Lol, why would I take my retic to the vet because he allows me to fix his eye? Man, sorry that your snakes aren't docile and trusting of you like mine. I just ended up getting in a 9-10 foot super tiger with a very bad mouth infection, that I had to spend time every day grabbing him, opening his mouth, and cleaning out bad tissue, cleansing it, and getting him fixed up. He never gave me grief. That isn't a sign of being unhealthy, it's a sign of an animal that knows you're not going to injure it.
I'd tell you the same thing if you owned dogs. You went out and got your mutt from the pound, came on a dog forum and said "I like pitbulls, but I wouldn't get them and risk it, I have a 2 year old". It's stereotyping, and it's garbage for this hobby. I'd tell you there that you shouldn't own dogs, because stereotypes do the opposite of what an animal lover has in mind. Fact: You're child is in just as much danger from a Boa as most other "small/medium" (bloods, carpets, SD retics) snakes out there. Grouping them together out of reputation based is nothing more than ignorance, something that reptile educates everywhere strive to get rid of.
I'm not arguing that a bite from a ball python is the same from a retic. I'm saying that I trust my big male retic more than I trust any ball python I work with- who frankly, have a tendency to bite out of being startled/food time due to 99% of owners not being smart enough to hook train them. Again, all I was saying is, I trust my animal more than any ball python on this planet, that is how absolutely docile and well mannered he is. Sorry you can't derive this.
Again, I'm not saying this in all cases. In most cases is the retic more dangerous? Sure, I never recommended he keep retics, I'm fairly certain in one of my posts I said I understood his reasoning on why he wouldn't want to keep mainland retics (non dwarf/superdwarf stuff). I was simply telling him that breed specific stereotypes are stupid, and giving an example of how I have the reverse situation.
Do you know how many times people tell me "retics are so mean"? All the damn time, for the longest time, I truly believed this as well, it wasn't until I actually owned some retics that I realized how ignorant I was, and how ignorant everyone else was. From my experiences keeping bloods, carpets, etc- I can say that the exact same thing is true with those species.
I'm not knocking him for not wanting to keep the same things as me. I'm knocking him for being ignorant.
OP if you're worried about your kid, you shouldn't own animals at all. Anything with a mouth can bite, that is a fact. To say that something like a boa is safer than a carpet, or a blood- is nothing but ignorance and sheer stupidity. You're putting your ignorance over the kid's safety, and you are not putting your kid first - or if you were so concerned with the idea of the kid getting into them- you wouldn't own anything. I've seen how kids squeeze animals and play with them, even the most docile ball python could bite your kid and scare him and at least make his day kinda suck.
Originally Posted by MMReptiles
Lol, why would I take my retic to the vet because he allows me to fix his eye? Man, sorry that your snakes aren't docile and trusting of you like mine. I just ended up getting in a 9-10 foot super tiger with a very bad mouth infection, that I had to spend time every day grabbing him, opening his mouth, and cleaning out bad tissue, cleansing it, and getting him fixed up. He never gave me grief. That isn't a sign of being unhealthy, it's a sign of an animal that knows you're not going to injure it.