At what age did you get your first snake?

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

This photo was taken back in the 1970s, we lived in the village of Fredonia Wisconsin

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My old man is from West Bend, mom from Kewaskum....I know Fredonia well lol. Glad to see another Wisconsin kid into reptiles!

I told my wife I came from a village and she didn't believe me, I always like to talk about 'the people of my village' LOL. I actually visited Fredonia last year, I went to NARBC in Tinley Park IL and realized it was only a two hour drive from Fredonia. I just looked it up, the population is only 2,243 in the village that I come from LOLOLOL. They actually have a McDonalds now, I was shocked. I used to ride my mini bike through the neighbors soy bean field and he would try to chase me down, actually caught up to me one time and brought me up to see my mom. Now it's a baseball field instead of soybeans LOL. It was too cold to look for snakes when I was there last year HA!

It's fun to read everyone's stories of how they got their noodles!

I was at work (a security officer at a global lab company) in July of 2014 when one of the janitors called me about a snake in his building. He had grown up in Pennsylvania, and had a lifelong fear of any snake, so I went over to remove it.

In the back stairwell, between flights, was a medium-sized greenish snake, trying desperately to find a hole or crack into which to slip. I can only guess that it climbed the first flight of stairs and got tired after that, then panicked when humans discovered him. The janitor was at the top of the second flight, helpfully warning lab employees away. *insert eyeroll here*

I leaned down and carefully picked up the snake, and walked back down the stairs with it coiling and wriggling around my hand. As I reached the bottom step, it suddenly bit me... but his teeth were so tiny and ineffective that all I could do was laugh and laud him for his bravery. Just after I stepped outside the building, the little guy lunged free, throwing himself off my hands and slipped down a nearby drain.

I had to write up the incident afterward in my report, including the ineffective bite, and my boss scolded me for picking up the snake in the first place. (I felt silly just writing it up to begin with, but had already been reprimanded for NOT writing up a mild injury in the past.) I was ordered that any further reptilian visitors were to be covered up with a waste can and left for the scientists to discard it.

Two-to-three weeks later, on July 31, 2014, I went to PetSmart and got Robin, my albino checkered garter snake. She is now 4 years old, refusing to eat anything but live fish, and thriving.

Gibbs, my ball python roommate, was a rescue. I'd been researching BPs for over a year, considering getting one, when my BFF asked me out of the blue, "would you be interested in taking in a ball python? I know someone who wants to get rid of one..." The previous owner had been gifted said snake (by his girlfriend) in January 2016, when the snek "was several months old," and then the owner went into rehab, never to be heard from again. The girlfriend, whose entire family hates snakes, was stuck with an unwanted serpent, into whose room she didn't want even to look, much less venture, so they had a neighbor kid drop a mouse in its tank once a week, maybe refill its water dish, and that was pretty much the most care it got until my BFF offered to find a new home for it.

It only took me a moment to consider: "Heck, yeah!"

On October 9, 2016, an unnamed little ball python arrived at my apartment. The glass tank STUNK to high heaven--- I don't know WHEN it was last cleaned! There was a fake plant, a medium log hide, an UTH, a burnt-out heat lamp, and a TINY water bowl that at MOST would have held half a cup of water! I hadn't yet found this website, or I'd've hesitated, but I couldn't stand the thought of that poor snek staying in that filthy tank a second longer, so I carefully scooped him out and put him somewhere safe (now I can't recall whether I put him into a box, a pillowcase, or into the hands of my BFF, but I cleaned that tank within an inch of its life, put the better of the accompanying contents back in, and put him in my room.

I took him in to the pet store where he was supposedly purchased, where they weighed him (0.79 pounds at approximately one year of age). The store's snake specialist opined that Gibbs was a female, and told me (s)he was a Lesser, not a normal. (A different snake store and my cousin who worked with a snake breeder and specialist for several years believe Gibbs is male, not female, and I tend to agree.) I was told to give Gibbs a weanling rat every 5 days, which I did until he started to look for food sooner than expected, then I moved him to larger rats.

I got Gibbs a larger water dish (3" deep by 7" diameter) in which he can easily soak, a stone hide--- now his favorite!--- and a CHE. I've thrown in a few empty TP rolls on occasion to add interest. When he outgrew his stone hide, I found a couple of flat slate pieces and glued them to the bottom of the hide, raising it up about an inch. He can now fit most of his body inside it again. And I bought a thick hand towel to cover the open part of his tank lid, which I soak every few days to raise humidity.

On Jan. 6, 2018, at age 2, I took him back to be weighed. He was exactly 2 pounds, according to their digital scale. We celebrated with a medium black rat, which he downed with gusto.

^_^

I got my two beautiful BP last weekend and I am 25 right now. I didn't have any snakes or reptiles growing up and I wasn't interested in them at all until I started watching Brian Barcyzk on youtube about a year ago. I've since fallen completely in love with my new pets and I want to get a corn snake now.

I'm about to turn 30 and just ordered my first snake. Hoping she'll arrive soon, just waiting on the weather to warm up. I really enjoy reptiles and have wanted to get back into them after having crested geckos years ago. Spent quite a bit of time researching BPs and have really fallen in love. My husband thinks I'm crazy.

18 years old. She was Christmas gift from my grandmother.


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Got my 1st snake this year. I am 43.

14 years old, convinced my dad to add a ball python to our family!:D

pretty much, we were going to get goats but it was against town regulations. A few weeks earlier I had held some wicked cool ball pythons and King snakes, and my love for reptiles began to blossom.

so I went up to my dad and talked about maybe getting a snake instead, because I couldn't get goats..took some convincing but he eventually said yes, and now my family loves him

I’m glad I’m not the only one who immediately went and bought a snake after I moved out 😂

49 years old. Unless you count the snakes I would catch, keep for two or three days and release.

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Originally Posted by Jakethesnake69

49 years old. Unless you count the snakes I would catch, keep for two or three days and release.

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Wow, & I thought perhaps I was the latest of the "late-bloomers" here, but you beat me by a long way. :gj:

10. My brother (12) and I caught two baby garter snakes at the apartment complex we were living in. Then when we moved a few months later and were catching grasshoppers to feed to our praying mantis, the neighbor thought we were looking for snakes and gave us a big (female) garter snake they had recently caught. We kept her nearly two years but she then decided to surprise us with a litter of 12 babies and that was enough for our mom, who wasn't a big fan of the snakes in the first place and she made us let them all go at the nearby marshy area. I had actually just watched a show on live births in reptiles and birds and retained sperm, or we'd all have been very confused by that!

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Wow, & I thought perhaps I was the latest of the "late-bloomers" here, but you beat me by a long way. :gj:

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Yeah 20-30 year life span, I’m hoping I see them through to their end not the other way around:gj:lol

I just got my first not even a week ago. I’m 25.

I got “my” first snake at 36. We went to a pet store to get some fish supplies and my son saw a corn snake and a BP. He asked if we could get one. I said, “are you insane?!” I was deathly afraid of snakes. This was in October.

I went home and started researching the two. I don’t like the looks of the corn snake. Their heads are too little and that creeps me out for some reason. In November I went to a “mom n pop” pet store and told them my son wanted a snake and I’d like to get him a BP, but that I was terrified of them. He asked me if I ever held one. I said, of course not!! He told me to hold out my hands. I said I couldn’t. He told me to hold out my hands and close my eyes. I did and he placed Monty in my hands. He felt like a little basketball and not the slimy thing I had always imagined.

I left that store with Monty and all of his supplies and hid him in my bedroom closet until Christmas, when I gave him to my son. I’ve never seen a reaction from him like that before or since, with any other gift. I came to this forum and learned everything I could. About a year later, I found Monty dead in his enclosure. I don’t have any idea what happened, but in hindsight....I think he may have been cooked by the heat mat. It was attached to a Zilla? or ZooMed? dial kind of thermostat. Probe between the UTH and glass, but I was measuring the temp of the glass with the Accurite thermometer and not a temp gun. [emoji17] That thermostat was flakey even by the thermometer readings, so it’s quite possible. Or there was just something wrong with him before we got him.

Fast forward 4 years and I rescued a normal about a month ago, that is going to the Minnesota Herpetological Society on the 4th. On the 14th I picked up a 2 year old male Albino for my husband who hated snakes until I rescued the normal. And....on Saturday, we went to get feeder mice for the other two and my husband bought me a 1 year old female Pastave. We forgot to even get the mice. 🤣


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My first purchase was in 1991 when I was 20...male Colombian redtail (RIP in 2017). I’ve kept snakes continuously since that first one. I’ve always loved reptiles and amphibians, used to catch and release snakes, lizards, frogs, newts, and salamanders as a kid. I can’t imagine never having snakes, though I no longer plan to take on any of the larger species. Since it’s just me now, I’ll stick to what can be safely handled solo.

13/14 years old.. snuck it home from the Mall under my Coat [emoji23][emoji23]. Was a WC Ball Python... 2 years later got my 1st Burm, then 2nd, then 3rd..then, then...and here we are about 30 years later. [emoji12]


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19 is the golden age for me. Lol.


My story is pretty generic.

My parents had two boas when I was young. Possibly when I was born but not completely sure - I know they were around when I was like 3-6 and I always remember them as adult snakes and they got at least one of them as a neonate.

However, they got out of them eventually. I got my first snake of my own (also a boa) when I was 11.


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