Show and tell

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You can have handling experience however you MUST be in control of your animal so for individual handling experience smaller snakes are better than bigger ones.

One thing you want is have the parent sign a waiver understanding the possible risks and necessity to properly wash hands before and after the event.

When handling a small snake depending on the age of the child you need to help with the support of the body and should ALWAYS be in control of the head of the animal, the animal's head should be turned towards you never toward the child (so you may need to re-adjust as it goes)

For large animals same principal have the children sitting or standing and have 2 to 3 people supporting the body of the animal and again one person in control of the head.

Know your animals, be able to read them and know when enough is enough, bring more than one so you can switch in between.

I think the personal hands on interaction is important too but it must be done by someone knowledgeable that know's the risk and knows how to avoid them and the key is that YOU have control.

[Toad37]

I agree with all of that thanks Deborah! Especially having the parents sign some sort of waiver. The biggest thing I would take is a male bp but there are still risks of course. I just think it would be a neat idea to introduce children to reptiles and touch on some basic general knowledge things like ectothermic vs endothermic, heat requirements, and feeding. But the main thing would be safety. For everyone involved, the people and the animals.

[Bogertophis]

Well school is about over they only have 3 weeks left so maybe next year. But that would be very cool! I think I would be more infatuated with them than the kids would

It's out of my control that my snakes lay their eggs in the summer, lol. So I guess you'll have to make the kids go to summer school? The eggs aren't gonna keep
for a year...they eventually turn funny colors & become very "aromatic".

[Toad37]

It's out of my control that my snakes lay their eggs in the summer, lol. So I guess you'll have to make the kids go to summer school? The eggs aren't gonna keep
for a year...they eventually turn funny colors & become very "aromatic".

Eeewww that doesn't sound like a good time at all! Like I said I want them to initiate that conversation if it were to take place without my influence. I guess we'll just have to suffer with picture eggs!