Large breed snake. Tell your story. What? Why? What did you learn? Different?

[Skyrivers]

Every day is still a learning experience for me still. I enjoy all my animals but the big ones really are special to me. Everyone here knows I love Reticulated Pythons.

Why retics? Amazing animals all the way around. Love the big personalities. Expressiveness, curious, keeps you on your toes, the coolness of creating a large enclosure for them to enjoy and add a visual effect to the room, and so many more reasons.

Things I have learned? Tongs are never to long. (If you have one you know what I mean.) Today and tomorrow will not be the same. They are super intelligent for a snake, and (from my experience) even picks a person to trust over others(Imprint might be to strong of a word but yes). Love to swim and climb. High energy even when getting some size to them. They remember! You can not train them to sit or stay but you can teach them habits.

Different? Very. Not as chill as a RTB, doesn't hide as much as a BP even when in a display cage, expressive more so than any other species I have. Can be Huge! The word Tank comes to mind.

I have always dreamed of working with animals from the time I was a kid. I was 5 when I told my Mom that I wanted to do research and live with animals to help educate others about them. I watched National Geographic and Jacques Cousteau as a kid that fed my passion. Even movies like Tarzan influenced my desire to help people understand animals better. I left my dream behind when I went to collage and 3 years into a Marine Biology degree my Dad tells me that teaching was the only thing I would ever be able to do with my degree. I wanted to do research. I wanted to study and learn and teach others how to live and communicate on their level to improve so people would be kinder and understand them better. A little more than a year ago it hit me, I can now afford to work with animals with the job I have.

People say it is unreal how I communicate with my dogs so easily and with few words. Dogs communicate with eyes, facial expressions, body posture, and subtle noises. My house has almost a primal feel to it is what I have been told. My dogs don't behave like pets but like family members with me as head of the pack (Cloud is second and he knows it!) All it took for them is understanding and agreeing on methods of communications. As a result, I can ask them to do almost anything and they will do so. Even Zelda my blind great dane. Trust me Danes are hard to train when young because of their short attention span.

We know snakes have their ways of communicating simple things like hunger, fear, and trust. They even play. If you never see your retic play it is because you don't give them something to play with. She plays with her cage because of how I designed it. She moves things around to her satisfaction, well that things that are moveable. she makes her cave cozy by moving substrate around to her liking.

I chose snakes because I feel that they are misunderstood by quite a large portion of the population. I feel that if I can teach people who fear or even hate them to love them then I am successful. At this point I also work to educate on husbandry issues as I learn along the way. I tell people, "Just spend 5 minuets with my animals and even if you don't love all snakes, you will love mine." So far, everyone who has given it a try, has changed their feelings, even if not completely, in some way about them. Some say they will only handle my animals because of how calm and wonderful they are.

Now I have a wonderful collection of animals that I love and grow to understand more and more every day. I work hard to educate myself and others. I work hard to accept that not everyone will give them a chance but most will try if you spend time building them up. I love Rainbow and even Monty (the beast) so much and appreciate them for what they are. Simply, AMAZING.

Lets hear your story about your large snakes.