View Full Version : Why are we addicted to snakes?
Why is it that we cant have just one pet snake. I bet almost every regular on these forums has more than one snake they are caring for at the moment including me *16*.
What is the mental aspects of keeping so many snakes. Is it that they are so cute/cool that we cant resist or is it because its actually a physical addiction that takes us over just like a smoker or an alcoholic.
I think i collect snakes because its a hobby more than anything thus giving me something to spend my money on. Everyone has something they spend money on rather it be cars, coins, comic books, baseball cards, and many other popular hobbies. I think with all the variety of snakes it keeps people coming back for the next cool spieces or color morph. Its kinda like when you were a kid and you got that toy in your happy meal at McDonalds. You always wanted to get the whole collection not just one.
I think many breeders have so many snakes because of all the possibilities they haven when working with all these new color morphs coming out each week. Are you a snake addict and if so why do you feel you are?
jmkhets
08-17-04, 02:37 PM
love the hobby but what do you tell your woman...who doesnt understand it?
I'm not addicted to snakes so much as I am addicted to reptiles in general. I only have one snake, but trust me, he is quite a handful. I'd like to get more... like hognosed snakes or ball pythons.
JMKHETS; I might be misunderstanding your statement, but if a woman knows that you keep and adore snakes, and she is with you, than she is tolerating it to some extent.
Sometimes women have the opposite problem, when THEY own the snakes and the man is scared or dislikes it. (Personally my fiance doesn't really mind what I bring home... "as long as it won't eat me" he says! LOL =)
bistrobob85
08-17-04, 02:46 PM
I am. Why do i say i am?!? My rooms is half a snake room, i keep talking about snakes to my girlfriend, i spend my time looking for info about different specie, i think about snakes and lizzards before i sleep at night ( sometimes ). I also have to say that i just love ssnakess.com cause everybody here likes reptiles and post pics of their own pets and you get to speak with tons of people from accross the continent with diferent morphs and species, it's just so interesting!
phil.
I am hopelessly addicted to snakes and this site. I can't go a day without being on here it's really pathetic but hey everyone needs something to live for. lol someone should open a rehab center for snake owners i'd imagine it be quite profitable.
rock on
Kayla
damzookeeper
08-17-04, 02:56 PM
Hi, my name is Debbie and I'm a herp-a-holic. lol.
Yes, I think it is kind of an adiction. But hey, I don't smoke, don't drink, and don't go out and blow my money on just anything. But when it comes to my herps, I'm bad, really, really bad. lol. I have 5 of my own snakes, and 2 more on the way this month, and my daughter has one. My husband is absolutely terrified of snakes and originally told me "One, just one!" Boy was that a mistake! lol, I think part of it is a fasination. I've been handling snakes since I was a young kid, along with other herps. I brought a snapper home when I was 6 and declaired it as my new pet. That is how I ended up with my first painted turtle. Living in Quebec at the time and they were sold in pet stores. My mother was afraid I'd lose a finger with the snapper so she compromised by buying me a painted. :) I was never alowed to keep snakes though, but I always went out field herping and played with the snakes, frogs, turtle, sometimes even bugs when I was younger. I was known as a tomboy when I was very young and as I got older family and friends started calling me the zookeeper. lol, I've have all sorts of animals my entire life but the herps and exotics beat them all! So, I think it is mostly my fasination with them. But I agree, you can't stop at just one!" Does that make it an adiction?! Maybe.
It is totally an addiction. My boyfriend dislikes snakes but he puts up with them. I had been asking for one for about a year and the one day a friend of mine told me about a lady that sold snakes. That day I phoned her and went to check them out. We went there with the intention of buying just one snake. But seeing them so cute and little i talked my boyfriend into taking two.......I told him that if I only took one the other one would be lonely......the lady selling the snakes helped me in convincing him. I walked out of there with two baby corns (normals). That was a year ago. Since then I have aquired 4 more. 3 brand new babies (an amel, an anery, and a snow) & a 4 year old normal corn named Johnny. Hehehe that last one I had planned out for a week before I brought him home. What a surprise to my boyfriend, who was used to 2' corns. He was more shocked at how big they actually get than mad at me for buying him. Anyways..........yes it is an addiction. I want a corn of each color. I'd like some constrictors but unfortunately where I live they are illegal. Oh well maybe I will move. HAHA.
smallball
08-17-04, 03:27 PM
I am in with bistrobob85, I had a problem but it is wearing off now, It is sort of phases, my girlfriend could not hear about snakes any longer. There is just something about them.
I lost control and spent more then I should have on them but I enjoy the pets, I am in control now though.
bistrobob85
08-17-04, 03:53 PM
I'm actually planning to get two ''last'' snakes before i move from my parents' place: another ETB and another Dumeril's Boa, just so that i have two couple, hehe. After that... well, if i have the room i'll surely get some red blood pythons, some irian jaya carpet pythons, some brazilian rainbow boas, some kenyan sand boas, some everglades ratsnakes and some mandarin ratsnakes... I'm pretty glad to be ''reasonnable'', because i would have them all now and would have to get rid of some of them! I'll buy my next snakes only when it will be responsible to do it, but meanwhile, I WANT THEM ALL!!!
phil.
JimmyDavid
08-17-04, 04:02 PM
Addicted!? Who said i'm addicted? i'm not addicted...I'm cool, i'm ok, really.
I just need a few mores snakes, i'll be cutting down shortly, for real...
HumphreyBoagart
08-17-04, 04:29 PM
Hi my name is Craig, I'm a snake-a-holic too.
I'm am absolutely obsessed with anything and everyting to do with snakes and reptiles in general. My girlfriend is going to leave me if I don't stop talking about snakes 24-7. I can't stop thinking about them so I can't stop talking about them. When I go to sleep at night, not only do I think about them when I'm falling asleep, but I dream about them too.
It wasn't always like this though. I used to be terrified of snakes, well I was intrigued by them, but would have never dreamt of being close enough to one to actually touch it. A couple years ago my friend bought a baby ball python and he bugged me and bugged me to hold it to get over my fear of snakes. Finally I caved and what a mistake that was. The obsession began. All I could think about was how cool the snake was and I had to have one. I researched like crazy to see what type of care they needed just to see if it was something that I wanted to take on. I also had to do a little (well actually alot) of convincing to my girlfriend. I took her over to my friend's so she could see how amazing it was. I don't think she felt the same way about it but nonetheless, permission was granted.
We shopped around trying to find the one I wanted, and to my surprise a week after we found one, my girlfriend suggested we get the ball python a lady friend. I had no objections.
I don't really know why I'm so addicted to them, but I definately know that I am. It is comforting knowing that there are lots of others that are in the same boat though. Oh well, better snakes than crack!
Craig
P.S. My girlfriend actually likes snakes now though, but a little scared of my male Surinam boa. Wait till I get my Bloods and ETB's, she'll love them!
jjnnbns
08-17-04, 08:22 PM
Yeah, I convinced my GF to let me get one corn snake... now I am getting close to a dozen! And I still want a few more!!! (few meaning many!)
SaIiLdVaEnR
08-17-04, 09:08 PM
I'm not! I do not own a single snake!
Aidan
capsicum
08-18-04, 12:10 AM
I am deffinately addicted to snakes, and reptiles in general. I always loved snakes, but never thought of them as pets until a few years back. My first snake was a spotted, and that got me hooked.
My husband is still terrified of snakes, but in a pinch he will grab one from me (eg. I am cleaning and need to move the snake, he will hold it until I am done). He loves the beardie more :D
I don't know why I am addicted to herps. They are awesome animals, and I guess too because they don't hate you if you forget to give them attention for one day, lol. Unlike many non-herp pets :D
I deffinately talk about them ALL the time, I read about them online, in magazines, in books, talk to all sorts of people about them, email tons of people about theirs' and what they have to offer, and yes I do dream about them at night. I once spent a full day reading about different HETs, and spent the night tossing and turning murmering about HETs and morphs :p
I find them to be truly awesome creatures, and while I still love my fured and feathered pets, the herps just have something a little different to offer :)
TK
This is easy.
Snakes are a form of crack cocaine, that actually lives and moves. The high is delivered every time you look at one. It's a visual thing. Unfortunately, the mind is tricked by photos and simulates a pseudo-high when viewing pictures of snakes. That's why it's called "eye candy".
When handling snakes, the drug is delivered right into the blood stream. Crack-cocaine easily passes the blood-brain barrier. That is why you buy snakes that you handle at shows.
Lesson, do not handle snakes at shows or look at pictures. You must wean yourself off the drug. Going cold turkey, only makes you com back. See the many posts by those who have "left the hobby" so to speak only to come right back!
mark129er
08-18-04, 02:11 AM
Hmmmmm squiggley crack cocaine
Originally posted by Katt
This is easy.
Snakes are a form of crack cocaine, that actually lives and moves. The high is delivered every time you look at one. It's a visual thing. Unfortunately, the mind is tricked by photos and simulates a pseudo-high when viewing pictures of snakes. That's why it's called "eye candy".
When handling snakes, the drug is delivered right into the blood stream. Crack-cocaine easily passes the blood-brain barrier. That is why you buy snakes that you handle at shows.
Lesson, do not handle snakes at shows or look at pictures. You must wean yourself off the drug. Going cold turkey, only makes you com back. See the many posts by those who have "left the hobby" so to speak only to come right back!
Haha, couldnt be more true :D
OMG!!!! All this talk about snakes and needing to get more and more is making me think that I should go and buy a few more today. Hey I have empty space. My boyfriends diecast car collection can go to the shed. HAHA. SSHHHH don't tell him I said that.
LOL! I have to say, thank you for sharing. I didn't realize that there are others out there who think so often of their reptiles! :) Yes, I do think of them before bed, and dream of them, and spend a fair share of my day reading forums and researching on the net, and reading books and magazines, and caring for my pets! :) So, ya... sounds like an obsession to me....
Nicki
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