Who else?

[Solarsoldier001]

I was never a reptile person. My parents never let me have any other pet besides a cat. So I love love cats (partly because it's all I have ever known and the other is because cats are purring beast!).

Two years ago (almost) I met my boyfriend that loves all kinds of animals. 3 months of dating him he gets his first bp (fluffy) a normal ball python. I never owned anything but a cat so me seeing, let alone holding a snake scared the living critters out of me.

None the less I faced my fear and now I'm a snake lover.

But I actually enjoy taking care of snakes. Having them eat makes me excited. Seeing them shed makes me fascinated. And I'm sure when we start producing I'll me like a child on christmas morning.

Anyone else never excepted to be so heavy into bps? I never thought I'd enjoy owning one snake let alone five snakes. And I actually am going to a reptile show and going to breed too. I'm just impressed how much the bp world has become part of my life. I'm sure I'm not alone. But I was wondering how others started and if they are so heavy into it too?


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[Andybill]

I had to wait until I was 23 to get my first snake. It was a hog island boa (and still is) but I certainly never imagined that I would get into BPs the way I have. Honestly I got my first BPs early this year and now I have 13. And I am breeding rats. I love it! I am obsessed! This season I have 4 females that will be breeding so I am super stoked!

[Coleslaw007]

I grew up having all different types of animals; frogs, toads, all different types of rodents, birds, fish, lizards, ect; but I had never owned a snake bc my mom is not too fond of them. I actually, for some reason assumed that all snakes get huge and need to be upgraded in their enclosure size often, which I didn't want to deal with. I'm not at all sure where I got that idea but I had pretty much written snakes off as something I had no interest in- I wasn't afraid of them in the least, just indifferent about keeping one. Then about 2 years ago I was looking at pics of candy cane corn snakes and started researching them and quickly became obsessed with getting one. Boyfriend had never owned much of any animals aside from cats and dogs but he was interested and wanted me to get one if I wanted. We went to the Phx reptile show a couple weeks later and picked up Cthulhu, our anery motley corn. We touched a few people's balls (he he) at the expo and decided we really wanted some. Then we started researching morphs and got hooked, bought our first 2 balls at the Tucson Reptile Expo the next year.

Here's a few pics of Cthulhu cuz he's our first snake and he's super cute!!!

Tiny baby when we first got him: (Crappy cell pic)

Playin' Xbox:

Now:


Yay, 'Thulers!!!!!!

The last pic also shows one of his smaller battle scars from when escaped his tank and got into our half-grown rat's cage, it was BAAAAD and I was positive he was going to die The vet said it's nothing short of miraculous that he survived it and we had to give him multiple injections a day for weeks. He's our little miracle snake Go 'Thulhu!!!!

Sorry for the half thread jack Carry on!

[mebigbadbrat]

I am the same way. Seven and half years ago, my dad kept talking about his old ball python while we were in a pet shop. Six months later, I had saved up enough money for my own. I was 14 years old. Never would of thought I would have fell in love with this normal BP, Nacho. I love her to death. I have had her for seven years and refuse to re-home her.

Back in 2007, I started rescued snakes with my dad. It bought us together through some very rough times. My parents divorced and he left. For a long time, I felt like we only connected because of Nacho. So in 2007, we went to our first reptile expo and I bought a 9 foot Red Tail Boa for 50$. I was very stupid. My dad knew a lot more about snakes than I did at the time and warned me not to get Bell, the red tail but after talking to the guy who said he had rescued him a few months earlier from a horrible home (the person gave him one mouse a month and kept him in a ten gallon ten), my heart couldn't leave him. My dad and his girlfriend ended up building a huge custom cage for him and spent so much cash on him to get him healthy again. I was about 16 years old and helped when I could with money. Through this huge snake, I learned more about how stupid and mean people can be to such a beautiful animal. Bell's first few days with us were horrible and you could count all his ribs. This is how I bought him. -_- I felt horrible for the poor guy. We took him to an amazing reptile vet who would later tell us he had mites, URI, internal parasites, internal blockage, mouth rot, sores all over, and a horrible infection in his vent. He was the sweetest big snake I have ever met. He would kind of kiss you on your face. We had to give him baby food. Eventually my dad would have to force feed him (vet said too). He lived a long time with us and eventually got better. He weight 2 pounds I think when we bought him home. He passed away last summer at ten pounds and completely blind in both eyes.

During this time with Bell, we rescued three more Ball pythons and another Red tail. No one was ever in horrible shape like Bell. Basically the ball pythons and other RTB were underfed or caging was horrible. Due to money issues and family problems, I re-homed these three ball pythons to a good friend. Of course, I kept Nacho who is still with me today. My dad has the other pastel RTB who is huge. She eats chickens, rabbits, jumbo rats, etc. I even took in a very underweight Bearded Dragon, Toes, who was placed in her forever home this summer.

Rescuing is very hard work and takes tons of patience along with money. This summer after re-homing Toes, the BD, I purchased my first BP morph (a spider named Spaz) then I purchased a pastel het hypo with her sister who I re-homed, a blonde pastel and a little albino. Even though I love to rescue, I wanted to start sharing my heart with more BPs again. It brings back memories of what a good relationship I had with my father. We rarely speak now. Funny how all it took was seeing a small normal BP in a pet shop tank to start my crazy reptile love. I have always been a huge animal lover, and planned on being a vet. Now after dealing with these rescues and learning more about BPs, I think I may end up specializing in reptiles.

Sorry this was such a long post. It was a great question.
Nichole

[hypnotixdmp]

I grew up with a cat my whole life, then moved into my own place and now own 5 cats lol.

I got my 1st Bp a little over a month ago and in just about to turn 24. So seeing a few balls at my friends really changed my outlook on not only owning them but just what they are! I bought a normal like I said a little over a month ago, maybe almost 2 months now, but about 2 weeks ago I HAD to get another one which is a spider Bp.

The thing is, I would never in a million years have thought I would own a snake at this point in my life, or ever lol. But now, I am thinking about setting up a couple racks and buying some proven breeders and start making some babies!!!!!


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[Kinra]

I was afraid of snakes growing up. I would never touch the snakes my younger brother caught because I was afraid of getting bit. I always had other pets though (cat, dog, hamster, fish, gerbil, etc...). When I went off to college I lived in an apartment that had a strict no pet policy, so I start looking for something I thought I could convince the landlord to let me have. It didn't work, but almost 2 years ago shortly after I moved to WI I finally got a ball python (I had fallen in love during my search for a caged pet ).

Well as you can see from my sig, my collection has exploded in 2 years.

I never expected this to happen and it probably wouldn't have if I hadn't discovered Reptile Rapture in Monona, WI. I got my second BP from them, my male spider, and it just went down hill from there. I started learning about all the different morphs and even different species. I don't regret it at all, I love being a crazy reptile lover.

[eatgoodfood]

I grew up with cats my entire life, my mom always had 3. Everytime one would die, would would always get another a few months later. All rescues from the local animal rescue. We also regularly had gerbals, hamsters, and eventually I had two pet rats. As I was growing up I got into fish, started out with a couple of gold fish, worked all the way up to reef tanks and a rio negro river biotope tank. Still love fish to this day, but currently dont have any, probably wont again till I have a house. The first reptiles I ever owned were a couple of green anoles, my mom hated them, and eventually I gave them away. Once I moved out of the house I continued to own fish, birds, cats and even a dog.

I joined the army about 3 years ago, the only animals I had left were a few of my origional freshwater fish, still living at my parents, which are pushing 11years old or so now. I met my wife within a few months of getting stationed in Germany. I deployed to Afghanistan and got back last may. My wife (fiance at the time) was moving into her own apartment, she kept telling me how she always wanted a snake, and we were looking in some pet stores and I gave in and bought her our first normal, male BP. We were showed some morphs by the owner of the store, but at the time I didnt think they were special enough to spend the extra money for a pet. I did not much care for snakes at the time, they did not interest me. Once we had the snake I kept begging her to let me get a lizard, I told her since she has a snake I should be able to get what I want. Thats how we woundup with our Ackie monitor Silly.

Well after a few weeks, maybe a month of owning him, I started to get really interested, and enjoying owning a snake. So I build my first 3 bin rack, and we bought a pastel female from the same pet store. After that it really took off, I kept looking and we bought more. Built more racks and aquired more snakes. We are now going to be working on a project or two with the pet store, he is also a breeder, and was the one we learned the most from about ball pythons. Thank god he knew what he was doing, unlike all these horrible experiences I hear people talking about on here.

So now I see no end in sight, excited to be breeding this coming fall, we were unlucky last. My wife doesnt like them as much as I do anymore, lol, and she gets annoyed at hey, look what I found and its only xxx euro!!! lol. Now I want to get into carpet pythons, I really want a larger snake, just as a pet though.. lol we will see.

[Solarsoldier001]

Mebigbadbrat - I can't believe after all that work for the RTB that he didn't come through. That is so sad that little baby had to go through such a terrible ordeal. But overall I'm glad you got him and tried so very hard (along with your dads help too) to save her. I'm sure she was super appreciative .

As for everyone so far. Thanks for sharing. I guess everyone had a cat lol


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[mebigbadbrat]

Solarsoldier001-

Our RTB lived with us for almost four years. The vet couldn't believe he lived past his first few months with us. He took tons of patience and lots of love to get to where he was early last year. When I saw him back in 2007 my heart broke. 9ft snake in a ten gallon tank. No heat supplies or anything. Offered one small mouse, well what I consider a small mouse, once a month. It took a lot for him to gain 8 pounds. I am truly shocked he lasted as long as he did with us. We did get rid of all the mites, internal parasites and blockage, fixed up his vent (He had a hole the size of a quarter behind his vent; vet said it was from sitting in his own feces for too long along with an abscess), and his RI. Once he went blind in late 2009 in one eye, I was sure he wouldn't last long. Six months later his other eye went too. Then he passed away in 2010. Oh my god, I just realized it has been two years since he passed away. It seems to be very common up in MI with people not giving any reptile the proper needs.

I took in a bearded dragon in May this year, who was left outside in a tank during all kinds of weather. I was actually buying a 100 gallon tank when the guy said, oh yeah this comes too. I couldn't say no. Just asked about the BD. His exact words were, "Well I keep him outside in this 100 gallon tank. Have no lid. Eats a dozen or so crickets a week. About a year and a half old. Don't bite....much." My heart dropped. He basically gave me the BD for free. Come to find out her mate had died and she was just ribs. Through an email I learned this. I had her for about 2 months and with proper feeding (lots of veggies and some crickets, meal worms, horn worms, super worms, etc) every day, you wouldn't have known it was her. She was missing some toes so we called her Toes. She laid eggs for me that were the darkest brown I have ever saw and maybe one that could have been good, but I didn't want to take the chance. I had never owned a BD, so I did tons of research and eventually she found a better home with another rescued BD. The guy that took her has a three year old daughter that holds her every day and helps fed Toes and Fingers. Funny how before they even had my rescue, their rescue was named Fingers that is what the daughter called her.

Both look really good and great. Eating well! Both are about 1.5 years old and I am truly happy with the out come.

[Solarsoldier001]

Mebigbadbrat - you truly love animals. I'm glad all those animals found you and was loved by you. If I saw the RTB I probably would've cried and been a lost soul to try and help him. I'm glad the BD had such a happy ending. Finger and toes. Super cute. Thank you for sharing. I love happy endings. I'm also happy to know the RTB had a pretty long life considering how many terrible problems it develop over the course of its life with the people that delivered such poor care. thank you for all the hard work you do for these little creatures


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