Reaction of family/friends to your snakes

[distaff]

I love how people who know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about snakes will give that well meaning warning. I grew up on a river bank running around in the woods, and I like biology. I've also worked on farms, and kept numerous pets and types of livestock.

As pets, snakes rank fairly high in terms of reward to expense and effort. Easy keepers, once you get parameters right. Lurk for a bit on a parrot forum: people end up in tears trying to live with some of those birds. There are of course happy exceptions, but a 'too, say, bought on impulse is likely to involve a sad outcome. I enjoy my farm, and the the current collection of dogs, pet rats, goldfish, and canary and budgies, but the snakes are the easiest and cheapest. In terms of injury, I think I'd rather be bit my most small/medium sized snakes than any dog. A cat scratch is more likely to get you an infection that needs medical treatment, and again, some of the larger parrots can do serious damage.

I keep rabbits outdoors, but house rabbits are very high maintenance, They need out of cage exercise, but will chew cords, rugs and wood work. Their urine stinks. the bigger Parrots too, need out of cage time, but will destroy everything they can get at. I love fish and big aquariums, but an exploded (or just leaking) tank is no joke. It happens. An escaped snake needs to be found, but it won't cause property damage.