At what age did you get your first snake?

[LightningPython]

Can't a remember when I held a reptile for the first time, but I got my first lizard , a crested gecko, for Christmas at 15. Then a few months later I got my first snake after finding out a local reptile group had one for adoption and I literally fell in love with him.

Now at 17, I have 8 snakes, 7 cresties, 1 Leo and a tortoise

[Maddlesrain]

I got my first snake about three weeks ago now, at 19, as a sort of birthday gift to myself. My mom is terrified of snakes, so I wasn't allowed to have one when I was living at the house. I've always had an affinity for snakes, especially the larger ones, after holding an absolutely massive yellow boa with a group of other young children at a zoo when I was about 5.

This is my first semester in college, I'm out of the house, earning my own money, and have a roommate who loves animals just as much as I do. Here's the catch: because I'm a freshman, living in a dorm, animals are strictly forbidden. Seeing as most people on my hall don't give two shakes about the rules, a group of hall mates and I decided to go out and get ourselves some scaly friends. I knew I wanted a ball python, as I love the way they look overall with their cute chunky build and cool color morphs.

I love the color yellow, and because the snake that introduced me to large snakes was yellow, felt I wanted one of that color. That's how I ended up with Kaa.

We started off at a really nice reptile shop near the college, which had a nice variety of ball pythons, namely a beautiful pied, which I was very interested in, but couldn't get myself to pull the trigger on. It just wasn't what I'd had in mind whenever I thought of owning a large snake.

My friend also wanted a veiled chameleon, which the shop unfortunately also didn't have available at the time. I can hear the tsk-ing now (if you already already), but we decided to go to Petsmart to look for a chameleon for my friend. I hadn't even thought about looking at the snakes, but as soon as I looked at the python tags and saw a bright yellow one, I had to see the animal. We asked an employee, and were shown to the back, where all the ball pythons were being held as it was feeding night and they feed all their snakes in separate tubs. I looked at the little yellow snake and I knew deep down he was the one, but I told the employee to keep him there so I could go look at the little pied from the other shop one last time.

Back at the other shop, another friend of mine bought a little abbott's corn snake, before we returned to the box store for the ball python and the girl's roommate's chameleon.

I couldn't bring my new baby home that night because they'd fed him. I didn't mind too much knowing he'd eaten, and anxiously waited until the next day to go pick him up after my morning class.

The 'fun' part of this whole animal business was trying to sneak tanks, heating accessories, and decor up three flights of stairs and into our dorms without any of the snoopy b*tches down the hall or our excruciatingly strict RA seeing us. Everything went fine until three days ago, when one out of the 50 people on our floor decided to snitch and the wrath of our RA came crashing down upon us. Fortunately for my three other hall mates who have their own snakes and chameleons, this berating was only bestowed upon my unfortunate roommate and I.

And now the irony of this all comes around full circle. The snake my mother wouldn't let me keep when I was young is now living at my family home.


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[ajmreptiles]

I want to say I was around 5 when we got a pet snake. I believe it was a Texas rat snake

[Coluber42]

My first snake was a BP, bought with my allowance when I was 13. Second was a corn snake, when I was 15. The deal was that I was allowed to have pets if I paid for them and took care of them, etc. There was a pet store on the way home from school, and I would stop in to pick up rodents on the way home. I had my first job there, too.
The BP died when I was a senior in college in an incident involving a New England winter, a busted heating system, and an unregulated UTH. I still want to cry when I think about it. The corn snake died when I was 34, at which point I got another ball python.


My spouse had never thought much about snakes one way or another before meeting me, but after living with mine for so long, he was almost as upset as I was when the corn snake died. And recently he has started dropping hints about hognoses or garters or other smallish/adorable/more active species. I haven't yet been able to tell whether this is a "if I had unlimited space/resources/whatever" kind of want, or a "I actually want to do this now" kind of want (if it's the latter, there's no reason we couldn't do it tomorrow). So I would say there is a nonzero probability of another snake in my future. Either way I guess I lucked out on spouses.

[Neal]

I was under 10.

However, I did a lot of catching and releasing after taking pictures or moving them if they were venomous. I did this with a friend and his brother until we were in our teens then we started doing this on our own.

Now, my first snake I actually bought, meh I was 16 or so?

[Rikoku]

I held/bought my first snake last year at the age of 25. My Fiance' wanted something to keep her busy at home while I was at work all day. Out of no where she said she wanted a snake and we did our researched and decided a ball python would be our best choice. We ended up going to Petsmart to look at them but I did not want a normal. Luckily we found a local pet shop who's owner breeds his own BP's and we purchased our pastel. After that I just got hooked on everything ball python. I wanted to learn as much as I can about them, their genes, breeding, care, anything I can I try to soak up and that obsession is still going strong. We got our second BP from a local Repticon show near me, we weren't expecting to purchase one but we just had to have him when we saw him.

[Sandi1961]

LOL, I feel old! I held my first snake at a zoo when I was 12-14 y/of. I got my first snake, a corn when I was 50...my first BP a few months later...now I have 8 total!

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[BR8080]

LOL, I feel old! I held my first snake at a zoo when I was 12-14 y/of. I got my first snake, a corn when I was 50...my first BP a few months later...now I have 8 total!

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LOL I was thinking the same thing...I'm 46 and just got my first. I'm already looking for the next. LOL

[melcvt00]

I was 36. Mine was a rescue. Adult son living with parents and moving soon didn't want it anymore, had tried to sell snake and enclosure for $80. No takers. I had expressed mild interest (since I had no idea how to take care of a snake), and a couple weeks later, parent called my husband to verify if I was serious. Said he would pay his kid the $80, and I could just have it.

Malfoy came to me with just a heat lamp, one hide, no humidity, open screen top, and a mouse buddy that had been living with him for 2 weeks. The water dish had a layer of slime, and some of the aspen bedding had molded at the bottom (who knows how long it had been since cleaned). Malfoy hadn't eaten in 4 months at that point, went another 2 before he ate for me. The mouse he came with died a week after arrival.

Now Malfoy if fasting for the winter again, but he is starting out 1.5lb heavier, and has a much better enclosure. Last thing I really need to get is a thermostat so I can get the UTH going (haven't needed it until now).

[Dahliasmom]

36. I was terrified of snakes but a coworker knew someone trying to rehome an anery corn that had been mauled by his cat. I took it in and she helped me get over my lifelong fear, after a few nights of ridiculous nightmares. Lol.

I studied up on care, added 6 more corns from breeders, got my next door neighbor a ball python to thank him for his help with my first snake (he had some years ago but hadn't gotten back into them yet and was looking into it) which turned him into getting 7 more and now I have 3 ball pythons of my own too after playing with his and seeing how different they are to my corns.

Funny how I was terrified all those years and now they are my favorite animal. My 4 year old loves them too, she has one corn and one ball she claims as hers. Lol


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