Very Proud New Owner

Well finally got pics taken today of our 5 year old, Mikey, and his new female BP, Helori. Thanks to Cue for the joy this lovely little snake is bringing to Mikey and our whole family. Mikey is taking all this very seriously and insisted on not only checking Helori's tub today but even peeking inside her hides to make sure she hadn't left him a "stinky" to clean up (I think he's actually looking forward to cleaning his first snake poop LOL).

He's going to help feed Helori this coming Tuesday. This will be his first time witnessing a live feeding so we're hoping he's okay with that since he's very involved in helping with the rat colony. Anyways...without further ado...here's Mikey and Helori today.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...OwnerOct06.jpg

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ons/Helori.jpg

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...snakeOct06.jpg

As soon as it's been okayed Mikey's teacher has asked us to bring Helori and her snake friends to visit the classroom and talk about how snakes help the world and make good pets if you take care of them correctly. A lot of Mikey's little friends are amazed he lives with a houseful of snakes and rats LOL.

Cute pics!

so cute, and congrats.

Yay, the big truck brought Mikey a snake! They look adorable together...=) Let us know how Mikey does with the feeding - eep!

Super Congrats to Mikey!! What a proud handsome little man, with a beautiful ball python!!

Congrats all the way around! :D

Yay!!! :clap: SantaPython strikes again!! I cant wait for my SP visit!!!Im sure Mikey will do just fine with the feeding!!You just have to tell him what will happen to the rat. A herper in the making!

Thanks everyone!

Hard to say how Mikey will handle the live feeding. He's very interested in the mechanics of how snakes eat and asks very straight forward questions. On the other hand, he's involved pretty much daily in the rat colony. We reassured him that the big rats that have names and make the babies, and the little ones that have names (the future breeders) are never fed off and that seemed to suit him fine.

Adam (or any others with kids around 5) how do you handle this? Anything in particular this age group reacts to good or bad?

awesome snake buddy congrats!!!:rockon:

My kids being Lion King fans made the explanation very easy. I was worried about the first feeding (seems so long ago) But I stood with them explained what was happening and then the circle of life discussion happened. My youngest was 6 at the time, her reaction was "cool" she never flinched so we either prepared her well.. or she is demented.

Awww, sweet pics! Mikey looks like a great snake keeper to me :cool:

I was very worried about Marc's first feeding experience, too. I don't know if you remember me posting about it, but I was all stressed out for nothing. He ended up getting bored and leaving the room! haha
Now it's just all routine to him.

i know with my kids i just told them that rats/mice were food for the snake and that was that. and they really enjoy helpng out with the feeding part but dislike the cleaning part.

I am around 5-6 year olds all the time. Very few of them have had problems with it. Just alittle startled when the snake strikes...( on videos since I dont have any snakes on live) Just go through tjhe prosses with him. Get a rat of a color that he doesnt like. Explain it to him.

Nathaniel is four....he's always interested in the rats I bring home from the pet store and wants to pet them. But once they go into the snake tub...he loses all interest. I don't know how different it would be if we were raising and feeding our own rats, but I think kids are pretty darned impressionable at this age...it's an age where you can still tell them "This is the way it is"...and they believe it without giving it another thought. (Which means its an age we have to be exceptionally careful with!)


Mikey's been taught from the beginning that the snakes eat the rats they're meant to eat...and that's all right and proper. So I would trust that he'd be just fine with the actual process.

Well tell him i said Congrats on his little freind:clap: :clap: :clap:

Good stuff Jo!!

Congrats Mikey! :carrot: :sweeet: He sure does look happy!!

Have you allowed him to watch the f/t feeders? That might be a good indicator of whether or not he can handle a live feeder he helped raise. Maybe let him watch that first and then gauge his reaction? I will keep my fingers crossed all goes well. :D

congrats to you and your son . hope he gets as much enjoyment out of reptiles as i have over the years .

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Thanks to Cue for the joy this lovely little snake is bringing to Mikey and our whole family.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...snakeOct06.jpg

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Thank you for the chance to be a part of your family's passion for animals. I can't even put in to words how happy Mikey makes me! Great pics :clap:

Jo, Mikey looks like such a proud new owner. Good Luck :)

So the snakes finally won over your little one, huh Jo? lol wonder how long until the bug bit him too!

Congrats to him! Helori is a cutie.

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Originally Posted by Shelby

So the snakes finally won over your little one, huh Jo? lol wonder how long until the bug bit him too!

Congrats to him! Helori is a cutie.

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Well he already got his doggie! :giggle:

Your Son looks so proud. Those pictures are adorable. I bet when he's older he'll have an impressive collection like us! Hope the snakes don't take control of your house lol. Very cool.

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Originally Posted by snake_lady83

Your Son looks so proud. Those pictures are adorable. I bet when he's older he'll have an impressive collection like us! Hope the snakes don't take control of your house lol. Very cool.

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Oh heck that happened ages ago! You know you are lost when you view new family housing with an eye for what room works as the snake room and where in heck can you put more rat enclosures before you count bathrooms LOL (and if it comes down to it, you will give up a spare bathroom to get the snake/rat areas squared away!)

Thanks everyone for the lovely comments about Mikey and his new buddy, Helori. He's extremely proud to finally be a snake owner like the rest of his family. Tonight he gets to clean his first snake poopie up as I just noticed Helori's left him a "prezzie" LOL. He's so cute talking about how when Helori is big she'll be a mommy snake and he'll get a boy snake to be the daddy and they will be parent snakes. :)

Thanks as well for the advice about the live feeding issue. We don't want to baby him overly but heck I'm a mom and I have to fuss about this stuff. We're actually going in to clean Helori and feed her shortly before Mikey's bedtime so I'll report back on the outcome of his first live feeding experience with his scaley buddy.

Cue huge hugs to you bud! She's a wonderful little snake, calm as could be and you couldn't ask for a healthier, more well started baby.

Lol. I guess I should have known that they've already taken over your house.:P Keep us updated please.:)

Big congrats on your new snake Mikey!! Great pics. :carrot:

:aww: That is SO incredibly sweet! The story, the pics, just everything! Way to go Mikey! And extra cool to get to help educate his classmates!

:sweeet::colbert2::clap:

Awww! It's so cool that he's interested in snakes. :)
Cue; he's great w/ his Santapython thing!

Well his first feeding went very well. He thinks snake poop, while interesting, is gross btw LOL but he helped clean his snake up anyways. He helped me pick a nice live prey item and took that all pretty much in stride with only a bit of upset about it. I just stayed very businesslike and reminded him that's why we have the smaller rats around. He insisted on dropping the rat fuzzie/small pup in the enclosure by himself.

Of course Miss Helori then decided she wasn't eating with some kid staring at her. Soon as Mikey wandered off to use the bathroom, she snarfed down her dinner good as gold. He did get to see her finish up.

So after all my worry and motherly fuss, his only comment on the experience was....

"good job Helori!"

then he very matter of factly went off to find a storybook for bedtime. LMBO!

Lol, sounds exactly like Marc's first feeding of his snake.

Great job, Mikey!

That's too cute! I'm glad things went so well for you. It's really hard to guess how a child is going to react to that sort of thing. Good job to Helori and Mikey! :sunny:

You might be a herper if you have more pictures of you and your snake(s) than you do of you and your mate. :D

Ummm Hannah does it count if all the pics of you and your mate have snakes in em???? LOL

Yes that counts too lol. Snakes everywhere!:snake: As long as snakes are in a picture you can consider yourself a herper.:)

Yay Mikey!!!! He is now several more steps higher than Nate is on the man scale!!!;) ( sorry nate i had to!! LOL! )

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

So after all my worry and motherly fuss, his only comment on the experience was....

"good job Helori!"

then he very matter of factly went off to find a storybook for bedtime. LMBO!

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So glad it went so well Jo :clap:

Mikey is such a lil champ :rockon: