Your first time seeing or holding a snake

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First time holding a big boa!

1.2 Normal
1.1 Red-tail
0.1 Albino corn

My first exposure besides school events was when I was 17. Friend of a friend, who is now an ex girlfriend, had a pair of ball pythons that she brought out. She wanted to explain something about one of the snakes and quickly handed the other one off to me. I was surprised, I wasnt afraid, just never held a snake before and wasn't quite sure what to do.

Then it yawned, that really made me not sure what to do and I was kind of nervous. It sat in my lap for a half hour because I wasn't sure if it liked me or not and had zero idea how to read a snake. I of course couldn't admit it trying to impress the future ex girlfriend, so I pretended we were chillin.

Lesson #1 snakes yawn and it means they more than likely just woke up. The more you know.

Hmm... let's see.. I think I was four or five years old. Maybe six. I've always been an animal lover. For as long as I've remembered, I've been surrounded by animals, especially birds (dad is a parrot guy). I hadn't seen any snakes except in pictures before then, but for some reason I was uneasy about them. However, whenever something scared me a little, that meant it fascinated me even more. I was curious about snakes, but I didn't want to be near them.

I was invited to a friend's birthday party, and my mom told me somebody was going to bring snakes. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go, and at one point I almost refused to, but she made me. I remember all the kids sitting in a half-circle around a man in the backyard. I sat as far away from him as possible, and I remember being relatively tense and ready to jump up and run if I had to. I was kind of a shy kid at that point in time, so I wasn't sure what to think of the guy, either. My mom had always said that people would buy reptiles without realizing what they were getting into and when they got big, the owners weren't prepared. I believed her, of course, so I had to be a little worried about somebody handling animals they didn't know anything about. That's when he pulled out a huge female corn snake, red and black and orange... and one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. I was still worried about it, but I didn't even want to blink, I didn't want to take my eyes off of her for a minute. My little brain was working a mile a minute, trying to determine how it could eat, how it moved and whether it was actually a threat. I remember the man pulling out her shed skin and telling us, "...she only sheds her skin about once a year. Touch it. Cool, right?" At that exact moment, the snake decided to do her business right on the lawn. He continued, ".... erm, and that only happens about once a year, too! You guys are, uh, lucky!" I remember telling him there was no way she could only poop once a year. After that, though, I was completely relaxed around her and more curious than ever. Before then, snakes were almost mythical beasts to me. They were like dragons (which I absolutely loved, by the way). Rare, dangerous and nothing like a human. I remember my exact thought from then. "Oh. I get it. It's an animal like everything else. That's ok, then." As soon as I came home, I followed my mom around the house asking for a snake. The response I got was, "Never in a million years is a snake going to live in my household." I kept asking over the years, but no, no and no was the answer. That changed, of course. If you think about it, snake poop is the only reason I own snakes today. :rolleyes:

The first time I held a snake was... uh... last year. The class got a pet albino corn snake, and I was ridiculously excited. I loved the thing. I always was taking him out, touching him, cleaning his cage. I had been losing interest in snakes, but he made my fire burn ten thousand times stronger than it ever had before. I spent every day researching snakes for hours at a time, only stopping to eat (and sometimes not even doing that). My mom finally gave in... sort of. She said I could have a lizard. I didn't want a lizard, though. I told her that it was a nice offer, and lizards are cool too, but I felt that I would be more interested and involved if it were a snake. Plus, they sounded more difficult and I don't like bugs, soooo... A few months later, she finally decided it would be ok if I did everything and didn't ever ask her for help caring for it. She and my dad bought the supplies for my birthday, but I insisted on paying for the snake myself. I wanted it to feel like my pet. I researched corns, kings, milks, hoggies, Brazilians, Dumeril's and so many more. I researched so many that I was able to recall care requirements for five different species off the top of my head, and could remember random tips for others. Ball pythons were under my radar. Mom thought their heads were creepy and I was worried about their feeding habits. I was watching a lot of SnakeBytesTV, and I started to realize that my favorite episodes were of the ball pythons. The variety and that solid python body made me think twice. I decided that I absolutely had to have one, and I didn't want a normal. I researched local breeders, and when I went to my first reptile expo, I found a teeny tiny one month old ball. I bothered the breeder at the table for four hours (man I feel bad for him o.o), and he answered all of my remaining questions. Her morph is onyx pastel, so I call her Onyx. Then one thing led to another, and the collection has grown quite a bit. I left the school with "my" corn snake for most of this year, but now I'm back. Unfortunately, I'm now a little worried about his health (seems to have an eye issue), and I'm still trying to get him to a vet and figure out the issue.

Wow... I can't believe I remembered all of this... I am so glad I didn't skip that party. I can't imagine not loving reptiles.

First time I ever touched/held a snake was when I was 9 years old I caught a baby Coastal California King Snake and to this day he is still alive and kickin.. I'm 37 now which makes him 28 years old and he fathered 8 babies from a female.. Ever since then I've had a love for reptiles specifically snakes that will never die..

I grew up with my dad killing snakes down in south Texas. I would catch little grass snakes but anything of size was killed with a shovel. One of my principals in 3rd grade did a dunk tank with his retic, and I thought he was crazy but that it was neat. Fast forward to last summer. Saw this pic

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery//sho...mageuser=56736

on the internet. It was cute, so got first BP in November.

And incidentally, my little girl, instead of her name, is referred to as "Tiny Snake" by myself and all my friends who love her.

I grew up in a Christian/Baptist household, & the fear/hatred of snakes was instilled from an early age. They were cursed above all other animals, the creature th 'devil' used to bring down the fall of man, even though nowhere in the garden of Eden story does it say anything about the devil. Religious upbringing aside, I was & still am a HUGE animal nerd...me & my twin sister loved watching animal documentaries on PBS. Remember Marty Stouffer's 'Wild America'? Aw man, we ate that up! Anything having to do with any animals we loved.

Even so, the upbringing stayed with me. I was fascinated by snakes, but also scared too, until I think 3rd or 4th grade, there was a snake presentation at our school by a man that had corn snakes, boas & god only knows what else. He asked 'how many of you think snakes are slimy?' & most of us raised our hands, myself included. He said 'they're not. Their skin is as smooth & dry as ours' & he got a literal 2 hands full of corns or garters out & walked around & let all of us that wanted to touch them to do so. I was absolutely captivated!
I held a baby corn in my early 20s & really enjoyed that experience & wanted a snake then, but budget wouldn't allow it. My 1st time holding a BP was very recent, at a local PetSmart. I had been researching the crap out of corns & BPs & decided I wanted a BP, so I thought it would be a good idea to hold one before actually buying one (don't worry, I got mine from a breeder)
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Now I have my lil Reggie.
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Me & my daughter love him & always look forward to handling days; it's strangely addictive:)

The first I recall was a Plains Garter Snake in Denver, Co. when I was about 9. I kept it as a pet for about a month and fed it Earthworms, then released it.

A few years later, I talked my father into buying me a huge adult Black Rat Snake at a pet store. Holding it at the time was like wrestling with a steel cable.

I have no idea of the first time.

In my day, since I was 4, my Mom would kick me and my older brother out of the house and we had to be back for lunch, then supper. That gives one plenty of time for mischief.

My Dad said that when Mom did my laundry it was always quite exciting because there was always some reptile(s) in my pocket(s). The snakes caused the biggest stir because my whole family hated snakes and still do.

Dad said that when I would come back from camp that was the worst because EVERY pocket had something in it! :)

I grew up in Cyprus and was taught to be very afraid of snakes from a young age and climbed a latter once when i was about 8 and sure enough coiled at the top was the most beautiful snake I'd ever seen. The Snub nose viper. I ran but now have a collection of over 70 different reptiles and im getting into venomous quickly