At what age did you get your first snake?

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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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