• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Who or what got you into snakes?

serpentina

serpentina

What the deuce???
I was just wondering what was the spark that got you all into snakes in general? For me it was my mother (gotta love her for that-thanks Mom) I was young, maybe 8 or 9 years old and we were walking outside and came across a common Garter snake. Being young I was scared at first and my mother told me about snakes a bit while she held it, to make me see it was harmless. Then she asked if I wanted to hold it and I said yes. From then on I have been fascinated with snakes and basically all reptiles/amphibians. I went on to get a degree in Biology and had a few jobs where I taught kids about animals (including snakes) I cared for some snakes and turtles that the school I worked for had, but never owned my own until now. I hope to pass this great gift my mother gave to me (love of snakes) to my kids one day. Just curious what got you started.....? :wavey:
 
Biology class.

I was absolutely fascinated by the punnet squares. Got a couple corn snakes to play with genetics a little, then got a couple mice to feed them and realized I could manipulate their colors too. Then I had too many mice.......had to get a few more corns

Then I had too many corns........

Had to get some more mice.........

Had too many mice~ got a couple BPs

Had to get more mice to feed the BPs as they grew........

Got rats...........

Had to get some more BPs cuz I had too many rats..........

Didn't have enough rats for all the new BPs.......

Do you see a pattern?
 
It was always a naturally drawn to them actually. When I was younger and living in upstate NY my brother and I and a few buddies spent summers down at this little pond catching anything and everything. Catching a snake was always the ultimate for me but I hardly caught them until I got some skills. Then I was catching ribbons, garters and racers all the time. I only kept a few of them mostly the ribbons because my Mom hates snakes.

Anyway when I got out on my own I wanted to get a rainbow boa, but my roomies freaked out so I didn't. Then like 5 years later I was living alone and decided to look into getting a snake. I did a ton of research and thought about going with garters because I hate mice, but after finding this site I was sold. I got my first snake about 6 weeks after checking everything out...and now that I have some I don't ever see myself going back to being snake-less again. :rolleyes:
 
I've answered a similar post before, but I'll answer again as I can not say enough about one person in particular. When I came to Florida in 1972 at the young age of 15, I met a guy named Randy Ross, he operated a pet shop called the Clearwater Zoological Exchange that was in walking distance from my parents house. I was terrified of snakes back then, yet intrigued by them! Randy taught me that they were not evil sinister creatures and was the type of guy that would let you hang out in the shop all day and bore him with a zillion questions. One day I got my nerve up and he let me handle a Florida King, she went home with me the same day and there's been no turning back!
I didn't get into corns until the mid 80's when I was given one by someone who didn't have the room for it and I proceeded to learn all I could about them. After a few years, I had met quite a few "snake" people and was soon out in the field whenever possible. This came to a screeching halt in '85 when I took a wife and shortly thereafter, became a father. Around '89, I convinced my wife we needed a Florida King and she too became fascinated with these animals.Soon we had several kings and she became obsessed with the banded California's. After a year or two we got another corn snake and then Mike McEachern's book came out. Before I knew it we had 14 snakes in a tiny little apartment! Well that's basically it sorry for the long spiel :wavey:
 
It was a sort of combination of things for me. My mother was very ecologically minded and worked hard convincing the neighbors not to knee jerk react and kill snakes on sight. I don't think she really liked them that much, but she recognized how important they were to the environment. My dad used to take lots of pictures when we went to the zoo--of all the animals, but I mostly remember the snakes. When he would show the pictures, he'd ask us which kind of snake that was. I think I could identify a Gaboon Viper before I even knew who Micky Mouse was. If it was a venomous snake native to the US, he'd say, "Pay real close attention to this one."

Anyway, when I was about 12, a neighbor caught a little hognose. Thinking he was going to make me squeal, he held it out to me and asked me if I wanted it. Much to his surprise, I said yes and took it! Not knowing that snakes can go vertical, I lost that one pretty quickly...

I didn't get into corns until about 18 months ago. I was looking through a reptile book and saw a picture of a wild corn snake. I though it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. That's what started it all, but ironically, a normal is one that I don't yet have. :rolleyes:
 
Ummmm My basic tom-boy interest in anything creepy crawly and scaly. lol I've wanted a corn since i was about 7-8 lol but all i got were fish, hamsters, guine pigs and rabbits....well Anything snakes eat really lol. oh and dogs and cats lol
 
I'm a relative noob. My interest in corns, and herps in general, came from managing a Petco just a few years back. I got my first snake, an amel, in August of 2004; depending if you want to progress this in a linear or exponential fashion, I'll be up to somewhere between 24 and oh, 256 snakes by 2008. :)

regards,
jazz
 
i guess im one of the weird ones thats always been secretly fascinated by them yet unsure and even slightly intimidated, but my first snake purchase were 2 corns a few moths ago out of total impulse... i saw them and thought ooo they are purdy "i want", so me being me, i got muahahah :rolleyes:

Of course me also being the stupid person i am knew nothing about snakes and therefore got onto this site asap, unwise i know but id say im perfectly well educated in snake husbandry et al now :)

then the red tail boa i got a few weeks ago was yet another impulse, but only because i felt sorry for it trying to hide under its waterbowl (the only object in its tiny display tank)... i went into the petstore to buy some mice, came out £245 later with my gorgeous girl and all her needs :D

next snake is either a ball or a hognose, whichever they get in stock first :)

Im officially addicted...
 
My son wanted a snake for his birthday. After trying to convince my wife for a long, long, long time we went to the reptile show and got Firebolt from PtDnsr (Katie).
I just got my second snake this weekend. A two month old Ball Python, which my daughter named Cindy. I wanted a really cool name but she chose Cindy and since there is no arguing with women especially a 6 year old, her name is now Cindy.
 
I've always loved just about every kind of critter, but it was my hubby that got really got me hooked on herps in general, and then specifically on cornsnakes. He had to go and find a hatchling...and that was it...hooked for life!
 
My big sister had a pet snake, looking back I guess it was a corn, the pet store she bought it called it a red rat snake back then. The snake's name was Viper (rhymed with 'skipper')
So that was my first experience with handling a snake and I loved them ever since, I have kind of kept off and on for years, but I really really got addicted when my I bred my first pair and got my first hatchlings in 2003.
 
My son and husband thought that a snake would make an interesting pet and as luck would have it his teacher, who kept exotic pets in the classroom, had a snake that the school would not allow in to the classroom. We took Hermes home to "see what it was like". Well being Mommy I was the one who had to help Hermes with his eye caps when he/she did not shed them correctly. I found it amazing that a four foot snake would let me hold his head between my fingers and put a damp wash cloth over his eye and not flinch, hiss or anything!

Then my hubby buys a few garters and ribbon snakes and by now I am getting interested. When we had an accidental (long story) clutch of garters I became hooked! There is nothing cuter than baby snakes! I started doing research into garters and mating.

Corns came after someone we knew had a clutch of amelanistics and I basically asked (pleaded?) for one. The genetics and colors fascinated me. That was Oct. 04 and I now have 14 corns, 8 garters and a western hognose. The ball was given to the local herp society for adoption. It wasn't our type of snake, the teacher had no interest in it and I had no idea how many people would have been!

Needless to say my husband and kids now regret they ever started this whole addiction!


Jo
 
My boyfriend and I went to the Sacramento Reptile Show last year 2005, and looked around and he said that he wanted a corn snake. I'm not one to turn down a new pet so I was like ok sounds like fun. First we were looking at a snow then we continued to look arounnd but nothing striked our interest that day. So we went home and kept saying we should of gotten a corn snake. We decided we wanted a candy cane because they are so beautiful. So we went back the next day, this is a 2 hour drive, and we found a vendor that had one candy cane left. I picked her up and she looked at me and squeezed my finger, saying take me home and we did. She ended up looking more like a normal Amelanistic with a lot of yellow but we still love her to death. Shes out baby girl! Now we have 4 cornsnakes and a creamsicle.Looking forward to plently more.hehe
 
I don't really remember when I first got in to snakes, but I really fell in love when I held my first snake in a pet shop, a bloodred corn baby.
 
I have always loved snakes but the first time i really remeber one was when i was 3-4 and i was at my sisters freinds house, i beleve they had a ball python. Parents final let me get a corn for X-Mas of 04 scince then i have had things from Kenyan Sand boas to a RTB.
 
well about 2 years ago my friend got a corn and ive wanted one ever since. about 2 weeks ago i finally got one!
 
Well...

I've loved animals as long as I could comprehend exactly what they were, but interest in snakes for me came when I was in kindergarten. My friend's dad brought a few snakes to class (Emoryi) and let us touch them and watch them roam around in the middle of our little circle, and one of them decided to park itself under me (we were sitting cross-legged on the carpet). I'd always liked them since then, and my dad and I would go "field herping" every once in a while and would pick up garter snakes and lizards. I got my first snake last year, a ball python, which died within a few weeks thanks to stupid pet stores selling sick animals..but I got a hatchling Emory's rat snake a few months later from the same man that brought the snakes to our kindergarten class, and thus began my interest in corns.

Sorry for the long story. :shrugs: :sidestep:
 
A trendy guy had a milksnake,I think,and I was the only one,from a bunch of kids who were there,to hold it for a while.I was fascinated!I told my friends I'll get a snake someday...That was 12 years ago.4 years back I had my first visit to my local petstore,with my girlfriend.I got my first snake Kika,a hypo corn that day.Happy ever since............... :crazy02:
 
I remember going on a class field trip in like first or second grade to a pet shop and I was the only girl in the class who wasn't afraid to pet the python. I have always been fascinated by them, but previously only owned furry pets. My roommate Joe (CaptBogart) had snakes when he was younger and when I met him he had this cool Chinese Water Dragon (he died after we moved to Florida). So earlier this year Joe decided he wanted to get something reptilian..snake, gecko, lizard of some sort. He ended up with a cornsnake...pretty little guy. I didn't want to step on his toes so I decided I would try my hand at geckos and got my first Crested. But as I watched Joe accumulate more and more snakes,...it finally got the better of me and I had to get my own. I started with a striped Cal. King and have added a Miami Phase corn and a grey banded (from Mike - mbdorfer). I am sure there will be more to come!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top