Why do you keep snakes?

[Andybill]

Because my wife said I could.

[4theSNAKElady]

Because my wife said I could.

Thats a good one!

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[Andybill]

Thats a good one!

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Lol! Well thats the fact of the matter. My love and fascination for snakes means nothing if my wife wasnt comfortable with me collecting and breeding these magnificent creatures. Some folks just arent so luck as me to have a partner that fully supports my addiction!

[4theSNAKElady]

Ha! I feel very lucky i met my hubby on this forum! Now THATs support!

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[Artemille]

Because my landlord said I technically can.

Because they have adorable faces.
Because they are easy to handle, poop a lot less than dogs, and don't make noise at night.

[Meletee]

Because my husband begged me!

Since then I have fallen in love with the little buggers and can't get enough!

I think they are beautiful, fun, pretty easy to care for, and have nice little personalities.

Also they're soooo cute!

[Dehlol]

I originally kept snakes as a child. I had an assortment of wild caught animals I kept outside as I learned the ropes. I was never allowed a pet snake inside- as my mother was far too afraid. I did; however, have a large assortment of lizards growing up. When I was old enough to actually buy my own snakes and supplies I ended up getting into all sorts of stuff. I kept and bred corns, balls, racers, rats, bulls, among other things. I had racks and cages- but the main reason I kept them was to make money doing something I could at least enjoy a bit- and it helped finance my ever growing collection of monitor lizards which where my true passion.

I ended up having a life altering series of events and sold everything except 1 animal that I moved into my new place with. I started having people give me random reptiles again that I fixed up and rehomed. Went through some ball pythons, corn snakes, bloods. Frankly if I'm honest though- they where all very boring to keep. Breeding was easy, care was easy, they didn't interact much. I ended up picking up a ~10 foot burmese python female and a small yellow anaconda. I wanted the challenge of the giant species and was hoping for more interaction/a more enjoyable keeping experience. The yellow anaconda was a monster, very fun to keep but scared the hell out of the other half, so I sent her off to a breeder (hopefully I'll get a pair off him from that same female in a few years!), and kept the burm for awhile. She ended up feeling no different than keeping a large ball python who ate rabbits instead of rats. She sat there, interacting with her was boring, I could look at her and knew she was just a snake.

So there I was, with 1 snake and feeling bored to tears, ready to just call it quits on keeping snakes as a hobby all together because it couldn't hold my attention. I hate to say it but once you interact with something like a smart varanid you've raised from a hatchling it just makes other reptiles seem a bit "bland" to me. Anyway, so I answered an ad on craigslist for a man looking to rehome his reticulated python. So I got in my car, drove 2.5 hours and shelled out $100 to get this "10 foot" retic out of a 2x2x6' tall cage (cage was beyond bad). In all reality he was about 14 foot, fed a terrible diet, and poorly handled, so hell I brought him home built a cage and started feeding him/getting him hydrated and putting him on panacur.

There was something about that snake. I could get him out, and he would interact and move with me, not just sit on the floor and look around. He wanted to explore, he wanted to climb, but the thing that absolutely won me over was I could look into his eyes- and tell he was looking back. I don't feel that with most snakes out there in captivity, this animal even with the smell of food around knew who I was, and that I wasn't dinner, he knew when I was getting water in his dish, and waited for me to bring it back and set it down so he could take a fresh drink. He reminded me a great deal of the intelligence of a varanid.

That single animal, that I got with the whole purpose of rescuing/getting to a breeder ended up causing me to fall in love with owning retics. I even this year produced them. I've produced plenty of clutches of eggs over the course of my reptile keeping carrier, but none ever had me staying up all night, with pure joy, looking in the cage watching every last egg be laid, and feeling so amazingly proud.

Sadly, I ended up selling off that animal to someone I thought I could trust who ran a pet store. They wanted to use him as a display, and had a very nice cage, plenty of food, and somewhere everyone could hopefully enjoy his tremendous personality and experience what I did. Those people ended up losing their store, never paying me fully for him (oh well), and now he's in someone else care completely. The downside of these animals is the sheer size doesn't allow me to keep many in my current living situation. I have a 17-18' female, a 13-14' female, and a 10'ish male. Moving into my new house and out of this crap apartment in a month or two so I can hopefully expand though.

[Gerardo]

Ive always wanted snakes. My parents never allowed ot though. When i got old enough i nought one myself. I now have 4 and plan on getting more.

[xFenrir]

I've liked snakes since before I can remember. My mom often told the story of how at an event, they called up a bunch of kids to hold a Burmese (assuming it was a Burm, I don't remember it), and it ended up that I was the only one standing there holding it, grinning from ear to ear. I've always been fascinated by reptiles, and there was something about snakes that just makes me happy working with them. I think it's the rewarding feeling you get, because unlike a dog or even a cat, they don't necessarily want to please you or even want your company. You can't train a snake, so you have to have a level of respect working with them (especially larger breeds or venomous ones). They're just amazing creatures, and so misunderstood.

Getting my BP actually started out as a joke; my boyfriend and I were in a pet store and when we walked by the snakes I told him he should buy me one for my Christmas present. He said no of course, so I said "Fine, make it my Christmas AND birthday present?" and he actually agreed. xD We got Loki, then a few months later my boyfriend goes, "I want a bigger snake! What could we get?" so I found Satin on a rescue's webpage. Originally we were trying to get another BCI, but someone had already put in an application before us, so we gave up. We ended up with the right snake in the end, I think; I couldn't trade her for anything!!

[JoeNapoli]

40 replies in 4 days! Thanks everybody! Lots of interesting reasons. Mine overlap with many of yours, and run into some spiritual reasons as well, with reverence for life forms that existed long before humans did.