Show and Tell

[Gutziegal]

I'm new to this forum and the BP world.
My sister is a teacher and would like me to bring my two BP's to her classroom for a show and tell.
Is this a bad idea?

[Freakie_frog]

I'm new to this forum and the BP world.
My sister is a teacher and would like me to bring my two BP's to her classroom for a show and tell.
Is this a bad idea?

This can be a great idea!!! there are so things you'll want to remember.

1: no everybody likes snake so reassure all those around that your not going to force them to get any closer to the animals than they want to.

2: make sure those kids or even teacher that touch the animals use hand sanitizer before and after touching the animals (for the safety of your animals and the people)

3: Prepare ahead of time to present the info on the level of the people that will be there. Obviously you can give Third graders the same talk you would college students.

[JeffJ]

depends on how old it is and how used it is to being handled and to people in general. if its nippy or generally scared its not a good idea to introduce it to many little hands.

[gu1do24]

awesome idea. that sounds fun i bet some little ones will think its the coolest thing.good luck

[Gutziegal]

My two are only about 8 months old. Neither have shown any problems with being handled. Are they too young to be taking out for show and tell?

[Kaorte]

If they are calm enough, I don't see a problem. I would make sure that any kids who want to touch the snake come up in small groups of 2-3 so the snake doesn't get mobbed by a bunch of children.

If you have two, you could bring both and then switch if one starts getting stressed out from the extra attention.

[Melicious]

I'm new to this forum and the BP world.
My sister is a teacher and would like me to bring my two BP's to her classroom for a show and tell.
Is this a bad idea?

I don't think that it's a bad idea. When my father was having a pet show at his high school, I brought Ophi as a demonstration snake. She was very good about being touched and handled.

Just a few things to remember:

1. Make sure they're warm enough. Bring a couple of those hand-warmers and wrap them up when you're transporting them or waiting for the show and tell to start.

2. Watch their movements. You know your snakes better than anyone else. If they start to get agitated, it's time to set them down for a while.

3. Keep the little paws away from their faces. Please. O_O

4. Definitely have anti-bacterial gel around.

5. Use this as a chance to tell them cute little facts, like why they're named ball and royal pythons. Talk about the reverence that the people of their native countries have for them.

6. Make sure that you don't pressure anyone into touching them. Just have them come in small groups or form a line.

7. HAVE FUN!

[anatess]

My snakes are show-and-tell veterans. My kids are in 2nd grade and Kindergarten and the snakes have been to both classes plus a reptile class at boy scouts for the reptile badge.

I have an '07 bp, 2 '08 bp's, and an '07 western hognose.

It's an AWESOME experience for the kids.

This is how we did our shows:

1.) we had a 3-panel poster (folding poster board from wal-mart). Left panel shows bullet points on "Why snakes make great pets" and basic reptile info and big words explained - like thermo-regulation. Middle panel had basic info and husbandry for ball pythons (had a map of Africa, had highlights for temperature 80-90, and 50% humidity), and basic info and husbandry for western hognose. The 3rd panel had basic info and husbandry for corn snakes and king snakes (great beginner snakes).

2.) we had the complete 10gallon viv set-up for the hognose and the complete 20L viv set-up for the ball python to show. We did not have any of the heaters plugged, so the thermometer did not show the proper temps, but we explained that during the show.

3.) we held the other 2 snakes (the more friendly ones).

4.) My son presented the snakes - basically just pointing out highlights from the poster board and explaining the vivariums.

5.) We had question and answer. Be prepared for crazy questions like "Do they eat people?", and the occasional stories, "My grandfather had a snake and he eats people..."... and prepare to counter them with statements that would make the kids understand, this is not normal pet snake behavior without making the kids who said it feel picked on.

6.) Handling session... this is tricky. We had the western hognose who was Mr. Hissy complete with fake strikes - so, we showed them how this is normal behavior and my son went ahead and picked him up anyway, which gained a "WHOA... AWESOME" reaction from the kids. Then while my son was holding the hognose, we had the kids just run their forefinger down his body. We were trying to show them the difference between the ball python and the hognose scales. But we didn't let anybody hold him because there were over 30 kids for only 1 hognose. So, then we had the ball pythons out, and we let the kids hold them since we had 3 to rotate.

Great session. Everybody loved it. In all our show and tells, we didn't have any kid yet who didn't want to touch the snake. But, we only had 2 of the teachers touch the snake. It's interesting - the teachers displayed the fear of snakes but none of the kids did. So, I'm making the conclusion (in my very limited experience) that fear of snakes are learned, not instinctive.

[Gutziegal]

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I will be taking all of this into consideration when I do decide if "I" want to go into her classroom full of 7 year olds. I will definitely take every precaution to ensure that my little two are kept stress-free and safe.