Does owning a BP affect your relationship with others?

[PitBull Python]

In my experience ... I have found that when telling others (mostly relatives/friends/co-workers) that I own a SNAKE I get nothing but distaste. My parents, for example, think every time I get a cold its because of my BP and other relative/friends won't even visit my house because of it. Just thought I'd see if anyone else has felt the similar prejudice.

[A.VinczeBPs]

Never seem to have that problem. Most of the people I associate with like snakes and my ball pythons. If they don't, I'm the one who looks at them with distaste.

[Rorschach]

People at work look uncomfortable when I talk about them and most of the time they'll cut me off mid sentence with a "I hate snakes, uuhhhh I'm getting chills just thinking about them"... bunch of losers.

I stopped by my Dad's house with my corn snake after our trip to the vet and he wanted it out of the house because he thought it would get the dog sick! lol

[Seru1]

OH you get all sorts of reactions. From not caring to very interested. I had two people, one a co worker say if he ever saw them he'd kill them. An impossibility because no one from work ever comes to my house. Still If I said that about his dog then I'd be a jerk.


It doesn't bother me. and if It keeps relatives away it's worth it.

[CoolioTiffany]

My grandparents don't like 'em, but are getting used to it.

My aunt will never come over if she finds out I'm getting 2 tarantulas...

[mr. s]

As with anything that people are immediately offended by or scared of, the initial reaction is not something we can control. Owning snakes is not the thing about me that the general population finds difficult do handle, and I don't mean that as a joke. The reaction I get for owning snakes is VERY mild in comparison with some people, and I am ashamed of neither.
I think the secret is being confident. There's no reason to be rude to people who are being rude to us. That does not fix anything. We need to acknowledge it, and show that snakes make us happy. When people ask about my snakes, I like to respond by telling them "Ya, they're a great pet. I like them a lot", with a smile, and if people tell me that they hate snakes, I explain that there are TONS of people that feel that way, and it is very normal, but often a little exposure to them helps people overcome that. I mean, even my mother learned to love snakes.
Anyways, I don't know how old you are or anything, but I think that it gets easier to deal with over time. Just don't let it get to you and always wear a smile.
(Just for the record, I have the best family and extended family in the world so if my relatives stopped coming over because of my snakes, I don't know what I would do!)

[Charlie And Lucy]

My dad hates snakes, but because he and I are so close, he comes to my apartment and tolerates them. He gets chills looking at them like I do with spiders. But I give him mad props for coming to my home, anyway.

My mom has a hard time understanding the "domestication", so to speak, of snakes. She doesn't agree with it, but tonight I started educating her a bit about snakes, and stressing to not believe everything NatGeo and Discovery says.

One of my friends wouldn't even come into my apartment a few months ago because she's deathly afraid. By the end of the night, we had her touching our small BP's tail. A big improvement for her!

When I post things about our snakes in my Facebook status, I get "eww, I hate snakes", or "sick". You may not like them, but I do. They're my pets, so if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. I understand people have fears, because my fear of tarantulas runs very deep, but I'm not about to criticize someone because they have one, and I expect the same respect from others as well.

Great topic, by the way!

[chasedandbeaten]

I wouldn't say it affects my relationship with anyone. There are a lot of my friends that don't really like them or think I'm crazy for the amounts of money I spent on them and then there are a couple guys I work with who hate them but are always interested in talking about them and learning cause they know nothing about them... its kinda funny but annoying with them cause sometimes they just say the dumbest things.

[mommanessy247]

i know if i told my parents i have a snake they wouldnt visit, or they'd meet me somewhere. i hate prejudiced people, especially when it comes to animals. my fiance's parents however, know i want to get a snake & they're ok with it. they own our house so i had to ask them first.

[ballpythonluvr]

Most of the people that I know do not like snakes and they are like ewwww, you have snakes, that's disgusting! My mother won't step foot into my home because of the fact that I have two bp's. I respect that and I do not push the issue. I just try to educate her about the snakes.