Very Proud New Owner

[frankykeno]

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.







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.

[sho220]

Cute pics!

[jcaustralia]

so cute, and congrats.

[cassandra]

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

[JLC]

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

[iceman25]

Congrats all the way around!

[stangs13]

Yay!!! 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!

[frankykeno]

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?

[stl_fan]

awesome snake buddy congrats!!!

[Sinsation]

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.