Your first snake

So... when did you start showing an interest in snakes (or reptiles in general)? What was your first snake breed? Do you call yourself a pet owner, breeder, collector, or hobbyist?

I just got my first ball python, and I call myself a pet owner. I just love my little Jackson! I've always liked reptiles, and was fascinated with the way snakes eat since elementary school when I saw a video of one eating an antelope. So excited about actually having one!! Have tons of questions, though, and cant seem to get off google in my spare time. Keeps me busy so that the temptation of taking him out before he's acclimated wont get the best of me... oh, yeah, and work also keeps me busy. I kinda forgot about that...

I first started showing interest pretty well the first time I saw one. I was 2 years old and my mom brought me to this informative show thing for kids at the local library. He brought a bunch of reptiles, but the one that really struck me was this huge albino burmese python he brought. I got to pet her :D

Ever since that day I had wanted to get a snake, so I got one (a ball python) and now I'm up to 4 snakes, preparing to breed around next year :banana: I don't consider myself a pet owner of any sort, right now I'm a snake keeper (and cat, tarantula and bird keeper :rolleyes: ) but when I start breeding BPs then I guess I'll turn into a hobbyist, because I'm breeding them for my own collection, not profit.

My first snake was Irving, a black rat snake. I had him for about three months until my father found out.

Goodby, Irving. :( It went kinda like "put that @%$# thing back where you found it."

I've always loved snakes, me and my dad would go outside and look for them as well as other things. My mom, however, is afraid of most animals and wouldn't let me have one. My sister and I did have Iguanas for quite awhile though Petri and Sarah. I got my first BP this year and I'm so excited. I'm already planning for more. I would say I'm a pet-owner.

European Grass Snake (Natrix Natrix) in Poland high School times
I keep him from early spring in kind of natural vivarium feed him wild catch frogs.. let him go within the end of summer...
In US ball python of course :D :gj: Normal from Petco ... miss that little lady :(
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...1/dsc02634.jpg

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Originally Posted by Redneck_Crow

My first snake was Irving, a black rat snake. I had him for about three months until my father found out.

Goodby, Irving. :( It went kinda like "put that @%$# thing back where you found it."

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:rage: Thats just how it went for me :rage:

I actually was afraid of snakes for the longest time. Growing up my brother would catch garter snakes and I liked them but I was afraid of being bitten. I moved passed my fear of being bitten when I went to college and ended up in an apartment that wouldn't let me have any pets, so I tried to find something they might let me keep. I did a ton of research on ball pythons, but was never able to convince my landlord.

Well last year I graduated and moved to Wisconsin for work and I got my first ball python, Lily. From there my collection has exploded. I want to breed my bps but I also like having a diverse collection so I consider my self a hobbyist/reptile enthusiast. I would love to own a big burm or retic but living alone I know that wouldn't be safe. :(

I dont know if there was a single event that triggered it when i was young I just know that ever since i can remember and read it was always obsessed with snakes. more specifically Pythons and a few Boas. I was never allowed to keep them as a pet in the house so i would catch them (garter snakes mainly) keep them for a week or 2 and let them go so as not to keep them out of their homes for too long. Then at about 13yrs old i was allow a lizard i got and had him for a while he was awesome. then i got a few golden geckos as well. Had those for a long while as well. but never a snake while my mom was living in the house. Then she moved out and I got my First snake(at 19) a BP that i still have now and who rocks!

He truly was the perfect first BP to have extremely tame not shy and semi tough feeder which helped me learn a bunch while not being overly difficult. Now i have 3 and plans to get 2 more by next year. But i still consider my self a hobbyist.

my best friend waas a burmese when i was a baby :) i have so many pictures of my with her her lame was lucy short for lucifer then at 13 I went and bought a huge albino corn but she died later on and my first ball python I named him lucifer after the burmese he was awesome and he became a daddy :D but his black back wasnt genetic anyway I like this picture because it looks like hes smiling.
http://i1000.photobucket.com/albums/...r/lucifer2.jpg

One of my childhood friends mother use to own some bps, and I also had one draped around me while playing in the neighborhood. Of course my mom wouldn't even let me on our driveway while holding one. I use to catch garter snakes and black racers too while growing up. Two stinky a$$ garters were my first and I was kinda glad to let them go. They stank and always bit me :rolleyes:

As an adult, my first snake was actually a grab bag of balls. That's what started my addiction with them.

Is it possible to consider myself all of the above? Lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blueberrypancakes

So... when did you start showing an interest in snakes (or reptiles in general)? What was your first snake breed? Do you call yourself a pet owner, breeder, collector, or hobbyist?

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When I was young. I loved all animals...

Ball Pythons

Breeder/Hobbiest

it was a gofer snake i caught in the hills behind my house he was the coolest snake i was 10 years old damn 28 years ago im OLD!!!!!!!

I've pretty much wanted a snake since I can remember. My parents started me off with fish, and more fish. Then eventually hamsters, and some more fish, and more hamsters. We ended up adding a dog, and birds. I couldn't stand the birds; between my allergies and the noise they made. Eventually my sister got into breeding hamsters. I was still into fish the whole time. Then after that in high school, I adopted the two lab mice from my psych class. The black one was my sisters and the white one was mine. Named Psycho because of the class and his general demeanor. He was always nippy and often chose to be left alone - happily in his cage.

The whole time I had wanted a snake, and my mom's excuse for not letting me get them was because "Grandma will never come to visit us, she's deathly afraid of them".

So eventually I moved out, graduated college, and got a job. I wanted a pet, but my landlord was "anti anything that had fleas". So I looked at her one day, and said "How about snakes?" She kinda was taken back, and said "Really, a snake? I came back with, Yeah, they eat mice, and don't have fleas. (I had just had a problem with a rat in my house) She said, sure why not!

I got Pinky from a co-worker, who's daughter was a teacher and had Pinky as a class pet. A lil less then a year later, I got Mr. Stubbs from the same Co-worker. This time it was a friend of the co-worker who bred BP's along with a few others. (will have to get his name)

I'm a pet owner, but seriously been thinking about getting into the breeding game..

accidentally quoted instead of editing post

My 1st snake was half wild half domesticated, i was about 6 when it showed up in my moms garden one day. It used to go and rest under my dads beer fridge in the garage then go back out to the garden it hung around for 3 yrs.
My 1st ball python is Ancantha she was dropped off at a store i worked at as "i cant take care/dont want" so she became mine had her for a year. Now shes a happy 988 grams.

Ive always loved snakes but could never have one as a kid. Parents said that it was "bad luck" to have a snake in the house. But that didnt stop me. I got two ball pythons back in 2006 and tried to hide them. Eventually my dad found them and told my mom and they both got mad at me. Had to move them to my girlfriends house. Eventually had to get rid of them completely. 5 years later i got back into ball pythons and got me a pastel. Couldn't be any happier. I actually might pick up a normal female today after work! :D

my first snake was a ball python. got her back in late '99/early '00 when i was 19 & fresh out on my own. sadly though, she paid the ultimate price for my lack of knowledge & inexperience. i put 30% of the blame on the pet store though cuz instead of giving me, even minimal tips on bp care, they allowed the impulse buy so they could make a quick buck.
while i do acknowledge that education and gaining knowledge on the care of any animal is solely our responsibility as potential owners, i'm a firm believer now, because of that experience, in that stores should educate potential customers looking into an animal companion before letting them make the purchase, or at least make sure the customer has some basic knowledge.

R.I.P Dierdra :please: :tears:

My first snake was an albino Cali Kingsnake. I had her for over six years starting from when I was 13 I think. I think I was slightly spoiled, being an only child I had a chance to have every pet type under the sun( except maybe horses and such), and even though my mom didnt really snakes she let me get one. But that one became about 4 over the years and I managed to breed my albino girl only once, which really got me into snakes from then on. Around 2002 I started getting interested in ball pythons and all be it hesitantly,sold my small collection of kingsnakes for a het albino female.But as I saw the many morphs of ball pythons I always wanted something additional, and went thru a while of selling one snake to fund for another that I wanted. lol it was vicious cycle till I got that initial ball python 'itch' out of my system.

I got my first snake about a year ago.
It is a male bumblebee ball python. :)

My first snake was an IVORY bp female. She will be breed for the first time in a couple of months:)
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photo...51_6132904.jpg

But my first reptile was a tortoise, which I bought almost 10 years ago, she's still doing great.

Besides bp's I also breed Nephrurus amyae.

Wow, Brian, she is way gorgeous! I've been enjoying reading about everyone's first experiences with herps!

My first snake was when I was around 7 or 8. My fathers girlfriend worked at a forklift company and saw a garter snake roaming the parking lot and had one of her co-workers catch it and she brought it home for me. I kept him for close to a year, and what was really neat was that he would pretend he was a cobra and flair his neck out and then just sit there and watch tv. I ended up releasing that garter snake after the winter was over into a nature sanctuary close to where he was caught. But prior to that, I always read books on snakes and reptiles, and watched the discovery channel pretty much all day when I was home from school. I never owned another snake until 3 weeks ago when I bought my first BP. I love having a snake again. Here is a pic of Ghost getting a drink of water.

http://i526.photobucket.com/albums/c...st/ghost13.jpg

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Originally Posted by Redneck_Crow

My first snake was Irving, a black rat snake. I had him for about three months until my father found out.

Goodby, Irving. :( It went kinda like "put that @%$# thing back where you found it."

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My first snake was Jasper. An anery corn snake. He was the sweetest snake I've ever had, he even would put his mouth on my lips if I made a kiss at him. I had him for 18 months, I had gotten him as a hatchling. Unfortunately, he found his way out of his cage one night and a month later my cat discovered him :(
I had searched for him and followed the cats for WEEKS to no avail. Sadly, he came out when we were on vacation, and my grandma found him. He was chewed up but alive, but he passed away overnight. I will never be able to find another snake like him, I miss him so much :(
My new anery is a psycho. But I'm hoping I'll get some cute babies out of her and my motley male. They should have motley striped snows since they're het for them.

I had always been into reptiles growing up. I lived right next door to Yosemite so I had tons of wildlife surrounding our house. My childhood friend and I (RIP Nick) actually caught so many critters one summer that we set up a "Bug and Reptile Museum" in front of my parents house and people driving by actually stopped and paid the dollar for enrty. haha. No joke! Okay, we were like 8 yrs old.

Had a BP in college, her name was Gurdy (she had a bunch of alien heads and "Gurdy" was Drew Barrymoors character in E.T.) I moved home after school for six months and mama no likey snakies. So I gave her to a buddy, in which I was sooo upset.

Now that I'm a big boy and living in my own home and making decent money it was time to start it up! I got a Pied Male as my first snake (pictured below in my signature), which was less then a year ago. I got him from Pete Kahl. Since then I have ten other BPs and a Jungle Carpet Python... and PLENTY of rack room. hehehehe. I'm obsessed, and addicted!!

I would call myself a definite Hobbyist and with my first clutch that had just dropped two nights ago, well I guess in less then a year I can also now call myself a successful breeder! Well, fingers crossed that those eggies hatch out beautiful healthy little babes.

This is a cool thread btw!

My mom had snakes and she got me "my" first reptiles, two rescued monkey tailed skinks, when I was 12.

I started keeping snakes when I realized it was a good way to keep humans out of my house. :)

bruce

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...llbodyshot.jpg

ok im bout to get me a ball pytho, it will be my first n im wantin to know if theres anything in particular i should know, ive benn doin my homework on them pretty good i think i just wanna make sure that im not missin anything n i know the best advice comes from owners themselves

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Redneck_Crow

My first snake was Irving, a black rat snake. I had him for about three months until my father found out.

Goodby, Irving. :( It went kinda like "put that @%$# thing back where you found it."

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that exactly what happend with my first snake "Snakey"(cal king) ..i miss him :tears:

My first And only snake I've bought is my 2011 albino checkered garter snake. I Have had many wild garters in the past but always let them go. I would consider myself a hobbiest as right now I'm Just waiting to get my bps from then on ill probably refer to myself as a breeder.

i got my first snake which is my bp like 2 months ago and im not exactly sure if its a he or she but i call it a him and his name is eddie. my first herp was a couple of little lizards like 7 years ago. ive always wanted a snake for as long as i can remember but my dad is UBER scared of them so he never let me have one but ive been out of their house for a couple years and now make good money so i got me a normal from the local pet store and couldnt love the little guy more. hes super tame for being not even 6 months old, i think thats how old he is, and i just love handling him. will one day in the next year or so go and get me another bp of some sort, not exactly sure what but that will be decided at the time although im really wanting a black pastel hypo, i think its the one with a lot of burnt orange on it, if thats the right name for it. but i guess we'll see wat happens. im trying to get my roommate talked into buying a bp but he just doesnt want the responsibility it comes with. but at this point i would only call myself a pet owner.

I got my first ball a couple months ago. His name is Musashi. He's about ready to have his first shed since I've had him.

I got my first snake--my ball python Maru, about 3 years ago. Right now we are pet owners, but I feel myself becoming a hobbyist... :rolleyes: I have interests in continuing to get more animals and I would love to help breed some of the less often bred species of snake.

I got my first snake, a teeny tiny corn snake in November 2009. He/She is well over 3 feet and still growing. I had another corn that I got just a short time later, but it escaped last October and was never found. I just got a normal BP at the end of June. He/She is over 2 feet and was 500 grams 3 feeds and a shed ago.

As a kid I had all sorts of pets; dogs, cats, green anoles, a house gecko, parakeets, a rabbit, guinea pigs, beta fish, and horses. Snakes and "rodents" (somehow guinea pigs didn't count) were the only really firm "NO's!!!" When I moved out, I spent a year trying to figure out what kind of pet I could keep that wouldn't suffer from my schedule, and in the end I decided that a corn snake would be perfect. I was right.