How You Were Introduced to The Reptile Hobby

[Rikki]

How were you introduced into the reptile hobby?

I was from 5 years old intrested in reptiles. Watching Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel i learned quite a bit for 5 ^_^. I then got my first herp when i was 9, a iguana. But once i turned 10 i was introduced to an amazing BP which i have to this day. Then i was addicted and started to take in reptiles from rescues and stores. Its an amazing hobby, and ill be here for many years to come.

[CamHanna]

I started out when I was about 4. I got some little platic dinosaurs for Chritmas from my Uncle and Aunt that sparked a rather intense interest in dinosaurs. When I was about 7 or 8 I crossed over more into reptiles, which my Mom didn't appreciate. She let me have an iguana, a skink and some anoles but never any snakes.

After nearly a decade of begging for a snake she finally agreed to an albino burm in a local paper that was free to a good home. Really asking for the burm was just a ritual that I performed with every snake was the least bit inexpencive. She called my bluff. I traded the burm some time later for some BPs and now that I have several snakes Mom has pretty much given up on saying no, planting my feet more firmly in the hobby.

[Rikki]

Ive had an intrest for animals for like since iw as 2, but reptiles have been the more intresting of the animals. I also like aquarium fish.

[Colonel_SB]

Well I was 4 and at my cottage in Muskoka and I was outside playing when I caught sigh of something going through the grass at a slow pace, needless to say I went for a look. It was a large female eastern garter snake I was facinated so I picked her up (It was easier then I thought no biting and no musking) and took her home. My father set up a tank and I kept her for the summer :) ever since then I was hooked. So garters will always hold a special spot for me......

[dank7oo]

That would have to be when I was 10 and visited a friend who had a chameleon. Been hooked ever since.

Jason

[mykee]

When I was 8 and got bit by a Mojave on vacation. I enjoyed the treatment at the hospital so much, I decided to become either a nurse, or a snake owner.

[stha4]

Well my bros started gettin into snakes first when i was 4.....an ever since ive been hooked!! Now i have more snakes than my bros.

[CDN-Cresties]

I have always had a interest in herps growing up. Here and there I would find a toad or a turtle around my house but what did it for me was when I went to the local pet shop and saw a veild chamleon hunt down its prey. It blew my mind away, so I did some research and a couple of months later I bought a baby veild chameleon.

[Leviathan]

I don't really remember a time when I didn't like reptiles. I know when I was six I asked my parents for an alligator for my birthday... much to there dismay. I always brought salamanders, frogs and snakes home would hide them in my room for a day so I could draw a picture of them and then let them go. I got my first reptile, an iguana 'Iggalotta' when I was twelve. My first snake when I was 14, a mole king named 'disco' and then when I moved out... well I've slightly expanded ;)

Alecia

[burmese maniac]

my first job was in a pet store and I was in charge of the reptile section. real cool summer job!!!!!!!!!!!

[annieb_mice]

I can't remember a time when I WASN"T interesting in snakes, lizards, frogs, bugs, ect. I remember growing up in New Westminster, B.C., and going frogging behind the Canada Games Pool where there was a big pond! I used to catch salamanders, frogs, snakes, bugs, ect there all the time! A great place for "snaking" was in the HUGE field right behind the old B.C. Pen! I can't count the number of snakes I used to find there on any one given day.. LOL! I kept one snake for a while, then let it go. I remember setting up a "pond" and raising tadpoles for a while too... I would spend HOURS just catching bugs and stuff and running home again to feed them! I can't remember how many actually survived, but there were quite a few of them, and I brought them all down to the pond behind the pool and let them all go.. after saying good bye to each and every one of them... LOL!
Nowadays, I have two ball pythons, two sinoloan milksnakes, two boa constrictors, and coming soon... two Mexican Black kingsnakes! :)
Take care
Annie B. <:3 )~~

[BOAS_N_PYTHONS]

RIKKI:

Well I always loved animals since a kid, but I think when it came to reptiles, I gotta blame National Geographic, Discovery Channel and Animal Channel. Once dear old Steve came on with Crocs and snakes I went nuts after into reptiles. I should charge my full funds I put into this hobby towards Steve, it was his fault.....:)

Cya...

Tony

[Bartman]

It actually wasn’t to long ago that I really got into keeping reptiles, about 2 years ago because of a little frog I found at my cottage that I took home and kept. My friend now has him and its doing great :D (I just don’t like amphibs :p)

I have always had an interest in animals though, from watching discovery, animal planet, national geo, etc instead of cartoons when I was young. I also think I got into reptiles from having a love for dinosaurs. Jurassic Park was one of my favorite movies as a child.

I couldn’t see myself without owning at least one reptile. I don’t think I could do it!

[Kevin McRae]

Catching garter snakes by the snake pits:)

[thunder]

i have been around reptiles ever since i was about 3, when my family moved to a new house, and our next door neighboor turned out to be the president of out local herp society. i probably spent more time over at that house than i did at my own. my first herp that i was wholly responsible for was an african clawed frog, when i was seven. i still have him. although i have never lost my love of frogs, i am now a confirmed snake addict, got my first corn at about age twelve and have had snakes ever since.

[Invictus]

"Ken, this is reptile hobby. Reptile hobby, this is Ken."

"Nice to meet you."

The rest is history. :D

[BoidKeeper]

I was about 8 and my aunt had a pet turtle. From the moment I saw it I had to have one. A few years later I got talking to a young employee at a local pet shop who was explaining MBD to me. He went on to open the only reptile zoo this side of TO. Two years ago I reabilited 4 of his zoo's beardeed dragons that had MBD. My how times change and people grow.
I got my first turtle when I was 11 or 13 and since that time I have only spent one year with out a pet reptile of some kind. After that year, 2000, I got my first corn snake November 1st 2001 and the rest is history.
Cheers,
Trevor

[DNA Reptiles]

Well my reply is simple.....I married the "reptile keeper" and that was many moons ago........As they say, the rest is history!
Please, no one ask how many moons!!!
Andrea.

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Well, my parents bought us an acreage when I was about 6-1/2 or 7. I caught a frog there the first summer we had there. I was hooked on those little "acreage frogs" as i called them. I had also been watching the discovery channel, national geo, animal planet and all that from the time I turned 7. I thought all those "brave guys that hold snakes" were super cool. i kept wood frogs(the "acreage frogs") until 9 years old. I had begun to watch crocodile hunter at 8 years old, and just as tony, I blame it all on him, lol. For the next two years i was bugging my dad to let me get a snake, he kept swearing there would never be a reptile in his house as long as he was alive. For a short time I tried for a lizard as I thought it might sound more harmless. He still said no. For the 2 months before I was ten, I did alot of research and showed my dad some information, he then did a week of research and broke in and my parents bought me a snake for my tenths birthday. And, as it is said, "the rest is history".

C.

*and im absolutely super happy that I joined this hobby!*

[672]

I saw a chameleon at a pet store. Need I say more?

[Kury]

When I was a little over a year, my mom and dad had taken me with them to meet someone, no clue where it was, but there was a gift shop- and in the window I saw this stuffed frog (this is a first on this thread, getting started with a stuffed one! lol!) and I insisted on having it (still have it) It wasn't a toddler stage, I loved frogs from there on. When I was 5-9 I caught wild frogs and would keep them for a day or two. Then my niece had these tiny frogs her dad had caught when he went camping, they were sick of them, and so they gave them to me... sadly, I couldn't find out what they would eat, and before I could try more than a few things, they starved. I then had a little aquatic frog, but luck was not with me, and just a couple weeks after it died- this time it was the place I had bought it from that messed me up, they said it didn't need any heating, and it did, being too cold, it starved itself to death (but I didn't find that out for a couple months) I kind of went off herps for a while, only reading about them, and then, about three years ago, some people gave me two leopard geckos, which have been very easy to keep (unlike the frogs >_<) About 8 months ago, I got this thing for snakes, emptied the library, searched the web, and finally chose a breed. And so now, in a little less than a week, I will be bringing home my first snake (a male ball python). And already I am thinking of maybe breeding them in a few years... collect babies for the first three years, and then when they mature start a collection... have to see though.

[exotic_66]

hm...how did i get into reptiles? well one of my friends had a corn snake and it bit me and i thought it was the coolest thing ever so than i started volunteering at a pet store in the reptile section and i did that for about a year than they hired me and i have been sadly working at this hell hole untill now! so basically i have loved reptiles since i was 12 :D

~nessy~

[justinO]

I grew up in an area where the only two things to do was to either spend time outdoors or sniff gasoline.. i took the lesser of two evils and caught more water snakes then i can ever possibally count.

moved down to the city and eventually got a few small lizards and made my way up and back to snakes.

[Cruciform]

My grandfather had a spot in the ditch in front of his house where he would throw rhubarb leaves from the garden. Between that and the rocks and gravel nearby, it was garter heaven. There must have been other species there too but I wouldn't have recognized them at 2 and 3 years old. I remember the colors and sitting in the leafy pile while they slithered around and over me.
There were lots of regular garters but I remember there being very small snakes with a lot of white banding and others with a very reddish pink hue. I have no idea what they were.
They filled in that area with dirt during construction while I was still little, so the rest of the exposure I got was very rare sightings of the large melanistic garter that hung out at the far end of the garden and lots of little normals.

Had a turtle for a while in elementary school, but the little bugger (a RES) got out of his turtle-house-pet-shop-crappy-thing, and traversed the entire main floor, went down the stairs into the laundry room and buried himself under some laundry. Two days later I found him dehydrated and wasn't able to help him :(

Parents wouldn't let me have any snakes for pets so I was SOL for years, then moved around so much I didn't keep pets. Now I'm settled down and the hobby/lifestyle is firmly entrenched in the household already :)

Yay Snakes!

[Linds]

From as soon as I was able to wander around, I've been catching [or trying to :p] frogs, toads, snakes, bugs, and any other critter I could get my hands on. I really started gaining an interest in them when I first saw 'Tibo' the iguana on tv, my dad went out and bought me a stuffed green dinosaur and put a red, studded kitty collar on it :p My dad actually bought me an iguana when I was 4 years old (hehehe... my mom sent us to the pet store to get a hamster :p), and she lasted 20 years in my care.

[dave68]

Wow, so you had her till you were 24, thats really cool, must have been amazing to see the growth over such a long period of time. I know we've had our since time of hatch to date and she's only 3.5 years and the growth is crazy, that's absolutely great Linds, NOW IF ONLY EVERYONE WHO EVER PURCHASED A CUTE TINY BABY IGUANA COULD TAKE CARE OF THEM THAT WELL (oops d*** caplocks) then reptile refuges would be in alot better condition. As for me, I was introduced to reptiles when I met Dave 8 years ago, and slowly over the years HIS collection grew and grew and is continuing to grow and is now OUR collection. Funny how that happens, LOL!!

[lostwithin]

I was one of those kids that was fascinated by all animals since before I can remember, at age 5 my parents picked me up a pair of turtles. (RES, I still have the male today the female sadly passed away a little more then a year ago) after years with those turtles I became "old Enough" in there opinion too care for another reptile at age 12 I began research on pythons about a month later . I purchased a gecko (leopard) from a local pet shop, ( ha ha ha , parents won the argument of what I should get) paid way too much and it died shortly after of a prolapsed intestine, vet informed me it looked as though it was a defect from birth, that it was only a matter of time before it happened.

In that little guys short life span though I was completely hooked. I even before his death I had begun too read countless piles of information on countless species of reptiles compiling a list of those I would like too own. About a year later in '98 I found an add saying, a local guy had a few species for sale. (corns, kings, burms, and Balls) I had already known LOTS of info on all 4 species and their care so I headed out (with my parents consent) too check them out. I settled on a ball python she was a large female. 4'+ (who I also still have today) . And for the past 6 years my fascination has grown as well as my collection.
Devon

[BoidKeeper]

4' female eh? What to make some 50% albino hets this year? I could always use more females.lol
Have you always lived in Fredericton? You are going to have to go the the next meet and greet man.
Cheers,
Trevor

[rwg]

When I was young back in the 70's (and I mean 3 or 4 years old), I wanted to be a reptile vet. One of the first books I ever owned (and still have) was a field guide of North American reptiles and Amphibians published in the 50's that my dad got for me at a yard sale. Problem: Mom is TERRIFIED of snakes. Anyway, Other than being interested, and reading stuff, it never developed into a hobby.

Fast forward to 2002: I take my kids to a TVO kids live show here in Ottawa (For non-Ontarians, think PBS), and Ray's Reptiles was actually opening for them. I was surprised that Ottawa had a reptile zoo, and resolved to go with the kids sometime.

Fast forward again to 2003: Finally went to Little Ray's. Touched a cornsnake for the first time. Came back next week and bought a family membership. Came every week several times a week for a while. Bought a cornsnake. Got laid off in Jan 2004, so I volunteered every weekend for a while at the zoo.

Now I've got 14 reptiles sharing my home, and too many to mention on my "must have" list. Cant go to a pet store without handling something, and I spend half my free time reading about herps.

rg