Have you taken your BP to work or anywhere else?

Hey all:D

Was wondering if any of you have taken your BP to work or not?

I took Samson to my workplace today for a very brief visit. Workplace being my manufacturing warehouse here in Johannesburg, South Africa, where I make dog and cat beds which are sold throughout the country.

Now the thing here in SA is that the majority of the black population are petrified of snakes. When Samson arrived there were screams and lots of running away by my guys, but after a few minutes they calmed down and became more inquisitive if anything.

I managed to get one of my guys to hold Samson while I took a quick snap.
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil..._480_x_360.jpg

Just in case you are wondering, this is not a regular occurance and Samson won't be taken out in public too often, for one thing people can have a negative reaction to someone having a snake in public, and secondly it is stressful for the snake.

I must say that Samson did very well, he did not show the ball's typical passive defensive mode at all and seemed just as inquisitive as my team. Needless to say, Samson is now safely tucked away in his snakebag on top of a toasty pc case.

If you've not taken your BP to work, then tell us where you have taken him/her. Also let us know how others reacted. My guys definitely learnt today that not all snakes are gonna bite you and have even told me how beautiful he is.... a mini education:cool:

Great picture and so cool to see the different facial expressions of people, from nervous curiosity to wonderment. And nice that he helped to educate and change some opinion on your crew!

I would not bring my snake to work, because I know that it probably would be frowned upon. As long as they can just see pictures on a computer, they're fine with me talking about them all day, but I don't believe they'd appreciate them physically being here.

Never brought any to work I have had a couple shipped to the office. anytime I get a fedex package I just get called to come get it they never bring it to me. LOL

Most people that find out that I have ball pythons assume that they grow to retic size and that they are venomous. This emotional response can't ordinarily be soothed by presenting the facts, so I do this more or less as a clandestine hobby. But if you are able to do some PR work more power to you.

That is a GREAT picture!!!! I love it. Kind of a modern day Norman Rockwell. Thanks for sharing that wonderful picture with us.

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Originally Posted by Jenn

That is a GREAT picture!!!! I love it. Kind of a modern day Norman Rockwell. Thanks for sharing that wonderful picture with us.

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Thanks all, glad you like it... who is this Norman Rockwell? You'll have to forgive my ignorance but I'm still living in a mud hut here is deepest darkest Africa, where my only friend is Samson, broadband and satellite tv...:D

Norman Rockwell was an American artist who captured human emotion in often comical situations.

I would probably take it out for a walk in the future....at night of course

Do you guys think it's okay to take it for a walk?

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Originally Posted by mmlprsh

I would probably take it out for a walk in the future....at night of course

Do you guys think it's okay to take it for a walk?

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what like on a leash??

I think fresh air wouldn't hurt it but I have to many to take out and let get fresh air. They get that on picture day.

Got it!

Just googled him , his drawings kinda remind of the old style Coca-Cola ads...

Wonder if he's got Balls:D

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Originally Posted by Bundu Boy

Got it!

Just googled him , his drawings kinda remind of the old style Coca-Cola ads...

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Bingo!!

He did the coca-cola adds and the Sunday Post covers for years

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

what like on a leash??

I think fresh air wouldn't hurt it but I have to many to take out and let get fresh air. They get that on picture day.

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He He, I wonder if anyone does leashes/harnesses for snakes like the ones you get for iguanas. The ones that have the little waistcoat and hat:rofl:

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

Bingo!!

He did the coca-cola adds and the Sunday Post covers for years

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Hey, so we ain't so outta touch down here then:cool:

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Originally Posted by Bundu Boy

He He, I wonder if anyone does leashes/harnesses for snakes like the ones you get for iguanas. The ones that have the little waistcoat and hat:rofl:

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ask and ye shall receive.

http://www.snakewalker.com/

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Originally Posted by Bundu Boy

Hey, so we ain't so outta touch down here then:cool:

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Naa your not.. I saw Deal or NO Deal from South Africa last night. I have to say SA has some good looking lady's. ;)

I have taken my girl out on occassion for a walk around my apartment complex. Most of the time people don't seem to even notice. Maybe they think it's a necklace? Or maybe they are just to busy with what they are doing or thinking to not notice.

I have had two very interesting conversations with people who did see it. They were very inquisitive and thought it was cool.

I wouldn't take it to work. I'd probably get sent home or fired.

In the summer and fall when it's warm out we walk around the neighborhood most nights for exercise, everyone grabs their favorite snake and off we go. For the most part those who notice are full of questions and curiosity. I have noticed however that my daughters girlfriends are the bravest and always want to pet or hold them. Boys of the same age groups (9 - 13 year olds) seem very timid or down right afraid.
I always feel if we as a family can educate one person or dispell fears of these wonderful animals then it was a very rewarding walk in more ways than one.

Boys are afraid of the girls.:(

Well, the closest thing I've done was take some of the leos out on the lawn for a quick natural light shot. I'm in an area with a lot of apartments and I don't want my neighbors freaking out about snakes, but you know..who's afraid of geckos?

Other than that I've taken one of my snakes and walked around with him in a plastic tub under my arm at a reptile show. I didn't buy him at that show at any point. That day I was taking him in to get sexed. If he'd been female, I could have sold him, but he wasn't for sale regardless.

Yeah.....right.

Take one of my snakes to work? That'll happen. A photo is bad enough.:mad:

that is a beautiful picture. thank you for sharing.

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

ask and ye shall receive.

http://www.snakewalker.com/

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

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:8: :rofl: ok I think now I HAVE seen everything :rolleye2:

Hey all

Thanks for the comments...

One thing to watch out for if if your BP decides to do his business out there!!!:8::8::8::8::8::8:

I made Samson a camoflage cloth snakebag. I was being fancy and wanted a solid flat base at the bottom of the bag, to help keep him steady and to keep him safer. I used cardboard as a base with a PVC and camo fabric cover which gave a nice solid base. Only problem was that Samson decided to take a pee and drop some urates.

I only really noticed the smell when I went to take him out and then my error of judgement hit me, pee and cardboard don't work so lekker (local slang for 'great')together . And you could not wash it. Samson let me know that my idea was :rolleye2::rolleye2::rofl:
So I cut the base off and put a new one on that is a bit more flexible and washable, and it looks killer:D. My guys at work will know that when that bag appears, they got some fun coming...:taz:

i bring toki to the pool with me at our apt complex. i dont take him in the water obviously but he likes to lay out in the sun for a bit then curl up in a towel and chill.
hes a total chick magnet

I don't take my snakes anywhere other than the back yard or the vet.

Main reason being, anything over a certain size that could be considered a danger to small children or minors under 18, and small pets is illegal to have on public property here. Yes that even includes ball pythons.

I'd rather just avoid a whole confrontation and avoid drawing attention to my snakes. Especially right now.

Up here a lot of people kill snakes, run them over, hate them with a passion. So I try and be as careful as possible.

nice pics, glad to hear every thing went well. i took my bp to school about a month back, i did a report for my com (public speeking class) on ball python care. im going to school for zas, so taking the bp in had more than one perk. with the exception of one student (who left the class) every one loved her and it seemed like she feed off of it:P it was every thing i could have hoped for and much more.

if im off and i gotta run up there then yea sometimes i do but seeing as how i work at a petstore it kinda is cool

I took Vincent to the vet. Does that count?

We had a bring your pet to work day at my old job...so I did. Needless to say I was the only one that brought a snake, lol. He spent most of the day curled up under my shirt collar, but every so often he would pop his little head out and someone would go OMG, is that a SNAKE!? All the kids loved him...they all wanted to pet him, and for the parents that would allow it I let them pet his lower half. Answered a whole lot of questions too...no he doesn't bite, no he isn't poisonous, no he won't get huge. I always think it's funny when you're standing there holding a snake and someone goes, "Aren't you scared?" Dude, if I was scared I wouldn't be holding him, now would I? All in all it was a fun day, and my BP was quite the ambassador for his species. There were kids walking out going, "Mom, I want a snake!" all day. I even managed to win over a couple of people who's first reaction was to scream and run about 10 feet.

i havent but almost everyone i work with i am good friends with and they have seen them at my house.

Excellent photo!

I used to have a few of my snakes shipped to work, until the day the receptionist mistakenly thought I was out of the office, and opened a package marked perishable.

I should have realized something was up when I heard the scream. I learned that day that our receptionist has a massive snake phobia. I've never seen someone so frightened in my life.

Word quickly spread around the office, and work ground to a halt. Some people thought it was cool and wanted to see it, but others freaked out completely.

It was made clear to me that snakes are not welcome in my workplace.


Other than that, they only go out to go to the vet.

I've been considering it . . .

Weekends, I work at a public aquarium, where I host and provide edutainmental tours for children's birthday parties and scout overnights. We're planning a new exhibit for the end of June which will take visitors on an underwater African safari, with fish from the Nile, Tanganyika & Malawi, and the rivers of West Africa. I believe they're planning on including Madagascan ground and tree boas as well, so an up-close with a BP might be a fun "extra". I've got four '07 girls who could rotate the job, so nobody would have very heavy workloads.

~Bruce

i even take mine to the gas station and wherever else theyll let me. ive been kicked out of walmart bc of the health code n stuff but most places dont care.
and the reaction people get when they realize i have a 3 and a half foot snake on my neck-priceless

We take Milton to the pet store on occasion when we are getting his food.

My wife especially likes talking to children and letting them interact with him. He has a fantastic personality, so it's always a positive experience for everyone (except maybe the old lady who is afraid of all reptiles). We have even had a few people who were very afraid of snakes that are now happy to see him. I always ask the kids what they think he feels like. Number one answer: a football! :)

All I can say is the Snake Walker leash thing rules. How funny is that thing?

It has only hit 80 degrees around three times since I got ANY snake. (October '07)

I took them to the porch those trhee days.

yeah I have brought bali to my dads office. He owns an optometry practice.

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

what like on a leash??

I think fresh air wouldn't hurt it but I have to many to take out and let get fresh air. They get that on picture day.

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lol no
just holding it or around my neck:D
I love my BP (I just can't stop saying that:P)

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Originally Posted by Fini

All I can say is the Snake Walker leash thing rules. How funny is that thing?

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I was thinking the same thing...;)

I took a few of the snakes to my son's 6th grade sicence class when they were discussing reptiles. All the kids thought they were pretty cool. He also did his science project on the snakes so he took his test subjects to the science fair. That was a blast - we were the hit of the fair. Everyone had to stop by and see the snakes. We had our largest girl (2700gms) and our smallest boy (300gms) and the folks were amazed. It was a really good education event for the kids and their parents.

I took my biggest female to the pet store who's around 4 1/2 foot, to get some supplies and frozen adult mice for my little ones. Had a lady that was very curious asking me a bunch of questions about her and the lady's kids touched her and everything. it was fun. As i was waiting in line to pay, another lady behind me hadn't noticed my ball python all over my arm and when she did, she just jumped two steps back.lol :rofl: just wasn't expecting that, afterwards she was laughing:rofl::rofl:. looking forward to taking her again lol :gj:

I took my blood and my female to work but thats because I had to take them to the vet for a check up. They didnt like being in the carry containers all day lol. Got all hissy at the vet.

I take mine to work,wal-marts,the park and all about. But I can only take my younger girl now or my young blood python. The others are busy tring to make babys or I hope.

well, my apartment is above my workplace. so all of my pets have been down there at least once. always by request. i've also taken my BP tank to a friend's house who wanted to show her hubby that they weren't all bad (he touched him! lol) and a few neighbors ended up coming over to check him out too. it ended up being a good experience all around.

I haven't brought mine to work yet. That would be very interesting though. My Boss is 80. I don't think she would be very happy with me. Her husband would be very interested though.
We recently boarded an albino Burm. He was about 12' ft. Very friendly. I took him out & my Boss' husband handle him for about a
1/2 an hour. He asked tons of questions. I work as a pet groomer at a boarding place. They were not even going to let this person board the snake. Because my BF & I have snakes they welcomed it. My daughter has taken Eddy for walks though. Only around our nieghborhood though. We live in a small town, small neighborhood. :)

I took one of my BP's to work in a snake bag because I had to leave straight from work to get her to her vet appointment. I worked at a credit union and the other people were all women ranging from 24 to 50 ish. They were all apprehensive at first but after a couple of hours of Mona in a bag in the break room they all got curious and asked me to take her out. 2 of the women held her the other 2 did not but I think they were less scared after the experience.

Mine's gone out to the park a block away from my apartment with me before. People often don't notice him at first and do a double-take when they do. I've had a good number of people come up to ask about him and tell me stories about their own snakes or friends' snakes.

He's very good around groups of people (he'll crawl all over new folk, unless the crowd starts getting larger than 6 or so), and people seem to like him. Before I adopted him from an animal rescue he was the official "spokes-snake" for their reptile program, because he does so very well with kids. I definitely had a lot of "wow, I should get a snake" reactions to him.

I've also found that women tend to be much more comfortable with him. I've only ever had guys get frightened of him. Although guys who aren't scared tend to be waaaay more into the feeding aspects of snake ownership.

Oh, and I'm certainly not the only person who takes their "exotic" pet out in public here (Berkeley). I've seen several other people with snakes, and there's one guy who regularly takes his parrot on walks.

Wow that was long. He's still new and my first. Sorry. <3

Morning all:D

Wow what a lot a great replies:O thanks:gj:

Funny how you get mixed reactions for Joe Public when they see your snake. There are always those that take a step back and those that take a step forward.

Those that I've shown Samson to generally have mini freak-out first but within 15minutes they've all had a hold or at least a feel....

We must understand that it is a inbuilt defensive mechanism to be wary of snakes, or other 'creepy crawlies'. But once people calm down they become more interested than anything else. I think that is super!:banana:

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Originally Posted by Music28

i even take mine to the gas station and wherever else theyll let me. ive been kicked out of walmart bc of the health code n stuff but most places dont care.
and the reaction people get when they realize i have a 3 and a half foot snake on my neck-priceless

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Why? That seems more like showing off and un-needed stress for the snake. :confused:

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Originally Posted by roosterman2173

I take mine to work,wal-marts,the park and all about. But I can only take my younger girl now or my young blood python. The others are busy tring to make babys or I hope.

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Again, why? The snakes certainly don't benefit from it. :confused:

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Originally Posted by Music28

i even take mine to the gas station and wherever else theyll let me. ive been kicked out of walmart bc of the health code n stuff but most places dont care.
and the reaction people get when they realize i have a 3 and a half foot snake on my neck-priceless

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Being kicked out of WalMart was a given. Why in the world would you do that? That sort of thing does the snake owning world at large no good deed and encourages a reputation that we aren't responsible and law abiding.

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Originally Posted by balls4life

I took my biggest female to the pet store who's around 4 1/2 foot, to get some supplies and frozen adult mice for my little ones.

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Just a thought here.....most pet stores I've been in, barring a few really good ones, tend to have mites and other issues with their store stock. A pet store would be about the last place I'd take one of our snakes into.

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Originally Posted by roosterman2173

I take mine to work,wal-marts,the park and all about.

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Why do you do this? I assume you are not walking around your local WalMart with a snake slung over your neck or you'd be escorted out. So is it under your shirt or in a pocket? What makes you want to drag a snake around with you like that?

I'm not trying to start anything here or be rude. I am trying to figure out however what drives some of you to put your snakes into what most of us would call inappropriate situations.

Some very solid points made there about taking your BP out in public.

In this day and age persons can generally do what they please, what is important is do they know what impact their actions have, for themselves, the public, and their BP. And do they care:confused:

Personally I would not take Samson out while I'm shopping, going to the movies or a restaurant etc, mostly where places where you do not control over environmental factors. You could actually end up in a big pile of poo if you do.

But I will take him to a controlled environment where people numbers are limited and I'll have the opportunity to tell them what is in the bag before I whip him out.

Problem doing it otherwise is that people's natural reaction will hit first, and in an environment where you do not have control people who are scared can incite the 'sheep' mentality. One freaks outs, then another, then another.... next thing you know a whole ton of people are freaked out... then trouble can start:taz:

Anyways, I don't want this thread to turn into a 'You should not do because', rather keep to the theme y'all and share experiences, positive and negative, and let us all decide for ourselves how we should conduct ourselves. Thx:please: