How did you get started in herps

I have not always been a fan of snakes , of any kind! I mean I would literally spread my wings and fly at the sight of a king snake, and a hatchling at that. It wasn't until I was in veterinary school that I had no choice but to help treat a 14 ft long retic with a facial swelling that turned out to be an abcess , imagine me being that close to the mouth of that thing! I was scared to death ! That was until I noticed that she actually looked grateful that we were helping her and for the first time in my life I witnessed first hand that even snakes ,one of the most highly feared reptiles could show appreciation and love because afterwards she took a ride back to her enclosure on my shoulders . I mean wow! Now to the dismay of many of my friends and family I own two sweet little sneaky snakes of my own and cherish everyday that I have with them .

PS : I plan on purchasing either a carpet python or rosy boa this spring ! Ya'll can help me decide which :D

I went to Petco and bought a bunch of mites and they threw in a Ball Python for free! Woo Hoo! :rage:

Short story is I started with a corn snake and stumbled onto this forum doing research. I saw some pics of ball pythons and it was downhill from there. I started with a 1.1 pair (an albino male I still have and a 100% het female I sold a year or so ago). Three racks and 14 (currently) snakes later, I'm deep into my addiction and not yet ready to call it quits, lol!

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Originally Posted by vettech1990

I have not always been a fan of snakes , of any kind! I mean I would literally spread my wings and fly at the sight of a king snake, and a hatchling at that. It wasn't until I was in veterinary school that I had no choice but to help treat a 14 ft long retic with a facial swelling that turned out to be an abcess , imagine me being that close to the mouth of that thing! I was scared to death ! That was until I noticed that she actually looked grateful that we were helping her and for the first time in my life I witnessed first hand that even snakes ,one of the most highly feared reptiles could show appreciation and love because afterwards she took a ride back to her enclosure on my shoulders . I mean wow! Now to the dismay of many of my friends and family I own two sweet little sneaky snakes of my own and cherish everyday that I have with them .

PS : I plan on purchasing either a carpet python or rosy boa this spring ! Ya'll can help me decide which :D

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I wanted to be a vet growing up, until I figured out I'm terrible at math and science both, lol! Kudos to you for the job you do though, that would be awesome to get to work with animals all day. And my vote would be for a rosy boa; some of the localities, let alone the morphs that have been produced are awesome!

growing up in the desert of southern utah there wasnt much to do as a kid except go lizard and snake catchin' after school everyday. i caught thousands of snakes/lizards/scorpions/tarantulas and just developed a love and respect for them as creatures and pets.

My father had a boa that he got a short while before I born, and we had that snake until my junior year of high school, so I literally grew up with a pet snake. Sometime in middle school, I slowly became the one who took care of him, including raising up the rats to feed him. We didn't get another snake after him, but as soon as I felt I was in a stable enough portion of my life (a couple years after college), I got another boa, Ryuu.

My story is a little different than most . I was the type of guy who my whole life thought the only good snake was a dead snake . Then one day my wofe bought a bp behind my back. I was so mad at her I had nothing to do with the snake at all told her if it ever got out I would kill it. Then one day I went to get a rat for the snake (after my wife begged me to) and while I was there I some how got talked into holding a awesome pastel bci and fell in love right then and there and its been a downward spiral ever since lol. I look back at the old me and cant understand why I was so ignorant but im glad I have seen the light on these beautiful and misunderstood animals.

use to go out catchin lizards on my dads farm growin up so for my birthday one year he got me a bearded dragon. loved that little thing. i would have one now but i hate dealing with crickets. lol which is weird because i use to not mind them. i actually use to go out in the yard as a kid and catch crickets and grasshoppers for him. free food. lol got a ball python a year later and loved it. when i went to highschool i kinda got out of em for a while but when i was 20 i was browsin the internet and somehow stumbled upon ball python morphs and started reading up on the whole genetic side of things and it fascinated me. been hooked ever since. lol

I blame the other half.... It's all her fault.

I actually started browsing this forum, on behalf of my wife, because she wanted live animals in her science class when we got to that point. I was immediately addicted. What began with two leopard geckos one winter has turned into five geckos, one AFT, and currently six ball pythons. :)

We also just picked up the Chameleon she wants the most for her classroom. :D