Got a new ball python!

[jadab123]

It's mine and my husband's first one and I'm so excited! It's taking a lot of self control not to handle her during this "acclimation period" but I know it's for her own good .

Of course, now we are dealing with the family's reactions. The most common response: "why?" followed by "You know you have to feed them mice, right?" Last night when my husband's sister asked that, he sarcastically replied "Oh no, we do? Well crap!" Then you get the people who latch on to the word "python" and say "that thing's gonna get like 15 feet long, and it's gonna eat your cats!" Um no, just, no it won't.

It's like people think we didn't do any research whatsoever. Like we woke up one morning and said "hey, let's go out and buy a snake!" and went out right then to buy one. No, we've both wanted reptiles since we were kids, and have been doing pretty much non-stop research for the past several months, once we decided we were going to finally get a snake. Funny thing is, I research the heck out of EVERYTHING, and these people know that. Why would this be any different?

I even had a cousin tell me via a facebook comment that if she ever came to my house, she would release it to the wild "where it belongs." !!! Good thing she's like a third cousin and lives on the other side of the country from me, and I have no intention of ever inviting her to my house! What is going through peoples' heads when they say things like this? If they don't like it, they don't have to comment!

Luckily our immediate family (parents, siblings) and friends, once they realize we know what we're doing, and when we explain to them that these things do NOT get 15 feet long and will NOT eat our cats, have settled down and said things like "well, cool. We'll have to come visit you guys and see your zoo sometime" (we have two dogs, two cats, and a leopard gecko as well as the new bp).

It's just frustrating and insulting to your intelligence when people act like you must not know anything about the animal you just brought into your home. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's gotten reactions like this from friends and family, so I'd love to read about some of your stories from when you first got into snakes/reptiles, and how your families reacted!