What do people say to you when you say you have snakes?

I did have a classmate that I was studying with for an exam earlier this month, she texted me one day if she could just come to my house sunday night and study there. I replied, "Sure. Are you afraid of snakes?"...Her:"YES!"...Me: "well I have several, but you will likely not see them as they are in their own room"...Her: "No way, let's just make plans for Tuesday when my roommate is gone". LOL, on another note Halloween this year was extremely mild so I let my adult normal ball hang around my neck while we handed out candy...several people actually touched him and asked pertinent questions.

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Originally Posted by Physician&Snakes

LOL, on another note Halloween this year was extremely mild so I let my adult normal ball hang around my neck while we handed out candy...several people actually touched him and asked pertinent questions.

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It was mild here too. My husband wore a black wizard robe with our albino boa draped across his shoulders while he handed out candy. The kids loved it, the parents not so much when the kids started asking if they could have a pet snake.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

It was mild here too. My husband wore a black wizard robe with our albino boa draped across his shoulders while he handed out candy. The kids loved it, the parents not so much when the kids started asking if they could have a pet snake.

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Yeah, surprisingly most of the parents were very accepting of it, a few of them recognized the species, there are more BP keepers in my area than I honestly thought, one thing that made me really consider breeding them in addition to my other projects.

My girlfriends mom says why would anyone want one of those devil creatures.
Most people just look at me funny lol

Wow, I forgot about this thread. My husband is a home-based gunsmith and this incident happened last week. For the record, all of our customers make me smile - some when they arrive, others when they leave. And then there are the ones who get fired before we do any work for them...

So, the hubby is home waiting on a new customer whose rifle suddenly "doesn't work". The guy showed up right after lunch with an AR15. They go into the office and hubby starts taking the gun apart. Usually when someone has an AR15 that works, gets taken apart for cleaning, put back together, and then doesn't work, it's not hard to diagnose and correct the issue.

About the time hubby has removed the upper from the lower he hears the customer say "Snakes are the devil's spawn!"

Now, we have exactly one snake in the office, a beautiful male albino BCI about 18 months old. He's a very nice snake, laid back, never ever has threatened to bite. He's not one to hide all day, so he's in a Boaphile arboreal enclosure and even our customers who aren't herpers like the little guy.

Dear hubby (DH), knowing that he has bad hearing and thinking that he misunderstood what the guy said, goes "Excuse me?"

"Snakes are from the devil and people who keep them are Satan worshipers!"

DH, thinking that the guy is simply a snake-fearing pansy, tells the guy that we have 36 snakes and quite a few belong to our eight year old daughter.

"I don't care if your whore daughter owns snakes! No Christian can own snakes. Snakes are from the devil."

By now DH has had more than enough. Before the last comment DH was simply going to charge the guy a "stupidity fee" for being a jerk, but the remark about our daughter was over the top. So, the dude from Sister Coitus is promptly fired as a customer, physically ejected from the house, and the pieces of his rifle thrown out onto the lawn.

GOOD RIDDANCE!

WOW - People like that are just plain scary. I'd probably be worried about retaliation and maybe give the cops a heads up call.

This thread hits home with me as a new bp owner. We were a one pet household for many years. We had the typical cat and he was a good one. Once he passed on it was time to fix the carpet and enjoy the honeymoon of not having pets. Now, we are a one snake household. It is funny to see the typical reaction from other parents when they find out we have a snake. I begin by asking them what they know about snakes and ball pythons in general? The usual answer is nothing other than they "are slimy and dangersous...I mean they are a python right?". I ask them how dangerous is their dog? Oh so and so is great with the kids. If they persist on the danger issue I let them know that on average one child per state is killed by the household dog per year. Not a stray, the household dog. I tell them that with proper care and husbandry a snake can be an easy going wonderful pet. I describe our routines a bit, talk about feeding, that kind of stuff. By then, if they are still listening they usualy give a "huh, never thought of that" reply. Funny that I have many many firearms in the house and nobody worries about the safety of my kids. However, I put a little bp in the mix and folks freak out about THE PYTHON!!!!!!!!

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Originally Posted by 3skulls

Wait until you tell them you have 400 tarantulas. :p

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Oh yeah, then you get asked the same questions as all snake owners. Is it poisonous? Did you get it's fangs removed? Etc, etc, etc...

I'm always up for educating folks, but sometimes the same old cliché questions get old.

I haven't really gotten any crazy responses. I only have one bp, but nearly everyone who knows I have a snake are fine with it I guess.. my boyfriends' mom loves snakes and used to keep some of her own! but my mom, doesn't exactly love my baby. She's come a long way though, and I think I've changed some peoples minds about reptiles :)

They are usually very intrigued or mortified, with few in between. Either way, I'm entertained.. :P

Most of the time I get "Oh, that's awesome!" or "Yea, you're crazy!"

The misconceptions people have in general actually began to cause me a bit of an issue. When my family, 2k miles away, found out I was bringing a snake home for our pet they were very concerned. My aunt went as far as to suggest she needed to send my wife some news articles about a family that had two children that were part of a tragic accident that involved a 20 footer and a shady reptile store. She insisted that it was dangerous and asked what I was going to so "once the serpent wrapped around my sons neck". At that point I began to get fairly upset that anyone, let alone, a family member would assume that I'm putting my kids at risk because of a snake. Then, to make matters worse, she put granny on the phone and had her ask "what would your grandfather (deceased) say about this". At that point I needed to get off the phone. I told the aunt that she didn't know what she was talking about and was so far out of line it was not even funny. I suggested that if she wanted to be able to call that sending my wife articles about a tradegy that had noting to do with my situation to "make sure she was letting me make the right decision" was not a good idea. The phone call ended poorly. The end result, 3 days later, was a call that I reluctantly took where she profusely apologized and had been doing a little reading about the deadly ball pyton I had brought home.

Its been a month and I'm still po'd.

I always either get "EWWWW!!" OR "That's so awesome!!" lol…could go either way usually.

Lately people have been pretty rude. A few of my acquantinces think the snake thing is really cool, but don't understand that I don't want to talk about it/explain it all the time. They tell literally everyone in earshot when I'm near them and I've been called weird like 16 times in the last week. :rolleyes:

I am so glad my friends and family like them for the most part. Most of them were just confused that all the different colored snakes were the same species. I'm pretty sure some of my friends come over just to hang out with the snakes.

I mostly get the whole "it's cute now, but what about when they get huge?" comment from people who aren't familiar. I then explain that they get no heavier than a stretched out chihuahua without legs.

My mother in law recently saw them for the first time and just said "well, I'm glad you're giving me snakes instead of grand children." At 51 she's still convinced she's too young to be a grandmother, which is cool because I still don't even know if I want kids.
I had the tub open of my large, friendly and slow male normal while I was cleaning his water bowl. He started to crawl out a bit while I had my peripheral on him, and she tried to gently nudge him back with as little touching as possible. She said she didn't want to hurt him. It was cute.

I never thought this thread would get this popular local. So many cool and sad stories.

This is how the conversation always goes:

Friend: Why do u keep all these stuffs?
Me: Cos I'm curious bout how they live n stuffs like that.
Friend: Why not cats or dogs?
Me: Dude I had 9 cats at one time and now a Rottweiler already.
Friend: *nods and continues looking at the pet*

It has never changed since I was 10... been 20 years

My ball python,I been told is going to eat my cats and if it gets out will strangle me in my sleep...ignorance is bliss

"Do you let them all crawl around on the floor?" as in apparently having all of my snakes loose roaming all over the house and never in cages is a normal thing :P

"Why?" <<< almost every time...

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Originally Posted by ballbreeder

I get flack about having ball pythons with a baby in the house. My family keeps telling me it's time to sell off my whole collection because I'm a father. Many many attempts have been made to educate them, but there's just an unfounded stigma against snakes. Very frustrating!

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My husband & I get that too. We have a 5 year old & a 10 month old. " well what if they get out & hurt the kids?" My response is "dogs my kids don't know on the street could hurt them, snakes in tanks with locks they're safe with, unless of course the snake can pick a lock! Then well, we'll just have to locate them before they get too cold & die."


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Or I've gotten... I knew this guy who had this friend who's brother heard this story about someone's cousin that got eaten by a snake. Aren't you worried?!


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I've read every single one of your replies and it amazes me how much some of you put up with. I'm lucky to have a family that somewhat accepts it.

Family was setting at the table and my cousin's wife comes to me and says ''How much do they eat?'' lol I said once every 5-days lol and she looked at me said ''5-Days!?'' ''it's going to starve''

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Wow, I forgot about this thread. My husband is a home-based gunsmith and this incident happened last week. For the record, all of our customers make me smile - some when they arrive, others when they leave. And then there are the ones who get fired before we do any work for them...

So, the hubby is home waiting on a new customer whose rifle suddenly "doesn't work". The guy showed up right after lunch with an AR15. They go into the office and hubby starts taking the gun apart. Usually when someone has an AR15 that works, gets taken apart for cleaning, put back together, and then doesn't work, it's not hard to diagnose and correct the issue.

About the time hubby has removed the upper from the lower he hears the customer say "Snakes are the devil's spawn!"

Now, we have exactly one snake in the office, a beautiful male albino BCI about 18 months old. He's a very nice snake, laid back, never ever has threatened to bite. He's not one to hide all day, so he's in a Boaphile arboreal enclosure and even our customers who aren't herpers like the little guy.

Dear hubby (DH), knowing that he has bad hearing and thinking that he misunderstood what the guy said, goes "Excuse me?"

"Snakes are from the devil and people who keep them are Satan worshipers!"

DH, thinking that the guy is simply a snake-fearing pansy, tells the guy that we have 36 snakes and quite a few belong to our eight year old daughter.

"I don't care if your whore daughter owns snakes! No Christian can own snakes. Snakes are from the devil."

By now DH has had more than enough. Before the last comment DH was simply going to charge the guy a "stupidity fee" for being a jerk, but the remark about our daughter was over the top. So, the dude from Sister Coitus is promptly fired as a customer, physically ejected from the house, and the pieces of his rifle thrown out onto the lawn.

GOOD RIDDANCE!

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Your husband is a gunsmith. It's not much of a stretch to assume he also owns guns of his own. Only an idiot would make a comment like that to an armed man, in his home, when he has YOUR gun taken apart in front of him. I hope he scattered parts well enough to have some that didn't make it home!

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Originally Posted by LGray23

I always either get "EWWWW!!" OR "That's so awesome!!" lol…could go either way usually.

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I would think the names of your animals would go a long way toward making people lighten up.


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I've also gotten comments to the effect of the person being convinced they are running loose, how do I have time to do anything with so many, your house must smell, and so on. And then when I try to explain, I get then glazed look of someone not really caring.

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Originally Posted by Darkbird

I've also gotten comments to the effect of the person being convinced they are running loose, how do I have time to do anything with so many, your house must smell, and so on. And then when I try to explain, I get then glazed look of someone not really caring.

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People ask me if mine runs around loose. I just look at them like they're stupid and tell them "Of course not, idiot. Snakes don't have legs."

I had an interesting conversation with a coworker last night, too...

Her: Aren't you afraid it's going to eat your cat?
Me: No. Don't be ridiculous. That's not even possible.
Her: But how do you know that?
Me: Because I keep the cat in a different tank. Duh!

Pretty sure she's calling animal control.

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Hahaha. I'm gonna use that line when someone says something about my dogs xD

When I talk to dumb, ignorant people who can't even visualize what a real snake looks like, the usually ask me "What does it look like? What does it act like? How big is it?"

And my one line, every time, is "Have you seen harry potter? Like that"

and then they stop talking to me

People come by the house and say holy crap you got rats what you raise those for lol I'm called the rat farmer



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Oh... that's, erm, nice.
Oh god, why?
Wordless look of terror and disgust

My responses are usually the same regardless of how someone reacts.
"Some people collect beanie babies. I collect scaley babies."
"Snakes aren't evil because it is written in the Bible..."
"Snakes are misunderstood. Come to my place and I'll let you hold one. You'll see they aren't slimy, vicious, or dripping with venom."

To date no one has taken me up on the last response's offer ;)

Occasionally I will get the, "Cool, can I see them?" But mostly "Seriously... why?".

My standard answer is that I like pets but am allergic to fur, really love reptiles, and wanted something "small" and exotic.

Sent from a happy snake owner.

The most common statement I get from is, "I just didn't believe so and so when they said you had snakes....you just don't seem like a snake person at all!!!" (I don't know what this means...but I've heard some variation of it often!)

I'm a teacher, and I often bring the corn snake, and occasionally the BP, to school. (They each have a separate tank in my classroom.) Out of 31 kids, not one is afraid. They think they are cool, are proud to have them as "class pets", and many have taken to researching and learning more about snakes in the wild and as pets. The ADULTS, are a different story. Many say, "EEEWWWW, why?" Many of the kids drag their parents in to see them - some stay across the room, but others love it, or at least get curious enough to come near when I take them out. Our school counselor slowly confronted her fear of snakes by coming into my room regularly, and eventually held the snake with the kids supporting her. It was pretty cool. One teacher in a lower grade has an autistic student who will jump through all kinds of hoops to have time with the snake in my room. My principal said, "I just didn't see you as a snake person...really? Why?" but now she tolerates them because she sees they are good for the kids.

P.S. - Three kids in my class asked for snakes for Christmas this year. At least one, that I know of, will be getting her Christmas wish!




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