Convincing my Mom

Yeah... I'm new to snake but not reptiles. I curently have a Bearded Dragon. I've had Iguanas and bearded dragons before. I need help on convincing my mom into letting me get a ball python. I know that she will say that it will eat my dogs. can a ball python eat dogs? I know that it could kill a couple because I have a t-cup chihuahua, very small. Im planning on putting a BP into a rubbermaid container and then putting it into another screened cage. So that way if it gets out of the rubbermaid (which it wont) he'll be trapped inside of the screen cage. I'll always have my door shut also. Can soemone give me advice on convincing her? I'll try to keep my grades up and get a job so that way it shows her im responsible.

first of all, welcome to the site... tells us a bit about yourself. where ya from? how old are ya?

convincing your mom shouldn't be a problem. we've helped many young herpers convince their parents that keeping ball pythons is a fun, safe, and easy learning experience. just give them our link bro.
i'd say the best approach would be to show her how interested in bp's you are. the more interest you show, the easier it should be.

Do your research! The more you know about the subject, the more you can educate your mom about them AND it'll show her you're committed and serious...this forum is a good start, but you may also want to go to the library and check out some books.

go to your local pet store and pick up a copy of the ball python manual, written by david and tracy barker. it's golden.

well, my name is Mike. Im 15 years young and I live in Missouri and Colorado. I live with my mom and bro., in the summer I go out to my dad's house and visit for 2 months. Yes, I plan on taking my BP (if i get one) and my Beardie with me. I know the Chief Manager of the USPS (United States Postal Service). He said that they do transport reptiles, and treat them very special for a safe trip. I trust him. Hmmm, as you might of read above I have a couple of smaller animals. My regular Chihuahua is pretty big and wont get around anything/anybody that she doesnt know. I'll have a problem with my T-Cup Chihuahua. Shes about a year old and ways 4 pounds. She loves all my animals at my house which isnt to good. I just hope that if I do get a BP, it wont try to kill her. Are ball pythons cowards or will they attack other animals?

I have a copy, it's like the BP Bible!

you shouldnt have to worry about the dogs. there is no reason for them to be anywhere near your snake.

If your snakes big enough it will eat your dog... it's happened ive saw it. Just be smart to eep rubbermaid tight sealed and maybe weighted with good ventilation. and weigh down the screen with something 5 pounds or more. much as it can hold without falling. If shes against snakes that eat rats in captivity. just say well you eat cow thats produced for you in captivity. You eat ham which is a pig killed just for you to eat. You eat all these kinds of meat killed just for you to eat. So your even worse then the snake! He eats only a rat or 2 a week. you eat a hamburger whenever you want wherever you want! Thats how i convinced my gf. ...On the other hand she only eats a hamburger per week now. HAHAHA And shes allowing me to get another bp!

It took me a bit of convincing to get my mom around the idea that I'm going to keep a snake in the house. Mostly because she is(or was....she's coming around now that I've told her so much about bp's) deathly afraid of snakes ever since she was traumatized in high school when a bully shoved a garden snake down the back of her shirt. What I did was I researched and researched for the last 3+ months reading and absorbing all the info I can. Then I regularly talked to her about snakes. I also started watching anything and everything snake-wise on the Animal Planet channel and stuff. I was talking about snakes so much, it sorta broke down that wall she had around her, and one day while we were sitting outside on the deck, she just started asking me questions about them. And I answered them easily. I think she was testing me to see if I was actually serious about this. After she realised I'm not giving up and this isn't a fad I'm going through, she finally caved. I knew she caved when one day I came down stairs and she said "hey cody, grab me something out of the trunk of the van". I went out there and she had gotten me a 20 gal tank at a yard sale to start me off. Since then she's gotten over the idea of having a snake in the house. She even admitted she'll probably be over the fear all together and start handling my bp when I get her in a week or so. But it'll take a while still.
Basically you gotta take your time. You can't just force the idea onto her. Do all the research you can, and then show her you're serious about this. Tell her some stuff like ball pythons are virtually harmless, and if it ever did get loose, you should be more worried about what your dogs would do to the ball python, rather than what the bp would do to your dogs. And bp's rarely bite people. And when they do it's either because they're still babies and still think the worlds out to get them, or they aren't being handled enough to be used to human touch. Both can be solved easily by regular handling. And a bp bite barely hurts. Just tell your mom stuff like that to assure her that it's not going to be some huge monstrous snake from hell. :)

And I'm done....I rambled again....shame on me...:(

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Originally Posted by infectedgecko

If shes against snakes that eat rats in captivity. just say well you eat cow thats produced for you in captivity. You eat ham which is a pig killed just for you to eat. You eat all these kinds of meat killed just for you to eat.

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That's a good point! Darn it, I could have used that point in a conversation I had with a couple earlier today! Oh well, next time.

She wont care about feeding the BP mice/rats. LOL, she's not afraid of them too. Shes a pest control technition. LOL. She sees snakes everyday. When I got my beardie, she didnt even say yes. she told me what ever my dad says. Shes just worried about the dogs. I stilll need to know if BP's are cowards to other animals or will it fight back?

BPs are nearly always cowards. Your snake is in a lot more danger from the dog than the other way around.

Whether the BP will try and eat the dog is iffy at best. Depending on how the snake has been fed in the past, it may not associate the smell of the dog with food. My female BP Dixie has showed no interest in rats yet, even though a rat is a proper sized meal for her. She was not interested in p/k rats, in live rats, or in f/t rats. She is very interested in mice, however, which leads me to believe that was what she was fed before. My next step will be trying a small rat that has been housed in mousie smelling shavings for a little while, to see if enough mouse smell will help her make the connection between rat and food.

However, as has been mentioned above, don't bet the dog's life on the snake NOT associating it with food. A toy chihuahua is a small furry mammal, which fits the general demographic of the python's dietary requirements. Even if the snake doesn't think of it as food, if it feels threatened by the dog it may strike and inflict injury in defense. Be sure to keep them separate.

The real issue you may need to determine with your Mom is why she may not want you to have a snake. If it's due to a phobia (and snake phobia is a very common one) logic and reason are not going to get you far. I know; my daughter wanted a tarantula when she was a teen-ager, and I'm arachnaphobic. I can keep it under control most of the time, and I realize it's completely irrational, but the phobia doesn't just go away because I can admit I have no real reason to be afraid of a tarantula.

If her concern is the safety of owning a snake, doing some research and showing her the statistics for Ball Pythons especially can be advantageous to you. You own dogs and cats already; a ball python is less dangerous to humans than dogs and cats are. I've yet to have a piece of furniture ruined by a snake, and I've lost count of such damage done by dogs and cats. I have a scar or two on my hands from being bitten by a parrot. My snakes have yet to bite me.

Some people think of snakes as being somehow "cruel" in that they swallow their prey whole. I've watched Dixie kill and eat mice (she was raised on live food, so it's going to be a process to get her to transistion to pre-killed), and I've seen cats kill mice. The cat is cruel, if such a trait can be applied to an animal. When Dixie kills, it's a fast strike followed by the coiling, and in a minute or so it's over. When the cat kills a mouse, it can be an hours long process of repeatedly clawing the mouse enough to slow it down, then releasing it to chase it and claw it again. Afterwards, the cat may not even eat the mouse. The cat we consider cute and playful, while the snake is often regarded as cold and cruel. Go figure. Various breeds of dogs are known for wholesale killing. Ask someone who has had a terrier get into their chicken flock. The dog won't just kill one chicken to drag off and eat; it will go from one to another to another, killing all it can catch. Dog's are "man's best friend", even with such a killer instinct in many breeds.

Don't get me wrong; I love both dogs and cats, and we own several of each (or should I say, they own us?). My point is that if we evaluate all pets by the same criteria many people evaluate snakes, our most beloved and common pets don't exactly shine, either. Nature isn't always "pretty" in how things are done. Predators kill, whether we're talking a spider that traps and bites the fly, or a toad that swallows it alive and whole, or the snake that constricts to kill before eating, or the canines and felines that chase and grab their prey, or on to humans that use weapons and slaughterhouses.

when i wanted my ball python i had trouble convicing my mom to let me get it, i resorted to bribery lol. i told her i would get a job if she let me get a ball python.

Mammals and Reptiles should never have anything to do with each other ... unless it has to do with eating!
I actually have a parrot, and I make sure they're never in range of each other ...

I have two chihuahua's as well, one of them has seen my Kingsnake and is all scared of it so I know she wont go around my BP. You might find your dogs will be terrified too.

As far as your parents go, you gotta know how to play the game. Tell them whatever they wanna hear, kiss their ass! it may take a while but be slick and evil and you can accomplish anything, people can be so easily manipulated if you know what to do and say.

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Originally Posted by RealmIyce

I have two chihuahua's as well, one of them has seen my Kingsnake and is all scared of it so I know she wont go around my BP. You might find your dogs will be terrified too.

As far as your parents go, you gotta know how to play the game. Tell them whatever they wanna hear, kiss their fanny! it may take a while but be slick and evil and you can accomplish anything, people can be so easily manipulated if you know what to do and say.

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I must agree. :twisted:

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Mammals and Reptiles should never have anything to do with each other ... unless it has to do with eating!

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haha, funny stuff

Don't use bribery, Go and get that job ( part-time ) show her that you can take care of the responsability of housing the snake and pay for the food and vet bills. She might open her mind.........GOOD LUCK!!

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Originally Posted by tman

Don't use bribery, Go and get that job ( part-time ) show her that you can take care of the responsability of housing the snake and pay for the food and vet bills. She might open her mind.........GOOD LUCK!!

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Yeah I was actually thinking the same, if you're going to work.
Just buy the snake and all the items needed to house it yourself.