What do you wish you knew before getting into Retics/ Larger pythons.

[Homebody]

i think this comes down to how do you view your animals and the situations you find yourself in within them and ultimately, what sort of relationship do you want with them, which i feel falls into 2 categories:

- you want something to own and possess which is like dog or cat or cow, something you can just pick up, play with and put down, then ja maybe big snakes wouldn’t be something you ought to pursue (pet ownership)

- you want to forge a deep companionship with wild animals through struggle and bonding, to achieve something which few humans in history have achieved, to master nature and animals and turn it into art, to share your living space with wild animals as if they were your children and accept all the responsibilities and hardships that come with that, then perhaps big snakes are something for you (animal companionship)

me personally, I’ve spent a lifetime keeping animals which will never in a million years be tame, they will forever be wild, they can never be handled, they will never show affection, interactions between us will most often if not exclusively be hostile, etc (arachnids) and i have loved every second of it and feel v lucky to have stumbled upon this art way back when my oma showed me how to catch and keep my first spider - i do overtime when working with these animals feel a genuine and weird sort companionship despite the actual experiences being, on paper, negative

back to big snakes, just the fact that i can hold and physically interact with these animals is amazing to me - my scrub python has been challenging but through that struggle has come one of the most rewarding companionships of my life and I genuinely look forward to forging the same sort of companionship with my future dwarf - it sucks to be bitten, and have them be all feisty feisty but ultimately the whole picture is worth it i feel

and i think it’s totally ok for other people to not be down with that, perhaps something that’s generally more docile and low energy is more their speed and those animals are equally wonderful companions

I'm sure you didn't mean to but the post above comes across as a skosh condescending. I appreciate your enthusiasm and I wish you every success in your goals, but the posts in this thread come from keepers with years of experience caring for large difficult animals. The problems they faced were not a result of their naivete.