A question for the Married or living together couples

[DM1975]

My wife doesn't touch my snake room and I do not ask her to. We have been married for eight years now and she has only fed and cared for my snakes while I was in Iraq. Other than that I do it all. Snakes are my thing, not hers, and I never expect her to do a thing with them. She respects what I do with them and does not give me any fuss on when I buy new snakes, but still, she will not touch them.

I find it is healthy to have some seperate interests and not share everything, all the time. I do not help her knit or do scrap booking stuff, and she likes the alone time she spends doing that stuff, just like me with my snakes.

[BiggBaddWolf]

My wife loves the snakes and we both do the care, feeding, etc. And she is planning on getting some corn snakes and breeding them...

[NorthernRegius]

The only reason there is a NorthernRegius.com is due to my guy wanting a BP. We got a nice little normal from the pet-store & I started going on-line to learn more about his care than the few books I had could tell me.

That's when I discovered morphs! At the time I was a hobby breeder of Holland Lops, I was considering ending that due to the work load- not just the hours a day of care but travel to the shows, etc that you need to do to make it work.

So I talked to my guy. He said he had 2 conditions- 1st it would be MY hobby just like the rabbits had been. 2nd that until I made profit beyond the care of the snakes they would have to fit into the office (except for quarantine animals). I told him my 2- which included a budget & allowing me the time needed to care for my snakes without complaint. We both agree it's been way less hectic than rabbits ever was.

I've built up slowly & that has kept it fun for us both. He enjoys handling the snakes but he's still in the AF so he's not always here. I don't mind one bit being the primary care giver, but it is cute how he likes to hold & interact with them. When the Pied eggs were pipping, he had to get Zippy (the momma snake) out to show her that her babies were hatching.

I've got a budget to work from & I stick to it. So that keeps the arguments down to zero & the support at 100% . As time has gone on and he sees this "going somewhere" he's more excited about it & will even send me links of new morphs he likes. If things continue to go well he has offered to assist me. We set a mark for expansion & when I make it he will be there to help.

[West Coast Jungle]

My wife Laurie used to be deathly afraid of snakes and actually had nightmares about them. Now she lives down the hall from a whole bunch of them.

She really doesnt do reptiles much (but does appreciate them) and will hold a snake occasionally if I place in her hands and remove it when she gets the creeps. The dart frogs are hers and she is mostly responsible for their care and their buggies, they're just pets, no breeding projects(yet).

The real helpful thing she does for me is she has taken a great interest in the rats and even has her favs/pets. I clean tubs pretty much but she cycles and separates moms (pampers the lil buggers) and keeps breeding production flowing while I take care of all the other reptile (snakes, dragons and torts) and plant duties.

I already run my own contracting business which my wife is not involved in (she has a full time job) so she really doesnt get into the reptile business side either (other than when we hatch a morph she asks "whats that worth ?", lol).

She can never keep up with all the morphs, purchases and sales for the most part. That can be a blessing or a curse. A while back I told her I was selling a pastel girl to put the $ towards a calico girl and she really didnt pay attention. I have the calico for over a year and show it to her one day because she's getting so big and she rolls her eyes at me like "you sneaked in another one didnt you". The truth is I may have sneaked 10 others but not the Calico, I promise, LOL.

Laurie is the best, she lets me do my thing knowing that i will take full responsibilty for my hobbies and projects.

We do enjoy the shows, making herp friends, taking animal pics and watching the hatchings together but at the end of the day they are my reptiles/plants and my responsibility and that goes for my dog(and sidekick) as well. Which is fine, taking care of my critters is how I relax from my real job

[monk90222]

Laurie is the best

I agree!

[PolishPython]

Ill answer this question in a few months me and my fiancee are moving out this november I currently have 3 leopard geckos and 3 ball pythons she hates all of them she likes looking at my snakes as long as the cage is locked and she is 5 feet away lol. She knows my collection will grow and i guess deals with she just hates listening me talk about any of it.

[Corvid]

My husband was TERRIFIED of all snakes, until I got my first (It took me 7 years to convince him to let me get one), now he loves them!
He is very involved with the logistics of the snakes. Caging (I could NOT have assembled the mammoth caging system we have without him), supplies, and FINANCIAL he's on board with. He makes twice as much as I do, so he basically supports my habit for me 100%
He will hold the snakes if I get them out, and has 2 that are "his" that he picked out.

As far as feeding, research, cleaning and general maintenance of the snakes (And the feeders) I'm on my own, which is OK because I LOVE this work. He will fill a water bottle or scrub a bowl if I have my hands full and ASK, but everything else, I do on my own.

I bounce EVERYTHING off of him and he has morphs that he likes and wants. He knows the name, sex and morph of every snake we have.

[Soterios]

Stephanie helps me out quite a bit. She is still a little afraid of some of the bigger snakes, or the ones that have bitten me in the past, but generally doesn't mind helping.

[dapike1979]

My wife understands my passion for reptiles... But she wants nothing to do with it.. My Bp set up is beside my bed it cant bother her that much.
Thats why I love her..

[travy4911]

Terra and I have been together for 3 years now and she bought me Aphrodite. She won't feed or clean the cage, but will occasionaly change her water or hold her while I change the cage. Thats about the extent of it though.