Behira - 2016 Female Ivory Ghost - First BCI

[dakski]

I find it funny that it is always the kids who want to hold my snake and rarely the adults. Even when the adults do hold them they are really freaked out.

I hear you.

That's because they didn't have an, "Uncle David" growing up.

Meghan has been holding snakes since she was 2 and I remember her interacting with my Beardie George (RIP) before that. Meghan turns 10 in December (WOW) and her brother Chris just turned 7. He's not as interested in the reptiles but he is hardly afraid. He pets Behira while Meghan holds her sometimes. He can be a little quick, so I stick with the big snakes that I trust implicitly with him. Shayna and Behira, are great for him, as is Figment and Solana. The younger and growing snakes like Yafe and Jeff and Feliz I let him see but with a healthy dose of Uncle David right there and controlling his interactions. With Meghan and say, Behira, I trust him with verbal cues. It's funny, some kids are so curious and respectful and others are like COOL, but then on to the next.

It's funny. I remember being a little kid and loving the reptile section of the bronx zoo. Then when I was about 5 or 6, my best friend had a reptile guy at his birthday party. Boa, Burmese, Corn Snake, etc. That was it, I was hooked. I used to find snake skins in the yard and was taught to be respectful of the big rat snakes and an occasional copperhead. Didn't keep from being curious, but I wasn't out trying to catch everything either.

I also remember as a kid some nasty water snakes down by the pond I used I to catch frogs at. A few really scared me. Darting over my feet and hissing etc. I never got bit though (and knew none were venomous). My first snake, a BP, did bite me, but he/she was little and I knew it wasn't my fault. Frankly, I was more worried, at 10, about him/her. It actually helped take a lot of the fear out as it was so anticlimactic. Even with these potentially negative, not bad, experiences, I was never afraid, just cautious. I learned to be respectful instead of fearful.

Of course I have a healthy respect for Behira now when she comes flying at the door looking for her food . She gets my heart racing, but I am not scared or afraid, just very cautious. Thankfully, she's predictable.

Anyway, so important to teach the younger generations to respect and not fear these animals. Meghan has always had a propensity towards them, like I did, so all I do is feed into that.