BP reactions

There have been several people who have commented negatively on my having a snake for a pet, but the one that tends to irritate me the most is saying that I will probably lose interest and release him into the woods. WHAT?! And then they say that I'm irresponsible and will cause damage to the ecosystem for having him. Two different people have said this to me. One said that's what most people do when they get too big to handle. (Is this at all based on truth? That's awful!) I just adore my little Jackson, and value him no less than any furry animals- and in fact more than others. He's the first one that I've personally taken to the vet, and spent way too much of my money on...

No their comments are based on crap they hear/see in the media.

There is a big problem in the everglades with pets that have been released. Pythons are an invasive species down there and are really messing up the alligators so what they say is technically based in fact.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...vespecies.html

Side note, you won't cause any environmental damage by keeping a snake. Releasing it (if you live in a climate that would allow them to thrive) would though.

On to the main point, don't let it bother you. People will say what they say and only time will allow them to see that they're wrong. Just let them live in their ignorance and let it be.

They sound so uneducated that you shouldn't even consider their opinions. If you're here one can assume you're trying to provide the best for your snake.

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will cause damage to the ecosystem for having him

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this doesn't even make sense. Releasing invasive species, like the burms, into the Everglades, yeah, but KEEPING a snake? That doesn't cause any ecosystem damage. I wouldn't associate with someone that ignorant, personally >_>

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Originally Posted by llovelace

No their comments are based on crap they hear/see in the media.

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Exactly, too many people watching "Man-eating snake" on Animal Planet and other such garbage. Either try to educate them or just take it with a grain of salt. You know you, so don't let other peoples' opinions get you down. As has been said many times "Opinions are like...........:D

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Originally Posted by RuthlessReptiles

There is a big problem in the everglades with pets that have been released. Pythons are an invasive species down there and are really messing up the alligators so what they say is technically based in fact.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...vespecies.html

Side note, you won't cause any environmental damage by keeping a snake. Releasing it (if you live in a climate that would allow them to thrive) would though.

On to the main point, don't let it bother you. People will say what they say and only time will allow them to see that they're wrong. Just let them live in their ignorance and let it be.

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The Everglades problem with Burmese pythons was due to a hurricane destroying a breeding facility, NOT irresponsible pet owners.

You'll get a whole lot of different responses from people who don't know any better. My favorite has to be "Aren't you afraid they'll eat your baby?" :rolleyes:

People mistake the huge problem in Florida and other "tropical" areas as people ignorantly releasing their huge snakes. I saw on a documentary (I sooo wish I could remember the name of it!) that a majority of the snakes that are thought to have been "released" were actually stranded during natural disasters and escaped/survived. You have to figure, how many homes are damaged in hurricanes every year in Florida? How many people in an emergency actually take their pets with them? Unfortunately, not enough, and big snakes like burms and retics are hearty and can survive, reproduce, and thrive in Florida. Just my :2cent:

BUT regarding the idiotic statements about your killer snake...just ignore it and laugh it off. Have fun with it, because they don't go away lol.

Edit: just adding that I am totally aware that there are morons that just release their snakes into the "wild"....just wanted to share the part about natural disasters that I learned. I'd love to see more stats on the issue actually. Like how many people report their snakes missing, etc?

My mother thinks my snakes will eat my cat. And she seems to have a very distorted idea of what 5-6 feet is for a snake.

I think a lot of people do. Like, when I tell someone my subadults are around 3 feet long, they're like WOW THAT'S LONG! They're big won't they eat your cat?

And...they're not... not at all. Lol.
The cat has a 100% better chance at eating the snake.

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Originally Posted by RuthlessReptiles

There is a big problem in the everglades with pets that have been released. Pythons are an invasive species down there and are really messing up the alligators so what they say is technically based in fact.

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This is soooooo not true, lol The burm population in the everglades began after a hurricane wiped out a few breeding facilities, not people releasing their pets, once again media propaganda.

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Originally Posted by CapeFearConstrictors

The Everglades problem with Burmese pythons was due to a hurricane destroying a breeding facility, NOT irresponsible pet owners.

You'll get a whole lot of different responses from people who don't know any better. My favorite has to be "Aren't you afraid they'll eat your baby?" :rolleyes:

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Couldn't it have been a combination of the two? I mean, come on. Some people aren't really smart. There's a college campus around here that has a huge domesticated rabbit overpopulation problem. Kids got tired of taking care of their buns and released them and they went and made a whole bunch of babies. Why wouldn't someone do the same with a snake?

And the baby eating comment is one of my personal favs :D

A combination of the 2?, possibly. They had a snake hunt for burms some months ago, guess how many were found "0", seeing as we are supposedly overun with them, you'd think they would have found at least 1.

Most of these animals were killed off last year Jan/Feb due to the unusually cold weather.

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Originally Posted by RuthlessReptiles

Couldn't it have been a combination of the two? I mean, come on. Some people aren't really smart. There's a college campus around here that has a huge domesticated rabbit overpopulation problem. Kids got tired of taking care of their buns and released them and they went and made a whole bunch of babies. Why wouldn't someone do the same with a snake?

And the baby eating comment is one of my personal favs :D

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The hurricane supposedly let over 200 adult Burmese pythons loose in the Everglades. Those 200 individuals were in close proximity to one another (at least a good portion of them likely were). That made it easy to find each other and breed. If it were only pet owners, the individual snakes would have a much harder time finding one another. I have no scientific evidence backing that statement, but it makes sense to me.

I'm not familiar with Burmese python breeding, but I imagine rabbits can have more babies per year than a Burmese. :) Not to mention they likely have less environmental necessities for those babies to develop and thrive.

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Originally Posted by CapeFearConstrictors

The hurricane supposedly let over 200 adult Burmese pythons loose in the Everglades. Those 200 individuals were in close proximity to one another (at least a good portion of them likely were). That made it easy to find each other and breed. If it were only pet owners, the individual snakes would have a much harder time finding one another. I have no scientific evidence backing that statement, but it makes sense to me.

I'm not familiar with Burmese python breeding, but I imagine rabbits can have more babies per year than a Burmese. :) Not to mention they likely have less environmental necessities for those babies to develop and thrive.

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Good points, but if we're going to play the "what if" game and we both don't really know what happened, there could have been some existing burms in the everglades already that were released by pet owners and given their long life span, could have "met up" with the accidental releases from the breeding facility. Of course, I'm not saying that it was all pet owners but I'm sure there were contributions here and there and it shouldn't be ruled out completely.

LOL I feel like we're arguing about whether dinosaurs giggled when the farted or not. We don't have definates for either side so we could just call this a draw, myes? :P

hahaha, whether dinosaurs giggled when they farted! I'm gonna use that one, love it.
I tried to explain what I needed to do to care for him with temps and humidity, particularly in the winter- VA isn't ideal for BP living. Can't really reason with some people, though...

I had a co-work (I couldn't stand working with this girl) I was working security at one of the biggest plants in the country (BP Texas City), There are a lot of post at that site and over 100 guards on any shift, and its work, it was the hardest security job I ever worked. We where on one of the easiest post there was. all we had to do was set there or drive a truck around (just stay awake she liked to sleep all shift in the truck). anyways she was scared of the mice that was in the dining tent they had there for the contractors, freak out when she seen one and stand on a table. I was like you are the most idiotic girly girl i have seen its a one inch mouse it can't hurt you. I told her I had a ball python, she was like a snake, aren't you afraid it will try to eat you or get out and strangle you.

one of my faves is this. They only grow as long as their enivoroment. There was a contractor there that said he owned a BP told me that.

one of my favorite stories is the friend that has a friend that had a Burmese python that was free roaming and would always sleep with her. But stopped eating for while the friend got worried took it to the vet and the vet said it was streaching its self out so it could eat her. but everyone I meet has that friend of a friend.

or the can it bite question? yeah they can bit no it don't hurt its just anoying when it does. How ever I have had my big girl constrict a little too tight around my neck, but I have been able to gently pull her off.

how about this
They are slimey (not yet)
they stink (nope no oder)
they will make a pefect pair of boots (yeah and you will be paing $100,000 grand for that boot with my foot in it up your @$$)

they do seem to get along with my parents dogs and vise versa, how ever with a cat I would be afraid the cat would kill it due to them being natural predetors.

people see mine and they are like ooh thats a big snake (then I show them a picture of a 7 foot 20 pound red tail on my shoulders, and I am like there are bigger ones.

Maybe they should capture some of those big pythons in FL and send them to that college campus to eat all the bunnies..... (of course then there'd be a snake problem in CA).

The only idiotic thing that I've heard about my BP, besides I will never go to your house because snakes are scary, was something my father said. He told me not to ever let the children hold it unsupervised b/c it might strangle them. Well my kids are big enough to pull off the snake, plus my girl isn't really the wrap around your neck type. Oh and then there's the whole issue of Duh!!! I'm not going to let my kids "play" with the snake if I'm not watching them, but that's for the snake's sake. My kids would soooooo squeeze her till her eyeballs popped out.

I'm so glad I found out that my father thinks I'm stupid. I am a natural blonde, but jeeze... I'm not that bad.

Yeah, when people ask about my pets they always ask if I'm worried the snakes will eat the cats. And I'm like "Haha, no. :rolleyes: "

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Originally Posted by crepers86

one of my favorite stories is the friend that has a friend that had a Burmese python that was free roaming and would always sleep with her. But stopped eating for while the friend got worried took it to the vet and the vet said it was streaching its self out so it could eat her. but everyone I meet has that friend of a friend.

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I swear, someone brought this up a couple hours ago at work. Started with there was this old lady... Snake slept under the bed... Started stretching out in bed with her... Vet said it was sizing her up... Had to put it down. I had no idea how to begin a response to that.


-Brian

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by bdreptiles

I swear, someone brought this up a couple hours ago at work. Started with there was this old lady... Snake slept under the bed... Started stretching out in bed with her... Vet said it was sizing her up... Had to put it down. I had no idea how to begin a response to that.

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I am not sure that the story so much started on Animal Planet about keeping dangerous animals or dangerous snakes. Truthfully I have been hearing this story all my life so I doubt that is when AP got it.

The little kid that killed by the fathers Burmese python... and the mom and dad got charged and sentenced for man slaughter, that whole story came out bad... The guy never handled the snake it wasn't socialized. science studies shows that these animals when socialized are not going to attempt to kill a human being, a human being is not food source nor do they see as as that. True I have a ball python that I have been but by 15 times. but she never latches on and constrics, my hands don't smell like food when I go to handle her. But the parents did admit that the snake was not socialized and wasn't in a very secured tank. Makes us snake keepers Look bad, and the snakes like worse... grrr!!!!!!!!!!!

My mom and step-dad love that I have snakes in there house at the moment, my grandmother wont come to visit. She told my if she did I would have to put them outside.

my parents have this rule in there house
If you don't like dog hair on the furniture, or dogs on the couch, don't sit on it... We bought the furniture for them not YOU.

if you don't like seeing the fish in the fish tank, don't look at.

and if you don't like knowing that there are snakes some where in the house then stay out. We don't like your kids that is why we don't come over...

my stepsister told me snakes scare here. I told her if she held one and compared it to her cat Kami she would find them perfect angles... Kami is the spawn of satin. That cat is pure evil.