gel hand clenser stuff and some gloves to clean out the cage with you should be more than safe. Salmonella is more dangerous than the snakes BCI's are legless puppy dogs from what I have experienced and read but they still get too big for my comfort zone - that very well may change someday though.