It's contagious??

I LOVE this hobby. It's so easy to become addicted! My boyfriend has lived 30 years of his life without thinking he'd ever own a snake or spider or gecko or tortoise...or rats! Now, he's as obsessed as me! He just called me super excited because he found a new local reptile shop and he stopped in and grabbed some supplies we needed. He called me like a kid in a candy store!

He's always tolerated the snakes, which I think was the hardest thing to find in a guy when I was dating. Now he loves them, and even "owns" my male OG ball lol. He also "owns" our tortoise and an OBT lol. He supposedly had a huge fear of spiders before I came home with my A.Versi without talking to him about it first, actually caused a huge argument because of it, but now he loves them just as much as me! Like I said he owns the OBT, and he just called me and told me he's coming home with a rosehair lol.

Anyone else have any contagious stories? Have you "rubbed off" on any unexpected people? I always knew it was addictive, but never knew it was this contagious ;)

Oh it's ridiculous how addicting it is! And that's so awesome you have someone that loves it a much as you!
It's really hard to imagine him being scared of t's and he now owns an OBT! Haha!

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Originally Posted by CLSpider

Oh it's ridiculous how addicting it is! And that's so awesome you have someone that loves it a much as you!
It's really hard to imagine him being scared of t's and he now owns an OBT! Haha!

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Yeah he's a little extreme, and apparently went the COMPLETE opposite way with the spiders LOL. Going from "I'm never sleeping at your house again" to buying an OBT is just weird. It works though, I am so lucky I must say. I just think it's hilarious how contagious this can be!

I just started in October! Me and my girlfriend walked into petsmart looking for butterflies for her and i stopped to look at the reptiles. I saw a ball python and wanted to buy on impulse immeditaley! The sales lady then gave me some info sheets and pointed out to me what i needed. I thouht to myself... This is going to be more then just taking home a pet. Im the kind of guy that likes to research and always looking to learn new things! So i did just that! Found this forum and super useful informatiom that is just pure fun to read! Picked up my first BP the week of thanksgiving and ive been in love with this new hobby! :)

When i first told my girlfriend her reaction was "NO!!!, eww! Never in my house!, dont get me near that thing!" now my girlfriend holds and plays with him and thinks hes cute haha.

Now im always looking for local reptile stores and always cruising by to take a look at everything!

My hubby said, "why on earth would you want a snake???" when I first asked him about it. I've owned reptiles for years but didn't have any while I was in college and when we'd met. So I already had the "love" and I knew perfectly well why I wanted a BP. But how do you explain "why"?? He wasn't afraid of them, but he figured they'd "just lay there" and we had our dogs so why would I want something else to take care of that just lay there??

Well, needless to say, he gave in and I brought home Ella. After 1 week he said to me, "I never guessed they were so interesting!" He would watch Ella in her cage and she'd come up to the glass every time to say hi and after the 2nd feeding, after she'd nailed me good after missing the mouse, and after he saw my hand dripping blood and a hungry ball nom-nom'ing my finger, he was asking to feed her himself!!!! :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Now we have Peaches, our baby columbian boa, and I never get to hold her - he always has her! And he's getting her a boyfriend for Christmas... Yeah... He's got it bad... :D:D:D

I'd say I rubbed off on my bf: he was always interested in snakes and wanted one but after I had my six (now I have 13) he got his first: a little normal ball (he bought me a little normal male too ;)) and now he has seven himself!

We plan on combining our snakes (the balls) together in the coming years for breeding purposes when we have the extra time and space to do so (it's funny because so far I've been focusing on getting bigger proven norm females and little girl morphs while he's been gearing more towards male morphs) lol

It definitely happened to me. I had one, then got a rescue a couple months later, then got another, and now I have a baby Dumeril coming to me next week and I'm ALREADY scouting out my next purchase. (Honduran Milk Snake). lol. My fiance is beginning to think I have too many...but that's just silly. If anyone ever tries to tell me it's them or the snakes...I'll pick the snakes. ;)

As a kid I had the normal cat, dog, fish and always wanted something "cooler." My wife asked me after we were married if it would be cool to "get one" as we are looking at ball pythons at our local pet store. I was shocked and instantly smiled and said "yes...but not from here..." lol so I guess I always longed for snakes, lizards, not particularly fond of Tarantulas, plus the wife said no more lizards after the dragon's lil crickets would escape, or me just dropping the container...ooops She's gotten bitten by a 7' Red Tail Boa and didn't flinch at all, I'd jump or jerk, but she is scared of :crix: crickets and :roach: roaches? Now I'm obsessed to the point where I'm taking classes for my BS to become a Veterinarian and specialize in Herpetology. Bcuz where I live has 2 "exotic pet vets" so, maybe there is room for one more?

Rubbed off on my dad LOL. When I got my first ball python he told me he didnt like it at all. And he'd never hold it or even look at it. A couple weeks later I got my first morph and he called me crazy for spending "a lot" of money just for a snake.

A few weeks later as I'm getting more snakes he started watching me feed them, hold them etc. Then he started to hold them and feed them. Now he gets mad if I feed the snakes without him. And he now feeds them also when I'm out or busy on feeding day.

He's bought 8 of the 9 current snakes that I currently own. And I have 3 more on the way! He's now addicted just as much as me and helps me clean, feed, water and hold my snakes daily. He even feels sorry for them cause I feed them once a week and he feels like thats not enough. :rofl:

I have the fever myself. I want a BEL. That's my dream snake. Yesterday I found myself browsing the web for care of a Dumeril. Thoughs two snakes would probably be my last. I am really afraid to get anymore because of my age. I'm gonna be knocking on 50 in a few years I want to out live my babies. Hubby says no more :).
A coworker of mine loves to hear about my snakes and gecko. Well she told me the other day that she has purchased two Beardies for her kids for Christmas. She has the store holding everything until Christmas. I was shocked. She said her kids are really interested in reptiles. I told her I wish someone would have educated me about reptiles when I was younger. I would probably have many by now.

I am sooooo addicted to bp's. I started out with just one and now I have three. My boyfriend has become just as addicted as me. He actually bought me my last snake and he knows that I want more. We are making plans to get another female normal to add to our collection. So yeah, it is very contagious!

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Originally Posted by jackiechan

I just started in October! Me and my girlfriend walked into petsmart looking for butterflies for her and i stopped to look at the reptiles. I saw a ball python and wanted to buy on impulse immeditaley! The sales lady then gave me some info sheets and pointed out to me what i needed. I thouht to myself... This is going to be more then just taking home a pet. Im the kind of guy that likes to research and always looking to learn new things! So i did just that! Found this forum and super useful informatiom that is just pure fun to read! Picked up my first BP the week of thanksgiving and ive been in love with this new hobby! :)

When i first told my girlfriend her reaction was "NO!!!, eww! Never in my house!, dont get me near that thing!" now my girlfriend holds and plays with him and thinks hes cute haha.

Now im always looking for local reptile stores and always cruising by to take a look at everything!

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OMG that is too funny! same exact thing here! my hubby has never liked snakes. went to the pet store to price salt water aquariums. i have always loved snakes. asked if i could hold the ball and fell in love! 2 weeks later after MUCH research and prepping her tank, oct 24th this year, we brought her home. same thing, he LOVES her to pieces! we got a cinny male breeder 4 days ago and they are locked up today. this has been so amazing and everything is moving so fast! lol. best of luck with everything.

I love this thread! may be my favorite 1 yet!

I've turned several people on to snakes over the years. Helped one of my co-workers get his first and the set up, etc earlier this year.

Now I'm helping one of the boyfriend's friends get hers and a set up for it, as well as giving her pointers to get it set up properly before it gets home. She's never had a snake before and is super excited. She sent me a text yesterday telling me she put a deposit on her and got to hold her for the first time. "I felt a connection with her instantly. Never felt that with any other animal before" Gotta love first timers.... always makes me smile and it NEVER bothers me when people ask me questions about their new pets. If I can't answer it immediately, I'll usually give them websites that will help answer their questions or help them search for their answers.

I think the most rewarding ones are the people who are so scared of them they won't look at the animal and a few weeks later, they're begging to play with your animals, and later you're helping them with their own animal :)

You're a lucky lady Leah :)

My girlfriend was afraid of snakes before she met me. One of the reasons she was interested in me was the snakes though. She thought it was an "interesting" thing about me. She called my Lemon Blast and Fire Mojave "hers" after we first started dating. We now own a project together :D She talks about "our" snakes which are a Black Pastel het Albino and Pastel het Albino. We are aiming for Black Pewter Albinos. She always asks to go in my reptile room and hold animals. She even holds them while I clean tubs. She helps with the rats for the weekly tub cleaning also. I'm a very lucky man.

Regards,

B

When I first got into the hobby I was dating a guy who was interested in the snakes, and borderline "adopted" my mojave male (as in play with him all the time but never actually do the work in caring for him :rolleyes: ) as well as made a point to show all his friends. Was glad he wasn't afraid, but not so excited about hearing him talk about "his" snakes to impress people. Pretty weird stuff (Actually had to explain why taking a snake to a bar was a bad idea and why I would not allow it :mad: )

Since then though I've been dating someone else who already has the reptile bug, and we're slowly converting his daughter :D she's got her own leopard gecko, and I love it when she brings other kids over and she does a sort of "show and tell" around the house. We're pretty excited to move into a bigger place and have more opportunity for different animals. He's kept iguanas and other non-snake species in the past, so in that respect I'm learning from -him-, haha!

It's also amazing to see how quickly people go from "HOLY :cens0r: ! Keep it away!" to asking to hold the snakes after they see how calm they are while I'm sitting on the couch or what have you. Not necessarily off to go get themselves their own snakes, but slowly working down the terror factor in a few people, gives me a little hope