How did you first get interested in reptiles?

i really didn't get into snakes untill the summer of my freshman year, i've always love toads and lil garder snakes and lizzards (which i would go outside and catch :-D) but i started doing research and whatnot on ball pythons and i got my 1st one like november of last year. my collection has grown alot :-D i now have 4 boas, 3 ball pythons a burm 2 jungle carpet pythons and a taiwan beauty snake :-D i'm really lucky to have a dad who loves snakes as much as i do :-D

I never cared about snakes one way or the other until I was at someone's home and saw an aquarium. I went over to look and inside was filthy. Feces and a rotting mouse were inside as well as pieces of old shed, slimy water dish and in the corner I heard a little wheezing noise. It was a bp about 2 1/2 ft long. I asked the guy about the situation and he said it was his kid's snake and it was going to die anyway. I looked at this helpless little guy and removed him from the cage, wrapped him up in my coat and took him home. He spent the first night on a heating pad next to me on the bed. The next morning we went to the vet and found that he had a treatable RI and some burns on his belly from the heat rock. Then off to the petshop for an enclosre, UTH, and all the other goodies. I've had Jo for over 2 years now and he is such a wonderful pet. He's docile and sweet and I just love him. Since then I've rescued a blue tongue skink that was physically abused by its former owners, and a leopard gecko that was being kept in an unheated cricket container. I also purchased a sub adult rtb named Inga who came from a great home and is a sweetie too. I'm hooked! I love them all but Jo is and always will be my baby.

I guess I have just been interested in them for like, ever. I used to always catch them around my house. Once I caught like 25 in under an hour! Bucket-O-Snakes!!!

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Originally Posted by gmmuscle91

Once I caught like 25 in under an hour! Bucket-O-Snakes!!!

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HAHA! That sounds like a ton of FUN!

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Originally Posted by JLC

HAHA! That sounds like a ton of FUN!

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It was, except for the fact that every single one of them tried to musk me and my friends. Good thing I knew they were going to do that so I wore some gloves. Got bit about 10 times, on the glove of course!

i remember since i was 4 i would catch fence lizards in my back yard and at my aunts house (her place has tons of fence lizards) and i would enjoy a trip to the zoo to look at snakes and lizards.

i remember being terrified of an albino burm that was only probably 12 feet but back then when i was a wee little tike it looked like a 30 foot man eater to me! LOL.

anyways, it was just something i thought was pretty cool until my cousin got a BP when i was in the fourth grade. i asked my parents if i could have one and they said no over and over so i forgot about it until the summer of 2004 when i helped my grandpa move into his new apartment and i got a 100 buckaroons!

since i had the extra cash and i was older and more mature i asked my parents for a BP again. at first they said no but i was pretty persistant and eventually my dad took me down to the local pet shop and i got vanessa.

since then im still very much into BP's but my interest have also changed into monitor lizards and field herping. my biggest field herping trip was down to the mojave this summer and it was a blast! i hope to become a herpetologist one day.

wow, what a rant! thanks for listening!

I was never afraid of lizards, snakes and such reptiles, but I wasn't interested in owning one as a pet either. I took a herpetology class for my Zoology degree last quarter and I had a lot of fun!! One of the girls in my class had a ball python who had babies... and voila, here I am with Medusa. =)

My story goes something like this......I was really into dinosaurs as a kid...so I had some anoles and a garter snake as my own "little dinosaurs." The garter snake died of unknown causes after about six months, my parents replaced it with a ball python. After about a year with the ball, my mom got tired of running to the pet store (I was 11 years old) for feeders, so I had to give it up. No more reptiles in the house after that. Fast forward to the end of my freshman year of college, got out of the dorms and into my own place, one of the first things I did was buy a ball python. Up until that point I never really got "into" them as far as being aware of health and husbandry issues, but as a hobby, for me this has snowballed over the past 3 years or so.

ever since i was 4 i would get(actually my parents lol) this guy with burms,retics,corns balls you name it to come to my birthday party and let everyone handle the snakes and such. then at about 7 at school this little girl said she was getting a rtb. i got jealous and could still not have a snake. my dad dint like them nor my mom. at 8 i caught a cottonmouth and wouldnt release it. my parents knew it was venomous and could kill me. they said to me if i realeased that cottonmouth i could get my very own pet snake. and i did.

now thats what im talking about! extortion by venomous pit viper! LOL