Do you still have your first herp or snake?

I received my first ball python well over a year ago at a local PetSmart as a b-day gift. Of course, I still have her, and since I'm not a die-hard collector, (yet) I don't sell or trade, or even consider it right now. (My point being that I only have 2 BPs. :P) Aside from my first ball python, my dad used to have a leopard gecko several years back until it passed away.
I was thinking though, I wonder if any of you guys or the big breeders still have their first herp, and/or their first snake they ever had. If you do, please share!
And this thread isn't note-worthy without PICS! :rolleyes:

My first herp was a red eared slider bought from a jewelry stand in Chinatown NYC when I was 12. It was a field trip and an impulse pet my parents didn't know about until I got home. My mother threatened to throw him in a lake repeatedly, but I scrounged my lunch money together for years to keep him in the best care I could. I had him for eight years before I moved out of the house and rehomed him to someone with multiple turtles. I loved my turtle, Yoshi. He was so friendly and it was always a joy to walk into my room and be greeted by him enthusiastically splashing around to beg for food.

It wasn't until another four years before I could situate my finances for another reptile. Don't think I'll go back into turtles. I was also into fish keeping at the time but I'm not that into the prospects of maintaining the water quality in tanks anymore. Snakes are very lovely - and dry - reptiles.

Yeah, my first was a BP who is thriving. I forget how old he is now, maybe 5 or 6?


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Yep - still have Cleopatra the ball python that started me off. :)

My first "reptile" that I kept was a leopard frog I had one summer. I released him in the fall.

My first ball I got 3 years ago is still here and is never leaving. Indiana, 1600g male normal.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/07/31/e8uta7ej.jpg

Still have my CalKing I got back in the early 90s. First snake I purchased.

:)

My normal indy. Been with me for like 5 years now:
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/07/31/7yrujybu.jpg

I've had my corn for 13 years now. :)

http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mc...jspo1_1280.jpg

I had tons of various frogs and toads when I was little, had a couple red eared sliders we rehomed, but my first snake and first reptile I bought as an adult is my anery motley corn, Cthulhu. He's what got me into snakes.

Day I brought him home on my friend's finger, 2010 I believe http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/07/31/hepu8ara.jpg

This is from a year or so ago but the most recent decent pic I've got that shows size.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/07/31/a2u6ysu8.jpg

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My first snake was a speckled kingsnake baby that passed away. When I re-got into snakes I got my dear Capona from Petco:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i3...ps60793141.jpg

Not going anywhere!

My first were two green anoles I got about 14 yrs. One of them lived to be almost 6 yrs old. After that I had a yellowbelly slider for a while and a leopard gecko that actually just passed away a few weeks ago.

My first was a Green Iguana named Spike. He lived with us for 8 years or so until he passed.

I still have my first snake Chloe (normal BP) whom I've had since 2007 May.

My first snake was a huge wc female garter snake i caught when i was about 11 or 12. Kept her for a couple years, then had to release her when she got loose in the house and was discovered by my sister in the christmas decorations lol. The first snake i ever purchased was my first ball Cyrax, and i got him when i was about 22. I got him at a pet trade show in AC, about 1999, when pieds were prob $15k lol

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My first is Drake and he will not be going anywhere.
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...7/6/img204.jpg

Oh, n i forgot to put that Cyrax passed away a few years back. Ill never foget him tho...he was my lil buddy. I still have Zephyr, a texas lucy that was given to me as a gift a few years after i got Cyrax. Zephyr is goin on 12 years old.

sent from my incubator

My first snake was a snow corn when I was 11 years old, he was a christmas gift from my cousin, I also had a beardie and a leopard gecko. They have all passed, however I have just recently gotten back into keeping reptiles now that we are in a house. I have my 2 year old motley okeetee corn (got him as a baby), and we just got a normal BP baby he is 3 months old now.

Long gone from old age. I remember the first snake I ever hatched myself. It was a normal corn snake. I gave it to my mom who was a grade school teacher to use as a classroom pet. She had it in her classroom for many years until she retired, then she gave it back to me. I used that snake in educational programs for many years until it died about 5 years ago.

I've had many a lizard and snake, my first being a pair of dekay browns we got when in fort Polk LA, my family captured her and him in '92 and had them till 98, when they both passed a few weeks apart, both were full grown when acquired, I remember them having five clutches of live birth, which three got released around the house, two by the local lake, and until about a few years ago could see the hybrids to the local brown snake species, very cool little guys, as to what I've had in my adult life, I got my boy ball Joey in march, he is about 4-5 years old, my girl ball Samantha who is six according to her only owner, in may, my eastern box Draco in June, my RES Turtle also in June, and my baby corn in July, none of these guys are going anywhere!! I'll have them till they go! So my time frame as of now had been kinda short but man has it been a fun ride!!

Normal Ball python circa 1999 that has markers for being het pied, though never tried to prove him out. Still alive and well

I forgot to mention, but I also kept a few local creek tadpoles until most of them became small toadlets. However, because I didn't have the facilities to care for them, and one died, I released them in my yard. I id'ed them as coastal toads. This was a year before I got my first BP.
However, today while my mom was watering the yard, I found one who was all grown up at a proud 2 inches. Almost brought tears to my eyes to see one of my ole buddies again after 2 years. :) The work I put into saving those tadpoles from that drying creek of death didn't go to waste. Man, I almost forgot how much I missed and loved them. It was kind of like a miniature version of seeing your kid again, all grown up. lol
He didn't stay long enough for a picture though. However, he is forever in my memory now.:love:

I had a few reptiles as a child, and unfortunately I didn't get to keep them.

After I graduated high school, I began to collect reptiles again, and though I don't have my first dragons due to medical conditions, I have others. However, I still have my first snake. My first snake is a 2010 ghost male ball python, named Fear, whom I picked up shortly after I returned from my deployment. He's still going on strong, even if he is a mouser.

My first snake actually belonged to my ex - she still has it but my first BP I ever bought was a group of 5 het. axanthics. I sold 2 immediately and I still have the other three. The females will probably be with me forever though. :D

My first and favorite normal female. She is 1200 grams two years later. http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/08/pyzu6use.jpg


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first reptile was a green iguana that i had to get rid of back in school cause was always chasing mom's cats from their food bowl. My first snake was a wild caught black rat and she passed away about 4-5 years ago. ( I still have the first rescued snake I got he going over 20 years old at best guess, I received him in late 97 and was full grown then.

My first snake was a normal named Bobba Fett.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/08/9egy8uvy.jpg

He passed away in my hands earlier this year.

He was cremated and is kept in my bedside table, and in a piece of jewelry I wear close.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/08/teha7e8u.jpg

My first herps were about 50 leopard frog eggs we fetched from our babysitter's inground pool. We got 15 to 20 tadpoles from the eggs, and a lucky 3 survived to adulthood. We released them into the pond on the same property as where we found them, and we found their descendants for years later.

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I have my first, second, and third. Wait, I also have my fourth, fifth, (a friend has #6), seventh, eight, ninth, tenth, and eleventh! LOL

My first herp, okay not officially mine(mom's), was a wc blade ball python named blade who years later was bred and eventually we produced little copies of him all of which were sold and one of those babies' babies became the first offical blade ball python. He died a couple years ago.The first herp that was officially mine was a female sulcata tort rescue. I still have her. My official fist snake is my male butter ball python, basilisk(currently only 6mo).

Technically my first herp was a Bearded my friend gave me. I kept him for 4 or 5 months before selling him for my BP, Starvin Marvin- who won't be going anywhere :)

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ggot397/hi.jpg

My first was a corn snake that only made it about two weeks. A few months later I got my normal male that has been with me for over 8 years now and is almost 4.5 feet long. These pics were taken this spring:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/a...-Copy-Copy.jpg

This is as close as I can get to his true colors. He is VERY light and has great blushing all over:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/a...opy-Copy-1.jpg

He is by far my favorite snake and I will never get rid of him.

Really like the last pic, mate. Good stuff

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cmack91

My first was a corn snake that only made it about two weeks. A few months later I got my normal male that has been with me for over 8 years now and is almost 4.5 feet long. These pics were taken this spring:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/a...-Copy-Copy.jpg

This is as close as I can get to his true colors. He is VERY light and has great blushing all over:
http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/a...opy-Copy-1.jpg

He is by far my favorite snake and I will never get rid of him.

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That blushing on a Wild Type REALLY makes them shine in my eyes. With all the crazy morphs available, I don't think "normals" always get the respect they deserve.

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Wish I could say that I still had my first. He was a leopard gecko that I got from (unfortunately, didn't know better at the time) PetSmart, and came to me with health problems I was not prepared to deal with as a first-time keeper. Poor little guy didn't make it very long, I felt like I had failed, even though the vet told me it really wasn't my fault, and it took me quite a while before I was ready to try again. I still look back on that experience with sadness and regret, but thankfully the animals I've gotten since have done quite well for me; the "try again" leo I eventually got is going on 8 or 9 years old now, and hopefully she'll be with me for many more years of giving me inquisitive and/or disapproving looks. :)

Oh, and as for pics, that's her on my hand in my avatar pic. (The one that's still with me, not the unlucky first)