How did you get started in herps

[mustang91302]

I was just wondering how everyone got there start. It is such an addictive fun hobby what caused your madness. I started by working on a guys truck And he didnt have the money to pay me so he gave me two baby normal ball pythons. Started doing research after that and never guit been going a year and a half now. Im up to 23 snake bood pythons and ball pyhtons

[Mike41793]

I tried keeping fish but then realized fish are boring so i brought home a baby bp lol. My stepdad was fine with it, my mom wasnt crazy bout the idea at first.

[TheSnakeGuy]

I had a girlfriend who had a friend who was short on money and wasn't home often to care for her ball python. Did homework for months until I had an extra 150$. Then I went and rescued that poor snake. One little lamp hanging open in one end of a 55 gallon tank with newspaper. No humidity and mean empty water bowl. Took great care of him until I got my second, then my girlfriend sold them while I was away. We're not together anymore.

[Valentine Pirate]

Just looking up care on BPs as a younger teen! As a kid I ran around and caught garters, but I never thought to keep them as pets, just temporary captives while I fed them frogs I met a friend of a friend who kept a couple of BPs when I was a sophomore in high school (Had 2 in a tank, fed in a separate container, and she thinks morphs are the devil. We just agree to disagree on the last point and the first two are just her choices She's got healthy animals). I fell in love with them, very calm very undemanding pets, and after I waited 3 years to graduate and move out, then move out of the second place I bought my first snakes Now I want 50 different species (to start)

[Evildrdee]

I went to a reptile show to do some research on panther cameleons, possibly buy the set up and a baby. Learning how much of a hassle they can be I said not for me. I was fascinated by by the colorful ball pythons that didnt get big enough to eat my dog. Went home and did further research on these ball pythons and eventually bought my first ball, a BEL.

[carlson]

My parents lol they used to let me capture Gardner snake an red bellies when I was a kid they would let me keep them an help me feed them I had tons of them then in my teens I didn't have time for any but once I got my own palace I felt it was time too go about getting snakes and I got my first did all my research and planing for breeding now just gotta get 10 hatchlings this year lol

[sorraia]

Started way way back pretty much as soon as I could move around on my own and was allowed to play outside. My dad had a turtle pond with a variety of pond turtle species (cooters, red-eared sliders, map turtles, soft shelled turtles...). I was allowed to "help" him with the turtles, which when I was smallest meant throwing the food in the water, and when I got a little bigger meant getting into the pond to scrub the muck off the bottom. He also had a couple tortoises. I enjoyed "playing" with them, that is, feeding them flowers (dandelions, hibiscus) and following them around the yard and making up what they were "saying" to each other. I was also always chasing and catching everything I could. At home that mostly meant lizards. On our vacations that included snakes, frogs, and toads.

I don't remember exactly what order the rest of the herps came in, but at some point my dad got a ribbon snake as a "classroom pet" (he was a 3rd grade teacher). The snake came home when he wasn't teaching, and lived in the classroom while he was. I helped feed it and take care of it, but it was more of a display animal than a handle animal. It also ended up having babies. My dad was part of the local turtle and tortoise club too, and at one point my sister and I were allowed to bring home a couple of geckos from one of the shows. I don't remember what kind they were, but nothing special. I want to say they were just a couple of house geckos. Then I was allowed to get a ball python, and I loved that snake. Eventually my sister and I got a couple of leopard geckos, then I got a uromastyx. This whole time my father still had his turtles and tortoises (throw in some box turtles and a terrapin at one point).

For the last few years I've been "herp-less", instead getting my "herp fix" on the job. I'm a field biologist and though a big part of my job involves monitoring birds, part of it includes herps. Our interpretative center also has a few snakes I've enjoyed watching and handling when I am there. Always good fun! During the last decade I've been breeding pet rats, but when I got pregnant I made the tough decision to let that go. My husband was in the active military, and gone often, so I was typically home alone working full time and taking care of the house and pets (which went well beyond rats...), and it was just more than I wanted to deal with. So I stopped breeding them, sold some, and have been keeping the others to live out their life. During this time I still have my dogs, cats, horses, and rabbits. Earlier in 2012 my dad lost his house and gave me his desert tortoise (by now he no longer has his pond turtles - as much as he hated doing it, he had to let them go because the maintenance got to be too much for him physically). For quite some time I had been wanting a rosy boa too, but have been holding out for the "right time". Later in 2012 a coworker was given a pair of rosy boas who had already been mated. I found out about this and asked if she had homes for the babies, and she saw right through that and asked if I wanted one. When they were born in early September I ended up taking home not just one, but two (out of a litter of 5, two other coworkers took one each, and a friend of hers took the last one). And the bug bit again! Early December we brought home two ball pythons. We'll be getting two more this weekend, and my husband is wanting a lizard (leaning toward bearded dragon).

[rlditmars]

My dad caught snakes, turtles, bull frogs, etc. when I was just a little boy and would bring them home to show me. When I was in second grade he brought home a baby Massasauga rattler. I was so mad when he wouldn't let me take it to school for show and tell. By third grade my buddy and I were out catching every garter snake we could find. I remember there was a small pond out in the woods near our subdivision, that would pop up in the spring from the rains. By the time early Summer hit it would be shrunk down to a large shallow puddle and there would be hundreds of leopard frogs and thousands of baby toads all around it. Easy pickens for the garters in the area which made catching garters pretty easy for us. One time we caught over 70 in a weekend. That is a record that stands to this day for me. By the time I was in high school, I had a corn snake, a ball python (there were no morphs in 78, if only I knew then....), a retic, and an eastern coachwhip. I have pretty much caught every snake there is in Michigan with the exception of the Massasauga. I never did find one of my own.

I honestly cant remember a time in my life when I didn't absolutely love snakes.

[dragonboy4578]

I caught snakes as a kid. Mostly rat snakes or anything that seemed different. After a while my mom realized that my love for snakes wasn't just a fad and helped my get a setup for my first pet snake, a female burm. She was the first snake that I ever bred. I found it and still do to hatch out babies. I had her for years before I sold her. I have a love for most animals though.

[foxoftherose]

I've loved herps for literally as long as I can remember- my first memory is of an American toad hopping on to my blanket when I was two. I caught my first snake, a rough green snake, when I was four. I spent all of my childhood rescuing and probably terrorizing the local wildlife- if anything needed rehabilitating, I gave it a place to stay.
About a year ago, I decided that after a life of admiring them, I wanted a pet herp. I spent six months researching ball pythons, RTBs, corn snakes, and beardies, and decided on a BP. I picked up Will this July, and fell head over heels in love with him.