How did you get started in herps

I was just wondering how everyone got there start. It is such an addictive fun hobby what caused your madness. I started by working on a guys truck And he didnt have the money to pay me so he gave me two baby normal ball pythons. Started doing research after that and never guit been going a year and a half now. Im up to 23 snake bood pythons and ball pyhtons

I tried keeping fish but then realized fish are boring so i brought home a baby bp lol. My stepdad was fine with it, my mom wasnt crazy bout the idea at first.

I had a girlfriend who had a friend who was short on money and wasn't home often to care for her ball python. Did homework for months until I had an extra 150$. Then I went and rescued that poor snake. One little lamp hanging open in one end of a 55 gallon tank with newspaper. No humidity and mean empty water bowl. Took great care of him until I got my second, then my girlfriend sold them while I was away. We're not together anymore.

Just looking up care on BPs as a younger teen! As a kid I ran around and caught garters, but I never thought to keep them as pets, just temporary captives while I fed them frogs :rolleyes: I met a friend of a friend who kept a couple of BPs when I was a sophomore in high school (Had 2 in a tank, fed in a separate container, and she thinks morphs are the devil. We just agree to disagree on the last point and the first two are just her choices ;) She's got healthy animals). I fell in love with them, very calm very undemanding pets, and after I waited 3 years to graduate and move out, then move out of the second place I bought my first snakes :D Now I want 50 different species (to start)

I went to a reptile show to do some research on panther cameleons, possibly buy the set up and a baby. Learning how much of a hassle they can be I said not for me. I was fascinated by by the colorful ball pythons that didnt get big enough to eat my dog. Went home and did further research on these ball pythons and eventually bought my first ball, a BEL.

My parents lol they used to let me capture Gardner snake an red bellies when I was a kid they would let me keep them an help me feed them I had tons of them then in my teens I didn't have time for any but once I got my own palace I felt it was time too go about getting snakes and I got my first did all my research and planing for breeding now just gotta get 10 hatchlings this year lol

Started way way back pretty much as soon as I could move around on my own and was allowed to play outside. My dad had a turtle pond with a variety of pond turtle species (cooters, red-eared sliders, map turtles, soft shelled turtles...). I was allowed to "help" him with the turtles, which when I was smallest meant throwing the food in the water, and when I got a little bigger meant getting into the pond to scrub the muck off the bottom. He also had a couple tortoises. I enjoyed "playing" with them, that is, feeding them flowers (dandelions, hibiscus) and following them around the yard and making up what they were "saying" to each other. I was also always chasing and catching everything I could. At home that mostly meant lizards. On our vacations that included snakes, frogs, and toads.

I don't remember exactly what order the rest of the herps came in, but at some point my dad got a ribbon snake as a "classroom pet" (he was a 3rd grade teacher). The snake came home when he wasn't teaching, and lived in the classroom while he was. I helped feed it and take care of it, but it was more of a display animal than a handle animal. It also ended up having babies. My dad was part of the local turtle and tortoise club too, and at one point my sister and I were allowed to bring home a couple of geckos from one of the shows. I don't remember what kind they were, but nothing special. I want to say they were just a couple of house geckos. Then I was allowed to get a ball python, and I loved that snake. Eventually my sister and I got a couple of leopard geckos, then I got a uromastyx. This whole time my father still had his turtles and tortoises (throw in some box turtles and a terrapin at one point).

For the last few years I've been "herp-less", instead getting my "herp fix" on the job. I'm a field biologist and though a big part of my job involves monitoring birds, part of it includes herps. Our interpretative center also has a few snakes I've enjoyed watching and handling when I am there. Always good fun! During the last decade I've been breeding pet rats, but when I got pregnant I made the tough decision to let that go. My husband was in the active military, and gone often, so I was typically home alone working full time and taking care of the house and pets (which went well beyond rats...), and it was just more than I wanted to deal with. So I stopped breeding them, sold some, and have been keeping the others to live out their life. During this time I still have my dogs, cats, horses, and rabbits. Earlier in 2012 my dad lost his house and gave me his desert tortoise (by now he no longer has his pond turtles - as much as he hated doing it, he had to let them go because the maintenance got to be too much for him physically). For quite some time I had been wanting a rosy boa too, but have been holding out for the "right time". Later in 2012 a coworker was given a pair of rosy boas who had already been mated. I found out about this and asked if she had homes for the babies, and she saw right through that and asked if I wanted one. When they were born in early September I ended up taking home not just one, but two (out of a litter of 5, two other coworkers took one each, and a friend of hers took the last one). And the bug bit again! Early December we brought home two ball pythons. We'll be getting two more this weekend, and my husband is wanting a lizard (leaning toward bearded dragon).

My dad caught snakes, turtles, bull frogs, etc. when I was just a little boy and would bring them home to show me. When I was in second grade he brought home a baby Massasauga rattler. I was so mad when he wouldn't let me take it to school for show and tell. By third grade my buddy and I were out catching every garter snake we could find. I remember there was a small pond out in the woods near our subdivision, that would pop up in the spring from the rains. By the time early Summer hit it would be shrunk down to a large shallow puddle and there would be hundreds of leopard frogs and thousands of baby toads all around it. Easy pickens for the garters in the area which made catching garters pretty easy for us. One time we caught over 70 in a weekend. That is a record that stands to this day for me. By the time I was in high school, I had a corn snake, a ball python (there were no morphs in 78, if only I knew then....), a retic, and an eastern coachwhip. I have pretty much caught every snake there is in Michigan with the exception of the Massasauga. I never did find one of my own.

I honestly cant remember a time in my life when I didn't absolutely love snakes.

I caught snakes as a kid. Mostly rat snakes or anything that seemed different. After a while my mom realized that my love for snakes wasn't just a fad and helped my get a setup for my first pet snake, a female burm. She was the first snake that I ever bred. I found it and still do to hatch out babies. I had her for years before I sold her. I have a love for most animals though.

I've loved herps for literally as long as I can remember- my first memory is of an American toad hopping on to my blanket when I was two. I caught my first snake, a rough green snake, when I was four. I spent all of my childhood rescuing and probably terrorizing the local wildlife- if anything needed rehabilitating, I gave it a place to stay.
About a year ago, I decided that after a life of admiring them, I wanted a pet herp. I spent six months researching ball pythons, RTBs, corn snakes, and beardies, and decided on a BP. I picked up Will this July, and fell head over heels in love with him.

I have not always been a fan of snakes , of any kind! I mean I would literally spread my wings and fly at the sight of a king snake, and a hatchling at that. It wasn't until I was in veterinary school that I had no choice but to help treat a 14 ft long retic with a facial swelling that turned out to be an abcess , imagine me being that close to the mouth of that thing! I was scared to death ! That was until I noticed that she actually looked grateful that we were helping her and for the first time in my life I witnessed first hand that even snakes ,one of the most highly feared reptiles could show appreciation and love because afterwards she took a ride back to her enclosure on my shoulders . I mean wow! Now to the dismay of many of my friends and family I own two sweet little sneaky snakes of my own and cherish everyday that I have with them .

PS : I plan on purchasing either a carpet python or rosy boa this spring ! Ya'll can help me decide which :D

I went to Petco and bought a bunch of mites and they threw in a Ball Python for free! Woo Hoo! :rage:

Short story is I started with a corn snake and stumbled onto this forum doing research. I saw some pics of ball pythons and it was downhill from there. I started with a 1.1 pair (an albino male I still have and a 100% het female I sold a year or so ago). Three racks and 14 (currently) snakes later, I'm deep into my addiction and not yet ready to call it quits, lol!

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Originally Posted by vettech1990

I have not always been a fan of snakes , of any kind! I mean I would literally spread my wings and fly at the sight of a king snake, and a hatchling at that. It wasn't until I was in veterinary school that I had no choice but to help treat a 14 ft long retic with a facial swelling that turned out to be an abcess , imagine me being that close to the mouth of that thing! I was scared to death ! That was until I noticed that she actually looked grateful that we were helping her and for the first time in my life I witnessed first hand that even snakes ,one of the most highly feared reptiles could show appreciation and love because afterwards she took a ride back to her enclosure on my shoulders . I mean wow! Now to the dismay of many of my friends and family I own two sweet little sneaky snakes of my own and cherish everyday that I have with them .

PS : I plan on purchasing either a carpet python or rosy boa this spring ! Ya'll can help me decide which :D

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I wanted to be a vet growing up, until I figured out I'm terrible at math and science both, lol! Kudos to you for the job you do though, that would be awesome to get to work with animals all day. And my vote would be for a rosy boa; some of the localities, let alone the morphs that have been produced are awesome!

growing up in the desert of southern utah there wasnt much to do as a kid except go lizard and snake catchin' after school everyday. i caught thousands of snakes/lizards/scorpions/tarantulas and just developed a love and respect for them as creatures and pets.

My father had a boa that he got a short while before I born, and we had that snake until my junior year of high school, so I literally grew up with a pet snake. Sometime in middle school, I slowly became the one who took care of him, including raising up the rats to feed him. We didn't get another snake after him, but as soon as I felt I was in a stable enough portion of my life (a couple years after college), I got another boa, Ryuu.

My story is a little different than most . I was the type of guy who my whole life thought the only good snake was a dead snake . Then one day my wofe bought a bp behind my back. I was so mad at her I had nothing to do with the snake at all told her if it ever got out I would kill it. Then one day I went to get a rat for the snake (after my wife begged me to) and while I was there I some how got talked into holding a awesome pastel bci and fell in love right then and there and its been a downward spiral ever since lol. I look back at the old me and cant understand why I was so ignorant but im glad I have seen the light on these beautiful and misunderstood animals.

use to go out catchin lizards on my dads farm growin up so for my birthday one year he got me a bearded dragon. loved that little thing. i would have one now but i hate dealing with crickets. lol which is weird because i use to not mind them. i actually use to go out in the yard as a kid and catch crickets and grasshoppers for him. free food. lol got a ball python a year later and loved it. when i went to highschool i kinda got out of em for a while but when i was 20 i was browsin the internet and somehow stumbled upon ball python morphs and started reading up on the whole genetic side of things and it fascinated me. been hooked ever since. lol

I blame the other half.... It's all her fault.

I actually started browsing this forum, on behalf of my wife, because she wanted live animals in her science class when we got to that point. I was immediately addicted. What began with two leopard geckos one winter has turned into five geckos, one AFT, and currently six ball pythons. :)

We also just picked up the Chameleon she wants the most for her classroom. :D

How I got started with reptiles? My parents wouldn't let me have a dog. Showed them! :P

I LOVED snakes but was terrified of them. Makes no sense to me.

So at 19 years old I finally bit the bullet and got a corn. Then I learned about BPs and got my Pastel girl. Then I sold the corn and go more BPs!

I have always loved reptiles much like foxoftherose, and I would catch lots of salamanders and frogs and eastern milksnakes, etc. I went through a huge dinosaur obsessed stage,The Land Before Time, books, dino exhibits, etc. My mom was terrified of snakes but when I was a young kid I convinced her to let me get a baby snake. It didn't care which type, I just swore it would make me the most happiest little girl in the world. That Christmas my grandma bought me a baby cornsnake whom I named "Slinky" my mom didn't realize quite how afraid of snakes she actually was so she forced me to let it live at Nana's house. She bought me many animals instead, including a hedgehog, African grey parrot, fish, cats and even lizards etc. None of them captured my attention as much as snakes (though of course I love them). Finally I managed to convince my mom to let me go to a reptile expo in White Plains, NY to pick out a couple "lizards" finally a couple weeks before the expo mom realizes (FINALLY!) what I really wanted was some snakes. And some turned into 4...then 7.....15.... Now I just cam't wait to attend another expo! There are so many cool species and morphs out there :DSnakes have grown on my mom since then, she has even gotten around to patting my hognose and holding my balls, she even touched my boa for a short time. Ahh, such progress!!! :)

darn the double posting.

ever since a little girl, man. steve irwin introduced my desire to own a serpent. parents never enjoyed snakes although it never stopped me from asking. of course being denied endlessly. until one day i turned 18 and decided i no longer wanted the fish swiming in my 20gl. did not ask for the permission to owning a snake. i just felt that since i turned 18, that nothing in this world would cease my actions to owning a snake. thanks petco... i love all animals and instantly felt awful for trading in my gorgeous fish for my first snake, the ball python. before long, i recalled locating a photo online of a piedball i had seen years ago somewhere.. tv and or photos. i had never before actually looked into such an creature until the wild purchase of my snake. that from simply Googling this, learning it was of a pied and not just, that it was this genetic mutation.. i then fell hard for it. youtube then brought the attention of a high contrast albino. my mind simply exploded from seeing all the countless creations humans have mastered.. i knew it in my heart that i wanted to one day become a well known keeper and breeder of these outrageous animals. so three years later, i finally ended up getting a job. although, at the time, i was saving back my every check to fly out to AUS. i was awaiting this time in my life to meet a special guy who i met online. though things did not turn out so well soon as October approached.. so my intentions were of no longer towards this man. waited nearly two years for this guy. straight up faithful me. anyways, it came to my attention in late November, that my best friend up North had began her purchasing of the Pastel, it then hit me that i had all this mullah saved.. i blew it all on morphs and the required materials. and well, here i am, 15 serpents later. currently attempting to breed for the first time. i so do hope my bumble locks with my pastel. then again i have not yet a snake rack.. though i managed to place my two adult females in tubs using glass with heatpads below and a heater, which belongs to my parents... and oh yeah, my parents were never happy about my numbering of snakes. still want me to get rid of them. but that aint going to ever happen. so, i shall see how this goes. and this is my story.

I had my first chinese water dragon over a decade ago and it died from an illness. Then I married Chris and he wanted to get a snake and that led to another, then another, then another, and so on and so on. So basically I blame it all on Chris :P