So I have decieded not to breed. Food for thought.

[zina10]

Thanks for sharing your wonderful success and happiness here. I love the fact that you love them so much as I do. I just think my focus has shifted to an education aspect. I love taking a few species and showing them to people who would have never thought of being near them and having them walk away with new understanding and love the animals. I have 3-4 more species on my list that I desire to acquire but has to be the right animal within that species that has a good personality to do it with. The "morph" has become less important as finding a good representative of the species to share.

Before I moved I lived in a city that had a better represented reptile community. We had a lot of fun.
We would often go to wild life parks to hold educational presentations. We had great many people show up and most were so open minded, it was awesome. That is where I had the experience with a autistic little girl. That little girl held my BP for 10 minutes, just sitting still and gazing at that snake with such love in her eyes. She was SO careful. I admit, I was a little nervous but I didn't have the heart not to let her hold Delilah after she held out her hands. I could tell her parents were nervous too, they later told me that the girl could never focus on anything for very long and never sat still. They were afraid the girl would not give the snake back without a tantrum (which was my thought, too), but after the 10 minutes she just quietly handed Delilah back to me. Her parents were blown away by the experience.

I also took my Veterans (2 normal BP's that were used to this and completely at ease, they would eat the same day sometimes) to schools. I was asked by the school administration if I could come spend an hour teaching the children about snakes. It was so awesome. The principal would show up and other teachers too, and the only ones afraid were the adults, LOL. The kids were great. I taught them about snakes in general (mostly about how great of creatures they are but to not approach wild ones, and why). The best part was at the end, when we have "questions and answers". I had one boy ask me what would happen if I took off my shoe and socks and stuck my foot in front of the snakes face.

.... I had to admit, I never tried that !!!


There is so much that is rewarding about keeping these animals. Whether breeding or not, always have fun with it and do it right