What do people say to you when you tell them or show them your snakes?

My younger brother (I'm 31, he's 27) has several snakes & geckos, and I've got a couple of geckos, and while our mother doesn't really believe that they have as much personality as we see in them, she's at least able to appreciate the beauty, especially that of my brother's rainbow boas. I think that iridescence and color could mesmerize just about anyone, presuming they're not irrationally fearful. Last time we were all over at his place, she had said she was even going to try holding one of his recently born litter of rainbows, but somehow that didn't happen. I have to say it's pretty cool that she even considers it, though.

"Damn it's small in here!"... my snake room is 5' x 7'

I don't tell many people because I'm pretty shy about it to be honest. A lot of people are surprised and/or horrified. My little cousin asked about it once and couldn't wrap his head around it when I told him I thought they were cute. But my two best friends are WAY into them. They caught the bug from me. :-) My mom pretends like she thinks they're disgusting, but I catch her peering into their tanks quite a bit.

Most of my friends are curious and want to see them up close, a few want to watch them feed, and some just would rather they stay in their tubs.

My mom was all over them, she of all people asked to hold my biggest snake right away which shocked me.

I usually get questions about how big are they and should I worry about my cats or my 4 year old son.

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Originally Posted by Ash

I don't tell many people because I'm pretty shy about it to be honest. A lot of people are surprised and/or horrified. My little cousin asked about it once and couldn't wrap his head around it when I told him I thought they were cute. But my two best friends are WAY into them. They caught the bug from me. :-) My mom pretends like she thinks they're disgusting, but I catch her peering into their tanks quite a bit.

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My mom was like that as well. But before I moved out she was talking about getting a bearded dragon. And in San Diego she was amazed by some of the boas

Oh EM GEE ARE ANY OF THEM POISON??!!?

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Originally Posted by Denial

most of them usually tell me Im a horrible parent for keeping them around my children and that one day one is going to consume my child.

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My god, that's horrible.

Your really experienced with large constrictors, so I don't even see how that could happen. People have crazy thoughts:weirdface

I have found that many of the people that come to my place are scared but intrested none the less..They may stand across the room and look at the different morphs, and I tell them thats fine. When people want to see the snakes I usually am more than willing to show them anything they want.

I can also remember my mom telling me they were disgusting..No when she comes over she goes straight for the Pied or for My very first snake.. She likes to go rifling through rack and see how everyone is growing..

I get a mixed bag of reactions really... some people are like "eww! ew ew ew ew..." some are like "Oh dude that's so awesome!" and then there's the ones that are like "That's cool, but I think I'll stay over here on the far side of the room and just watch...."

Some of the most common questions are things like:
"Aren't you worried about them getting out?"
"How can you sleep with these in here?" (all my reptiles are in my bedroom)
"Do they bite?"
"Are they poisonous?"
and "What do you feed them?"

I'm actually pretty suprised the number of times people ask me what I feed the snakes XD and then I get to explain the whole frozen mice process which usually promotes the "and those are in your freezer!?" question.

What I love most is how you never know who reacts in what way. I've seen some of the biggest, toughest guys simply bug out when I mention I have snakes, while the little kids want to hold them and touch them and think they're so amazing. There was this one boy I showed around once, who was literally like a kid in a candy store while I gave him the grand tour of all my reptiles, and the ideas and info really clicked with him too. He was able to instantly understand how to hold them, how you feed them, how to interact with the animals, etc. I think that could be a future herper right there :gj:

Oh one more is (from the girls in my class) "and you feed them LIVE mice??? aww, the poor things...." and from my vegetarian best friend "couldn't you feed him, like, tofu or something?" Lol, they're hilarious! There are even guys in my class who ask me to take out the biology class ratsnake for them. People are very paranoid about snakes.