Do you share this hobby with your son or daughter?

Hi Folks,

I got into the hobby of herps back in January 2006 mainly because my 8 year old son has been keeping geckos and tree frogs over the past year and recently this past summer with snakes. I decide to join in along side of him back in January and start my first vivarium of Poison Dart Frogs (PDF's). Since then we have had a GREAT time together building vivs, raising Fruit Flies, studying various reptiles and amphibs, etc... Between us we now have PDF's, Geckos, Tree Frogs, Turtles, Salamanders, & Snakes.

This has been great for me as a dad to be able to build a hobby around something my son enjoys. We've shared some fun times together over this hobby.

Has anyone else had the opportunity to do this with their son or daugther?

I posted this topic on the website called www.Dendroboard.com , which is mainly a PDF site. I got some REALLY great stories about moms/dads sharing the hobby with their kid(s), so I thought I'd post it here as well.

Hope to hear from ya all.

Is share it with my Daughter Alyssa. She has done BP presentations ather her elementary and middle shcools for 3 years now, and did a presentation for 4-H this summer (she took overall 1st place for Douglas County). It has been a great way for us to share something and have time to talk without barriers or judgements. Now my son and youngest daugter are starting to get interested also, so who knows maybe someday it could be the family business ....:)
Neil

Share the hobby? LOL my 2 year old daughter thinks the snakes are hers, and will argue that fact forever LOL she takes them out of the racks on her own, carries them wherever she wants to "play" with them, then puts them back in their tub LOL...I have another daughter on the way (her due date was 3 days ago :( late just like her mom :P) and when she gets home from the hospital, the first thing Im doing is loading her up with snakes and going picture crazy LOL Kara better watch out for this girl:P shes taking numbers LMAO

I dont have any kids, and Im not even married. But when I DO have kids, I will definitely have to share this with them. They will have no choice!! :D

I think its incredible that you are able to bond with your children in this way. Good for you! :)

It's pretty much a family affair for me and the kids. My hubby has golf I have snakes. He does love the snakes and holds them but my interest is far higher than his.

My oldest daughter is 16 and she started me on snakes in January of 05' then moved to her dad's leaving the snake with me (not her choice but his wife if phobic). When she and my 15 year old came out this last summer you'd of thought the snake was attatched to her. She is an animal lover with hopes of becoming a vet ever since she was very small. her reason to finish her school years with her dad was the FFA program that was not offered where we lived. She has brought her passion to our family and it goes for all four of my girls.
With kids these days I find it great to have a common intrest that brings us together and puts us on the same page if only for a small amount of time each day.
I do have pics in my photo area but darned if Im too blond to figure out how to get them all the right sized and stay thay way while I move them. But feel free if your intrested :)

well... honestly everyone here likes the snakes, they like to look at them... but all the care and handling and everything is my responsibility.

so sharing my passion... no i don't think so... but appreciating their beauty... yup!

Here's a pic of my 2 year old, Jenna, with a 585g '06....doing her best Steve Irwin impersonation, you can almost invision her exclaiming "Look at this beauty" :P....tonight I will shoot a good video and some pics, of her "doing her thing" LOL
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23...ssept27025.jpg

Great picture Chris, she looks totally fascinated!!!!

Neil

She is Neil, I think I get just as much enjoyment out of watching her with the snakes, as I do from the snakes themselves...shes getting really smart too, she knows which tubs contain "babies" and which tubs contain "big ones", she really likes the big ones...I feel bad sometimes though, because when I make her put one away, she just starts saying, "More! More Daddy, More!"..shes got quite the memory now too LOL, cause I'll tell her, "not right now..tomorrow we can take out more"....then she'll be waking me up at 6am shouting "nakies, Daddy, nakies" at my bedside:rolleyes: LOL

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh that is just too cute!!!!

Well i don't have kids but i do have a little bro. and he loves my snakes...now if we can only talk mom into getting more....she's a bit afraid of them. but we are working on that in fact we are going to the irba in san diego and she's going with. we are going to be adding some lizards to my collection and getting my lil bro his own.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...igenTiombe.jpg Raigen with Tiombe....who looks more nervous?


But she really loved them, I have to tell her all day "Enough hugging" because she runs to there cages and hugs and kisses the actual tub..weird. And when its cleaning day she is a big helper, she'll take there hides and what ever else to the bathtub to be washed, and watch the snakes while there in there tubs waiting for me to get done cleaning there homes. She loves them to much lol. Its hard getting her to understand we DONT hug or kiss any snake with out mommy saying its okay. Today I was washing out my pet crate outside and I picked it up and there was a little ring neck under it that hurried off but of coarse Raigen was right there saying "Hold you HOLD YOU!!" as it raced away.

My husband and my son love all of our animals. I brought our first snake home from the zoo were I was working and no one would touch him at first. ( Naga the Indian Python was a little scary for me at first too...) But we went to the maryland reptile show and I got my boys( husband and son ) both there very own corn snake. Ever since then we all handle the snakes and lizards and bugs. I try to make every aspect of the reptiles ( cleaning feeding handling ) a family event. As much as I can.

Like a few of the people who posted earlier said, I dont have any children, but I think that in the future it'd be my responsibility to make sure they love nature and especially herps (who sometimes get a bad rep).

I already try to get the younger people in my community involved by talking to them and their parents before they go out to petco to buy an animal. We all know to go to a responsible breeder to purchase an animal, but not everyone knows as much.

In conclusion, I have great respect for those of us who go out of our way to educate others.

I share my love of reptiles with my son (6). My daughter (5) loves the geckos, but is slowly coming around to the world of snakes. Actually, it was my son't love of snakes that reminded me how much I enjoy them. It was then that I decided to take the plunge into bps!

As I'm NOT surprised, you guys/gals had some GREAT stories.


I hope more write about their experiences with their kids as well.


THANKS!

No sons or daughters, but I do share my hobby with my brother.

i am only 16 so i dont have kids. my mom HATES snakes and my dad passed when i was 12. i have a 12 year old brother that loves snakes and helps me out with care/maitnance. i swear that kid is the next steve irwin. one time there was a 5 ft gator that needed to be removed(no fear if humans) and once he cam on land my lil bro jumped on him lol. luckily there were no casualtys :)

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Originally Posted by uro1001

one time there was a 5 ft gator that needed to be removed(no fear if humans) and once he cam on land my lil bro jumped on him lol. luckily there were no casualtys :)

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LMAO!! That's funny. What happened to the poor thing (LOL)?

Our whole family is snake/herp crazy LOL. Mike and I have our BP's, I have my own little crested gecko and soon a baby leucy texas ratsnake, our 15 year old son Luke has his yearling BCI, our 12 year old daughter Beth has her yearling albino nelson's milksnake. Our oldest Kate is thinking about getting her own BP soon and our 5 year old Mikey is just mad because the FedEx man "nebber brings me my very own snake mommy!!!!" (a snake is arriving this Tuesday from Cue so I think I will have to make her "mikey's very own snake" just to keep the peace LOL). Here's a few pics....

Me with the BCI we fostered (Rauri).....
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../8/raurijo.jpg

Mike with one of our bigger female BP's (Orlah).....
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...ike_855751.jpg

Mikey with our 100% het for albino male BP (Malachi).....
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...mikeymay06.jpg

Luke trying to keep the big BCI (Rauri) out of our Xmas tree.....
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...auriMoving.jpg

Beth with her lovely female albino Nelson's Milksnake (Emi).....
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...8/EmiandMe.jpg

Now I just need to get a pic of my oldest daughter with a snake and I've got the whole set LOL!