I need you guys to help Debbie

i got my bp right after i turned 11. he now is with wizill but anyways he was really cool i think they are really calm and slow moving for the most part. they are awesome snakes.

they'd prefer not to harm anything they can't eat!

I was terrified of snakes when we brought our Roz home. My husband has let me bring every stray animal with in 50 miles into our home so I thought it was only fitting that for his birthday and Christmas he got to have a pet of his own. He had always wanted a snake so I started reading up. This site was awesome in helping me get ready for the snakes arrival and start to get over my fear. The more I looked at pictures and read about people and their snakes, the more I got excited. We got her the weekend before halloween and she is the best pet I have ever had. I mean that with all seriousness. She has never once shown an ounce of agressivness towards anyone and really just like to hang out on your lap while you watch a movie. She is pretty easy to read and if she doesn't want to be messed with, you can tell, but she has never tried to bite me, and I mess with her all the time. I suggest you read more on this site and around the net to learn about them before you bring one home, it really helped me. Now I, the woman who was terrified to ride home in the car with the snake, wants another, and it has only neen 4 months!!!

liz isn't kidding either, she definitely wasn't a snake fan before little 'rozzy' came along... ;) now she's got the fever as I like to call it, one snake is never enough.

I was terrified of snakes until about 8 weeks ago and now I am addicted, I'm still a bit leary of some others but bp's are so awesome.

My 6yr old son insisted he get a snake so I did a lot of research and decided on a bp, I went to the reptile store and told the lady she needed to help me get over the fear of snakes, I watched her handle one for a few days and then finally started to hold it, with her at my side of coarse!

It took me a few days and I was very comfortable, they are little guys so it was a little easier but I always like any of my new additions to grow up with us.

I also have another son and 3 daughters as well as a husband and several family members who were afraid of snakes and they are all very fond of them already.

In fact.........I own an elderly home and actually brought them there at the request of 1 resident who wanted to see them and ended up finding that 16 out of 20 residents really enjoyed them and were not afraid after seeing me handle them. I will have to post pictures of some of my 90-100 yr old residents hold them!

My suggestion would to have your wife take it slow and go get used to them before it comes home and start off with a cb younger bp. We all handled them at the store before we brought them home.
I was lucky I guess with the store I purchased mine from since they let me keep them there for a month before I brought them home.

Good Luck :D

I my self was terrified of snakes, then I held a snake for the first time(a ball python) and here I am now. I've owned alot of species of boids since then, yet ball pythons are my second favorite(boa constrictors are my favorite :oops: ). They're docile very docile for the most part, I've only had bad experiences with Wild Caught ones. I personally think that they're the most easiest to care for, as long as you have the temps/humidity within the proper range they'll thrive for you. I keep my temps in the 85-90 range during the day and 80-75 at night. As far as humidity goes, I like to keep mine within 45-50 or 75-80 while shedding. Some may say that my humidity levels are too low but I've never had a problem due to humidity or anything else in that matter. I'm starting to ramble here. Debbie, try holding one for yourself I'm almost certain that'll change your mind.

BP's are the most easy going snakes I have ever seen.
My son saw one in the pet store and when he saw that I was ok with him having one we got it.
Right from the first time I held Ozzy I knew BP's were a different type of snake. Not fast or crazy but slow and sweet
I know you dont think you could ever grow attached to a snake but when he brings that BP home and you watch it for a few days you will fall in love with it.
No need to fear or worry even if for some strange reason it grew to 5' they are not mean snakes and very rarely strike

I say go for it you wont regret it one bit :lol:

Phobias are, unfortunately, not rational. Face it, spiders still tend to give me the willies, even though very few pose any danger to me, and I'm plenty big enough to quickly and easily dispatch any spider in our area. That's my intellect talking.

My phobia, however, still sends that involuntary shiver up the spine if I'm not properly prepared to be around the spider.

If your wife has a phobia, you need to respect that and work WITH it. All the logical arguments and explanations don't make a phobia go away. It has to be WORKED through, and a ball python is an excellent snake to work on a snake phobia with, as they rarely do anything that will reinforce the phobia (other than just being snakes).

I can do all kinds of comparisons between BP's and other pets. My wife has a Brown Throat Conure (a type of parrot). Many people who think snakes are "dangerous" wouldn't bat an eye at a pet bird, but guess which one is more likely to bite? Not the snakes. They've never even made a threatening posture at me, but the bird has bitten my wife many times, and tried to bite me on more than one occasion.

When visiting my brother and his wife back in October, I held my nephew's Ball Python, a full grown adult measuring something like 3 to 4 feet long. I have never held this snake before, so it doesn't "know me" from Adam. It calmly accepted my handling with little more than a curious glance. It didn't try to wriggle away, nor in any way do anything that would communicate discomfort, threatening, or feeling threatened.

My Ball Pythons haven't given me any reason to feel any kind of hesitation to handling them when I need to for cleaning their enclosures, or for just enjoying their presence. They're inquisitive, sometimes comical, beautiful snakes. My wife loves mine, and has handled them on numerous occasions herself.

All that said, if you're dealing with a phobia, place the snake enclosure where your wife will have an easy time avoiding it. Let her choose when she approaches the snake, rather than feeling like she "has to be around it". Let her work through her phobia at her pace and at her comfort level. I can tell you from experience in dealing with my arachnaphobia, it's easier to do when someone isn't "pushing" you. Most of all, do NOT trivialize her phobia. It's real, whether we understand it or not. She'll be a lot more comfortable with the idea if she knows you're going to respect her feelings about it, even if you don't really agree with them.