My friends

When i talk to my friends about my snake they usually dont seem to care or be TO intrested but i had a few of the girls over to watch some movies yesterday (who usually dont like bugs,and spiders and SNAKES) and they told me they wanted to see my snake so i took rocky out and let him crawl around a bit and then by the end of the night they were holding him and petting him and one of my friends even put him in her hair like a scrunchy ! It was soo cool and im really glad that they got to see why im so obsessed with him. It was a great night :D

Congrats on the converts ;). I think education is definitely the key. My parents are slowly comming around, however they still dont like to go in the herp room when they visit. I've "converted" a couple of friends, but i think i'll have to keep working on some others :)

Ok, still being new at this, i dont know what Herp is. Care to explain?? :)

"herp" is short for herpetology, which is the technical term for the study of reptiles and amphibians. so a "herp" is any sort of reptile or amphibian. i.e. pandora is your "herp."

yeah i've had the same experiance brandon....once i tell people how they don't have 2 inch fangs, they won't bite, they won't wrap around your neck and try to kill you, etc etc, they normally do come around and hold him

I've had the same experience, plus my two girls are amazingly sweet and really like human contact. It's all in making sure that people new to snakes understand a few rule: don't touch the snake on its head, don't make any sudden movements, always fully support the snake, and to tell me if they feel uncomfortable. Maybe it's a myth, but I honestly do believe that all animals can sense fear/nervousness, and will act accordingly. Not that I think my girls would strike unless food was involved....but it's a chance I don't want to take.
Remember to make sure they wash their hands before and after handling the critters. :D Congratulations on the new converts.

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Originally Posted by UberAlice

Remember to make sure they wash their hands before and after handling the critters.

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Definitely important.

yeah one of my friends asked if he would bite her and of course i told her he wouldent and i looked away for like a split second and she was petting his head ! i was surprised becuase he didnt even jerk his head away or anything like that so now i know he will tolerate his head being touched which comes in handy if he ever has a bad shed and has some skin stuck on there i can get it off.

Just be careful, snakes generally don't have braincases so petting on the head = touching them on the brain through a thin surface of skin. :)

wow i didn't know that. in that case i guess they have really good reason to be sensitive about their heads.

hmm i didnt know that either....good to know,thanks

I run into the same thing a lot over at a friends place. He's got all kinds of animals over there including a 5' Iguana and an adult Ball Python. Everyone says that that think its wierd that my friend and I are in to herps, because we just don't seem like "those kind of people." Well either way, most of the girls that come over usually say how they are scared of snakes, etc etc...so we usually let his BP out around then. 9 out of 10 times the girls end up letting him crawl all over them, etc. This one guy we know held fast to his fear of snakes, but one drunken night he was like, alright let me see Monty, I'm gonna hold him. After holding him for 5 mins he was like, oo snakes are no big deal etc etc.

So I think all people need to do is get some one on one interaction with these great animals. They may not have the personality of a dog or other pet like that, but find that they are special in their own way.

yeah most people say im not really a snake person, im "preppy" i guess and i guess people think the only guys who have snakes are like biker dudes.

that's funny because just the other day i was eating dinner with a friend that i hadn't seen in a while. i told him that i got a new pet and i told him to guess what it was. the first thing out of his mouth was "a snake." (there was no previous mention of this or discussing it with him or anything.) so i asked him if my boyfriend had told him about it and he said, "no, you just seem like the kind of person that would have a snake." :D