Strikealight
Deregistration requested
Hello to all, in this my first post on this forum. Been pretty obsessed with snakes all of my life. My mother has in the meantime been a lifelong ophidiophobe, and so despite having lots of animally experiences during my childhood (including long stints of doing voluntary work at a vet hospital) my snake keeping was limited to secretly keeping the odd grass snake in a container under my bed for a few days. I had a garter snake when I first met my wife many years ago and she was utterly indifferent towards it, and did not mourn its eventual passing. However, about a month ago my 10yr old son's relentless persistence paid off and we acquired a 15g Miami phase corn snake called "Jack" for him, primarily on account that my wife was convinced that it was the least demanding "pet of his own" that he could get. His care is of course kept under close supervision by me, at least at this stage.
And a remarkable thing has happened.
My wife LOVES our little snake! She pops up to check up on him. She rambles on about how sweet and fascinating he is ("sweet" and "snake" are not two words that I ever thought I would hear her place into the same sentence). It has been great for me of course - I did some serious research into getting a corn many years ago as I was about to leave home, but concluded a garter was a better choice for me (not the right decision, I now think in retrospect).
I doubt my Mum will be changing her spots anytime soon, but it is testament to the love she has for her grandson that she will politely listen to him garble on about his new pet without shuddering (visibly at least).
Many thanks to all who have contributed towards this forum - what a great resource it is! It was of great assistance to be during my lurkings over the past couple of months to help me perfect our new snake's set-up. The reptile shop we purchased him from gave us an ExoTerra Faun with strict instructions to stick the (statless and thermometerless) heat pad to the SIDE. I nodded politely in response to all of their diktats and when I got home I immediately ordered a mat stat and a digital thermometer on line for delivery the next day, and the mat and the probe went straight under the faun with the thermometer probe glued to the floor on the inside above the mat. We now have a nice and steady 29 degrees at the hot end, and Jack is now wandering nicely around his new home, feeds very readily and incredibly gently and digests and "voids" his meals within a couple of days. He has already tamed up very nicely and my wife and two sons are very relaxed about handling him.
I have been pretty disappointed with all of the fundamental misinformation being bandied about that I have come across outside of this forum, often coming from people who you would have though you could trust. Strange really given that the requirements of these snakes are pretty straightforward.
It has been a really great start with a pet which we hope we will have with us for many years, and who will help many people we know and bump into to overcome their fear and prejudice of snakes - something that I have never been able to understand!
A big thank you to everyone on this great forum - I hope I can make some small contributions of my own going forward.
And a remarkable thing has happened.
My wife LOVES our little snake! She pops up to check up on him. She rambles on about how sweet and fascinating he is ("sweet" and "snake" are not two words that I ever thought I would hear her place into the same sentence). It has been great for me of course - I did some serious research into getting a corn many years ago as I was about to leave home, but concluded a garter was a better choice for me (not the right decision, I now think in retrospect).
I doubt my Mum will be changing her spots anytime soon, but it is testament to the love she has for her grandson that she will politely listen to him garble on about his new pet without shuddering (visibly at least).
Many thanks to all who have contributed towards this forum - what a great resource it is! It was of great assistance to be during my lurkings over the past couple of months to help me perfect our new snake's set-up. The reptile shop we purchased him from gave us an ExoTerra Faun with strict instructions to stick the (statless and thermometerless) heat pad to the SIDE. I nodded politely in response to all of their diktats and when I got home I immediately ordered a mat stat and a digital thermometer on line for delivery the next day, and the mat and the probe went straight under the faun with the thermometer probe glued to the floor on the inside above the mat. We now have a nice and steady 29 degrees at the hot end, and Jack is now wandering nicely around his new home, feeds very readily and incredibly gently and digests and "voids" his meals within a couple of days. He has already tamed up very nicely and my wife and two sons are very relaxed about handling him.
I have been pretty disappointed with all of the fundamental misinformation being bandied about that I have come across outside of this forum, often coming from people who you would have though you could trust. Strange really given that the requirements of these snakes are pretty straightforward.
It has been a really great start with a pet which we hope we will have with us for many years, and who will help many people we know and bump into to overcome their fear and prejudice of snakes - something that I have never been able to understand!
A big thank you to everyone on this great forum - I hope I can make some small contributions of my own going forward.