How did you first get interested in reptiles?

I would've made a poll on this but I couldn't think of any options other than "my friend had reptiles". I first became interested when my best friend Jamie got a little boa constrictor. At first I jumped back whenever he looked at me but I eventually got up the courage to hold him and haven't looked back since.
:)Sam

My husband wanted a snake for his b-day! So I bought him one. It was my first snake ever! I've been hook ever since!

I used to very much dislike snakes, but then a friend of mine was telling me about a burm her parents had when she was a kid and how tame snakes could be.
annnnnnd I looked them up. Go me.

Spot I helped at the pet store girl catch him after he hissed at her and she dropped him. I just love the little guys.. And been hooked ever since

I was a bout 8 yo and was at the Zoo and just fell in love w/ the reptile house. So I got some books on snakes and herps and read all I could at my age and then bugged my mom for a green anole. I had a male and a female.
Then at age 10 I got my first snake a ribbon garter snake which I had for about 5 yrs. And the rest is history :)

Ever since I can remember .... I used to catch garter snakes in the spring at the park when I was maybe 5 or 6. I would keep 2 or 3 them for a couple of months, and then let them go. Same with an occasional lizard, and of course always had amphibians; tadpoles - frogs, newts, salamanders. Got a red-tail boa when I was 19, and had to sell her when the first kid was on the way. Then when my oldest turned 7, we got Tuleo for her so I could pass my fascination on .....


Neil

When I was in 5th grade or so, a "snake wrangler" came to our school and showed us a bunch of awesome snakes. We got to pet and handle some (under VERY close supervision.) But the strange thing was, not many kids wanted to touch 'em....and I couldn't for the life of me understand why. I thought they were fascinating.


But my Dad couldn't stand snakes either, so I was not allowed to have one as a pet. .....Grow up....get married....snakes a long-forgotten pleasure......Until my daughter gets a crush on Steve Irwin and decides she wants to be a herpetologist and MUST have a snake! In my hunt to learn about a "good first snake" and how to take care of it....and in my efforts to convince a very reluctant hubby......my own childhood ambitions woke up with a somewhat passionate vengence!

.....poor hubby has such a nutty wife! But he loves me anyway! ;) But my snake collection won't really take off until he has retired from the military and we get a permanent home where he can build me a "snake house" so he doesn't have to actually live with my slithery hobby.

Since I was knee high to a duck, I've been exploring the (now shrinking)forests where I live. I've always caught tad-poles and lizards (don't see them anymore) and have to credit holding my first Garter snake with my mother (thanks Mom:sweeet: ) I admit I was scared but, it's been all downhill since then. I can't get enough (or learn enough) of them. I never really had any of my own until now though. I would always just collect them in the wild, study them and let them go. Now I have a corn snake and will be getting the first of many, many;) Royal pythons (my favorite).

from the time i could walk you never saw me with out a toad or a snake in my hand i cought outside.

matt fisher

We just bought one.

i really didn't get into snakes untill the summer of my freshman year, i've always love toads and lil garder snakes and lizzards (which i would go outside and catch :-D) but i started doing research and whatnot on ball pythons and i got my 1st one like november of last year. my collection has grown alot :-D i now have 4 boas, 3 ball pythons a burm 2 jungle carpet pythons and a taiwan beauty snake :-D i'm really lucky to have a dad who loves snakes as much as i do :-D

I never cared about snakes one way or the other until I was at someone's home and saw an aquarium. I went over to look and inside was filthy. Feces and a rotting mouse were inside as well as pieces of old shed, slimy water dish and in the corner I heard a little wheezing noise. It was a bp about 2 1/2 ft long. I asked the guy about the situation and he said it was his kid's snake and it was going to die anyway. I looked at this helpless little guy and removed him from the cage, wrapped him up in my coat and took him home. He spent the first night on a heating pad next to me on the bed. The next morning we went to the vet and found that he had a treatable RI and some burns on his belly from the heat rock. Then off to the petshop for an enclosre, UTH, and all the other goodies. I've had Jo for over 2 years now and he is such a wonderful pet. He's docile and sweet and I just love him. Since then I've rescued a blue tongue skink that was physically abused by its former owners, and a leopard gecko that was being kept in an unheated cricket container. I also purchased a sub adult rtb named Inga who came from a great home and is a sweetie too. I'm hooked! I love them all but Jo is and always will be my baby.

I guess I have just been interested in them for like, ever. I used to always catch them around my house. Once I caught like 25 in under an hour! Bucket-O-Snakes!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gmmuscle91

Once I caught like 25 in under an hour! Bucket-O-Snakes!!!

---

HAHA! That sounds like a ton of FUN!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JLC

HAHA! That sounds like a ton of FUN!

---

It was, except for the fact that every single one of them tried to musk me and my friends. Good thing I knew they were going to do that so I wore some gloves. Got bit about 10 times, on the glove of course!

i remember since i was 4 i would catch fence lizards in my back yard and at my aunts house (her place has tons of fence lizards) and i would enjoy a trip to the zoo to look at snakes and lizards.

i remember being terrified of an albino burm that was only probably 12 feet but back then when i was a wee little tike it looked like a 30 foot man eater to me! LOL.

anyways, it was just something i thought was pretty cool until my cousin got a BP when i was in the fourth grade. i asked my parents if i could have one and they said no over and over so i forgot about it until the summer of 2004 when i helped my grandpa move into his new apartment and i got a 100 buckaroons!

since i had the extra cash and i was older and more mature i asked my parents for a BP again. at first they said no but i was pretty persistant and eventually my dad took me down to the local pet shop and i got vanessa.

since then im still very much into BP's but my interest have also changed into monitor lizards and field herping. my biggest field herping trip was down to the mojave this summer and it was a blast! i hope to become a herpetologist one day.

wow, what a rant! thanks for listening!

I was never afraid of lizards, snakes and such reptiles, but I wasn't interested in owning one as a pet either. I took a herpetology class for my Zoology degree last quarter and I had a lot of fun!! One of the girls in my class had a ball python who had babies... and voila, here I am with Medusa. =)

My story goes something like this......I was really into dinosaurs as a kid...so I had some anoles and a garter snake as my own "little dinosaurs." The garter snake died of unknown causes after about six months, my parents replaced it with a ball python. After about a year with the ball, my mom got tired of running to the pet store (I was 11 years old) for feeders, so I had to give it up. No more reptiles in the house after that. Fast forward to the end of my freshman year of college, got out of the dorms and into my own place, one of the first things I did was buy a ball python. Up until that point I never really got "into" them as far as being aware of health and husbandry issues, but as a hobby, for me this has snowballed over the past 3 years or so.

ever since i was 4 i would get(actually my parents lol) this guy with burms,retics,corns balls you name it to come to my birthday party and let everyone handle the snakes and such. then at about 7 at school this little girl said she was getting a rtb. i got jealous and could still not have a snake. my dad dint like them nor my mom. at 8 i caught a cottonmouth and wouldnt release it. my parents knew it was venomous and could kill me. they said to me if i realeased that cottonmouth i could get my very own pet snake. and i did.

now thats what im talking about! extortion by venomous pit viper! LOL

My fascination with snakes began when I was about 6 years old and in bed with measles. To start with I was quite ill, but as time went on I started to recover - and so did my energy. I was still confined to bed in a darkened room (this was over 40 years ago) and was getting increasingly bored with all my toys and games. In a desperate attempt to get me to stay in bed my Dad bought me a rubber snake (he'd run out of ideas by this time, I was driving my Mum up the wall and he saw the rubber snake and thought it was something different away from the loads of dolls and games I had). It was about 2ft long. I loved that snake. First its tongue fell off, then the rubber began splitting and its tail fell off, then finally it's head fell off and that was the end of that but it gave me a fascination for snakes that never went away and any time my parents took me to the zoo, they literally had to drag me out of the reptile house.


40 years later, I got my first snake, my Pueblan Milksnake, Ringo. I now have 14 snakes:D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lady Python

My fascination with snakes began when I was about 6 years old and in bed with measles. To start with I was quite ill, but as time went on I started to recover - and so did my energy. I was still confined to bed in a darkened room (this was over 40 years ago) and was getting increasingly bored with all my toys and games. In a desperate attempt to get me to stay in bed my Dad bought me a rubber snake (he'd run out of ideas by this time, I was driving my Mum up the wall and he saw the rubber snake and thought it was something different away from the loads of dolls and games I had). It was about 2ft long. I loved that snake. First its tongue fell off, then the rubber began splitting and its tail fell off, then finally it's head fell off and that was the end of that but it gave me a fascination for snakes that never went away and any time my parents took me to the zoo, they literally had to drag me out of the reptile house.


40 years later, I got my first snake, my Pueblan Milksnake, Ringo. I now have 14 snakes:D

---

Wow, that's an interesting story. I love how your fascination with snakes endured such a long period of time.

I'll never forget that rubber snake:D I was so sad when I had to put the bits of it in the bin:(


Now that I've got real snakes, I become more fascinated and captivated by them every day. They are truly lovely animals:D

I've always been an animal person. My favorite presents as a kid were animal encyclopedias, and when I was in kindergarden, I told my teacher I didn't need anymore schooling because I already knew everything I needed to know to be a zookeeper. :rolleyes: Kids.

Snakes have always been my favorite reptile though, and my Mom had always vetoed my having one. Love everything about them. Then I growed up, and got my first snake... well, you know how addictive it is. It was all downhill from there! Now I'm obsessed! ;) Or more so anyway, as my Medusa obsession was already growing, lol.

My mother did it to me. She always drug us to the zoo and told sroties of all the critters she kept as a kid. Then one day my friend got a RTB while her hubby was deployed and I loved it. So I went downtown to the pet store at the mall. I asked lots of questions and got no answers. I wanted one so bad though, and of course mom wasn't answering her phone. So I remembered something she had said before about BPs curling up when they get scared. I had a choice between a RTB, a Burm and a BP. I took the BP home and named her Salina. She probed out to be a girl. She is the first of 10 snakes and now the whole family loves them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mr~python

now thats what im talking about! extortion by venomous pit viper! LOL

---

Found an old aquarium and wanted to get a real pet (all we had were fish). So I decided I wanted a reptile of some sort, and I've always wanted a snake. So I got a baby Ball and since then have been interested in keeping reptiles. :D

As a child bull snakes (thats what my dad called them) were always getting in the garage and I saved many of them from the shovel treatment, but never was interested in keeping any as pets. My wonderful 12yr old daughter had been begging for a snake since about age 5 but I always replied "NO!". I didn't know enouph about them and didn't want to get stuck feeding it "icky" mice. I am sure most of you parents know when the child gets a pet you are the one caring for it most of the time. I finally gave in a little more than a year ago to a cornsnake that my poor little daughter hardly gets a chance to care for (it began living in my room as soon as it arrived!). And just like that I now have 2 corns, a RTB and a BP.

I took the snakes to her school last year to aid in a report she was giving and it was so neat. The kids that were petrified when I brought them in soon became curious and by the end wanted to touch.

I really enjoyed reading all your stories!

I first got interested in snakes about a year ago. My friend Matt is an NYPD officer and had arrested a person who had a snake on them. The snake was very sluggish and he feared that it would die if he left it at the precinct (sp?) so he brought it home. Up until that time I had never handled a snake nor did i really fear them but I guess I was a little apprehensive until after the first 5 minutes when it coiled around my hand and just sorta hung out there, I was hooked from that moment. I believe the snake must have been a kingsnake of some sort, but regardless I went home and did what i always do with a new obsession... googled the hell out of it. After researching the best beginner snakes i opted for a bp because I wanted a smaller yet thick bodied snake. Went to the local petstore and luckily got a healthy snake, 3 months later I bought another 100% Het Albino male for a future breeding project. And since I've been trying to save up enough money to buy a female pastel.

I have never had a friend or relative who kept reptiles. If I had I am sure I would have become a herper much sooner!

I have always loved birds, snakes, and reptiles. Birds are too noisy for my spouse to tolerate (I sold my birds some time ago), and I have had a major aquarium obsession for about 10 years now.

I have always loved snakes - I was always the kid at the reptile shows who wanted to touch or hold the animal.
Anyway, the other day I rescued a large black garden-variety snake from - of all places - a Sears department store! It had managed to find its way into the store and was pressed up against one of the walls doing his 'If I don't move no one can see me!' trick. The air conditioning was not doing him much good.
Anyway, I scooped him up and took him outside and released him in a much more suitable area. Handling it and observing it was a real treat and I found myself thinking....hey! I should really set up a snake cage in my house!

so here I am making sure I know what I am getting myself into before I jump off the proverbial cliff.

Turns out, by coincidence, I sort of know Kevin McCurley through fish (cichlid) circles. I toured his new shop right when it opened and thought to myself 'gee whiz this fish guy has a lot of reptiles in his store' but never put two and two together until this week. d'oh!

I was raised in one of those households where the parents didnt even want to talk about the idea. I would have gotten one once I moved out but I was with a girl (for years) who was completely against it. Once she was out of the picture I bought one (and then another). My current girlfriend thinks they are cool as heck. Hence, the collection will be growing very soon.

I've always loved animals in general. My 8th grade science teacher had 2 pythons (don't recall the exact type), a boa (again, don't recall exact type), 2 adult bull snakes, 2 baby bull snakes, and a baby milk snake. I used to take notes in class with my right hand and have the more docile of the 2 bull snakes wrapped around my left. Unfortunately my mom would not even hear of a snake in her house. I begged and pleaded with her for weeks to let me take the babies home for the winter break. From then on I knew I eventually wanted snakes :snake2: . LOL...Mom still doesn't understand my facination with my serpent pets.

Growing up on a dairy farm in Eastern Oregon, I've always learned to watch out for rattlers, and we'd occas. chase or find a garter snake of some kind.


When I was a soph in college, one of my workstudy jobs was to feed and care for the snakes, rats and mice of the biology prof. He had a small burm, some pythons, a few kings and milksnakes, sidewinder, diamondback, corns, boas. Since then, I had always wanted to continue with that love, but student (no money and always moving), husband (now EX-) prevented me.

Then a friend saw a posting for a BP and complete setup for sale on the BB where she worked at a hospital. I was able to talk down the price, buy it in two pmts to make my budget. That was 19 months and twelve snakes ago! :D

We've lost a couple of our pets since then :tears: despite the vet care and work to save them, but they're all loved and cared for. I'm putting together the necessaries to start a snake rescue in our area. We don't currently have anything like that here for pets. Freddie was the first of what I hope will be many pets that need a new home and then will find their way to our loving care. :) I'm also starting the first steps of eventually breeding boas and pythons. The boa project is a little farther advanced, but I'm looking forward to (down the road a bit) those first wrigglies and the first pippings. :love: :wuv:

I was a pre-vet student who has had to change the dream, and I feel that these wonderful animals will allow me to continue in my love of animals, w/o the major outlay of land and resources right now that horses and cattle would require...even tho' we DO own five horses. hee hee