For the LOVE of reptiles...

[Kayla90]

I've been looking up a lot of information on snakes lately, basically just trying to absorb as much info as I can. One of the recent things I decided to look up was herping, which of course then led me to Herpetology.
So while reading through I see, at the bottom of the page, a link, "List of Herpetologists." I found myself wondering if I could possibly know of any, and as I'm scrolling through, a name comes to mind, so I scroll down to I, and there he was, Steve Irwin. Clicking his page, from just seeing his face, that smile he always had on, made me remember where my love of reptiles all started.
I remember when I was really little I use to sit in front of the TV watching the Crocodile Hunter every time it was on, I'd spend hours watching marathons, face just glued to the TV. I admired him so much, the things he did, the knowledge he had, the amount of love you could see he had for every animal he came in contact with. If it wasn't for Steve I don't think I would love reptiles the way that I do.

So here's a question: Do you remember the moment/events/or thought that began your love for them? Was it just a feeling you had when you saw one or something you weren't aware of until much later, stumbling upon something/one the way I did?
Anyone have a good story?

[ilovemypets1988]

pretty much the same as you, im a massive fan of steve irwin myself, may he forever R.I.P.

[Kayla90]

MHM, :( I was so sad the day I found out he was dead.. I actually thought it was a joke, like the media was making a joke or something, but then everyone kept telling me he was actually gone and my mind kind of stopped for a minute. He was such a great person.

[ilovemypets1988]

i actually watched what happened to him, i was upset myself, my dad cracked a joke and its was the only time that i hit him enough to knock him clean out, thats how much i love steve

[Lankyrob]

Held a retic when i was 6 at a zoo (shame our zoos dont do this sort of thing so much now) and fell in love. Then kinda forgot about them until las tyear when i saw someones collextion and it just triggered the love again. Within 5 months had 7 snakes and 2 lizards!

[Kayla90]

:O Seriously?
How could you make a joke when he actually died :(

[ilovemypets1988]

yh, but my dad paid the price for it, so he learned his lesson :)

[Kayla90]

shame our zoos dont do this sort of thing so much now
Its IS! I wish our society didn't suck so much.

And holy you could actually hold a retic when you were 6? Was it a baby or at least not fully grown? 5 Months = 7 Snakes :O ... Man, it's going to take me probably 5 months to get one snake

[Lankyrob]

Probably should have said - it was an adult and there were five or six zoo keepers holding the snake and a child stood between each adult "holding" the snake!

[Kayla90]

Wahaha that's still a pretty cool experience, especially at 6 when everything seem a billion times more awesome then most things do now.

[ilovemypets1988]

yh thats true.

rob, my local zoo (london city) does do shows and animal handling, i dont know about snakes though, but these days as insurance prices are through the roof, alot of these zoo`s are struggling to stay afloat and to add insurance for animal handling would probably put alot of them out of business, form that aspect i dont blame them, but i do see what you mean though.

im planning on doing alittle show in my local town hall to educate people on these magnificent animals soon and with any luck, it will be a success.

[Kayla90]

That's awesome, I hope it goes well for you. I for one know that I loove when ever I see people carrying around snakes randomly just showing them to people and talking with them. People will never learn to not be afraid of them if they never understand them. Soooo wooo I think it'll be great.

[NennaMeerkat]

The moment that sealed the deal with me loving reptiles was 2 things.

The first was when I got the opportunity to work at a local small city zoo with the reptiles that they show the public. It was nothing more than a variety of corn snakes, a couple of hognose, a savannah, a bearded, and a leopard gecko. Even though it was a mild bunch of reptiles it was still so much fun. Me getting to hold them and seeing the wonder in everyone else's eyes to see them white visiting the zoo.

The second was when my mom, who I was still living with at the time, allowed me to get a small lizard from a chain pet store. I had him in a 40 gallon tank filled with reptile sand. To be honest I dunno how he lived as long as he did (about 5 years) because nothing was right about his care. Fed him a few crickets every so often but that was basically it. No water, no lighting or heating....just a HUGE tank and sand. None the less getting to actually own my first lizard while still living with my mom was the beginning of the end....so to speak.

[stephanbakir]

Mom got me my first ball python when I turned 3.

[Kayla90]

Wow well at least you know lot's now, I assume? lol And probably take really good care of any current ones you have.

A snake at the age of 3?? I wish I had your mom, mine wouldn't even pretend to let me think the idea would ever be possible of having one. Ahaha

[ilovemypets1988]

yh same here, i wanted a corn and the answer was always no and they got that fed up with me asking, they wouldnt let me go to the reptile section of the local pet shop, well i have my snakes now and feel better for it and will educate my unborn child on them to

[Kayla90]

Wahaha my family just stopped going to the pet stores that had reptile sections..

[ilovemypets1988]

haha lol that`s always the way though lol, but the funny thing is, i bet if you proved to them that they wouldnt have to deal with the snake, they wouldnt have cared so much lol

[Kayla90]

I no I told my mom sooo many times, I even bought a book on snakes at the time with my own money to prove to her I was serious about taking care of one. She said if I read the whole book she'd think about it.. When I finished she looked at me like, "you really thought I was serious?" wahaha

[ilovemypets1988]

my answer to that was you sadistic c** and told her how am i suppose to learn ti stick to my word, when i give it, if you dont, thats what i wouldve said lol

[Kayla90]

Ahaha well I might have said that now, but I was probably 12 at the time..

[ilovemypets1988]

in that case i probably wouldve been arrogant enough to try to sneak a snake in to the house lol and after abou 3 months i wouldve walked down the stairs with the snake and said "look at what ive got" lol

PLEASE DONT DO THIS KIDS AS IT CAN GET YOU INTO SERIOUS TROUBLE

had to add that note, gotta be responsible

[Kayla90]

Haha I did that with a tadpole one time... There was a creek close to our old house and it had BILLIONS of tadpoles in it... So I ran home and grabbed one of those containers people usually put cereal in, ran back and spent the day trying to catch some. When I finally caught one I was soooo excited, I ran back home and hid it in my room, but I was never really good at keeping things to myself.. so I showed my mom the next day. Luckily she let me keep it, though it died a while later when it was turning into a frog. He only had 3 legs :(

[ilovemypets1988]

thas not good, but did you know what they eat and so on as sometimes the lack of this knowledge can lead to trouble such as what happened to your tadpole, used to keep and breed slow worms, back then, i didnt know that it was illegal to keep slow worms and i couldve been arrested, although, becoz i was breeding them successfully and releasing the young, i wouldve been allowed to keep doing it under a conservation law.

[Kayla90]

No, I had no idea how to take care of one, I felt so bad. I guess that's why parent's say you get get animals till your responsible enough sometimes. Though it wasn't like that with my family.. Anything other than a snake we've basically had before.. I even once bought a feeding rat and kept her as a pet (saved her being killed from a snake) She was albino so I bagged my mom to get her she was only $2 lmao
We've had a hamster, a guinea pig, a rabbit, cats, dogs, fish, a bird, the rat basically everything you can find in a pet store we've owned at least once. And I'd say the majority were mistreated do to a lack of knowledge. Well that and the fact that my mother happens to be one of those people that when you can't/don't want to take care of it anymore you set it free into the wild.

[ilovemypets1988]

ah bad attitude with your mum in that sence, sorry if that offends, as my attitude is if u cant continue to look after the animal, rehome the animal :)

[Kayla90]

Oh I completely agree with you! I'm completely against taking in something that you can't take care of (Now at least, to bad I wasn't like that as a kid). It's horrible what she did, I came home one time to find my guinea pig missing when I asked her what happened she told me that it got sick and I hadn't been cleaning the cage she she let it go outside X(
Who puts a guinea pig outside?? seriously?

[ilovemypets1988]

wow thats bad, theres perfect examples of why you shouldnt release pets into the wild in the florida everglades with burms, nile monitors, iguanas and so on.

if you can, what a program called python hunters.

[Freebody]

i just watch an episode of that show last night, they are proving the burms in florida are not caused from people turning their pets free, its was caused from the hurican their in 1995< i think that was they year lol cant remember from last night LOL, it took out a burm breeding facility, 2000 baby burms gone and never found, now they are turning up after all these year,

[ilovemypets1988]

the burms aint released pets but the other animals on there are, those were the ones i was referring to it

[youngster]

The Jeff Corwin Experience. He's really nice and he loves what he does. Not to mention he's funny as hell. If you have Netflix you can watch his shows instantly.

[Kayla90]

Suure let's blame it on a hurricane that happened over 5 years ago... -.-

I'll try to see if I can find an episode..

[Rog]

I used to bring home snakes when I went fishing. My mom would let me keep them for a couple days then I had to let them go. I loved hunting for them and trying to catch them.

[infernalis]

Its IS! I wish our society didn't suck so much.

I could not agree to any one statement more than this one..

[marionsclan]

i actually watched what happened to him,

Were you physically there? I know his wife had those tapes destroyed so that they won't leak into public.

[marionsclan]

yh same here, i wanted a corn and the answer was always no and they got that fed up with me asking, they wouldnt let me go to the reptile section of the local pet shop, well i have my snakes now and feel better for it and will educate my unborn child on them to

Seems to me that your parents said no because they were not educated in keeping snakes and were therefore out of their comfort zone and wouldn't know what to do if something happened. Parents like to feel in control so they can continue to keep their kids safe. Much like you will do with your own child. :)

[Kayla90]

Seems to me that your parents said no because they were not educated in keeping snakes and were therefore out of their comfort zone and wouldn't know what to do if something happened. Parents like to feel in control so they can continue to keep their kids safe. Much like you will do with your own child. :)


Lmao if that was the reason we wouldn't had half the animals we did growing up. Cause she was uneducated on ALLLL of them. The only thing she could tell you for a fact was, "Ohh sooo cute"

[ilovemypets1988]

Were you physically there? I know his wife had those tapes destroyed so that they won't leak into public.

no i cant swim much, but she did show it the once and then had that tape and the episode of the program errased perminently

[forza_inter]

i seriously cant recall when or how i acquired my fascination and love for snakes....but about 2 years ago when i first started dating my gf, she was going through 1 of my photo albums, and came across a loose piece of paper folded up inside the album....it had a note scribbled on it.....

ready for this.....when i was 6 years old i made a fake run away note for my parents because they refused to let me get a pet snake. I left it on the kitchen table and hid under my bed.....so she brought it up to my mom, and with my luck she remembered exactly what happened that day, and gave us the story in vivid detail.....needless to say they couldn't stop laughing, at my expense of course. and yea, i still haven't lived that down yet, and i prob wont.....

[Kayla90]

Lmao that's awesome! Seriously. I always find it so weird when I find something I wrote a long time ago, and I can't even begin to think what was going through my head at the time. It should be safe to assume though, that you were thinking about REALLLLY wanting a snake :D

[forza_inter]

Lmao that's awesome! Seriously. I always find it so weird when I find something I wrote a long time ago, and I can't even begin to think what was going through my head at the time. It should be safe to assume though, that you were thinking about REALLLLY wanting a snake :D

hahaha yea, not much has changed since then lol....took 19 years, but i finally got my snake :yes:

[Will0W783]

For me, I always loved reptiles and kept lizards and such as a kid. I caught and held wild garter snakes, but my mother has a terrible phobia, so I could never have one while I lived with them. I moved out on my own and didn't have much exposure to reptiles for a few years. But when I held my first pet store python, a BP I ended up buying, it set off a passion to own and enjoy snakes. Their nearly infinite variety, colors, sizes, and characteristics absolutely fascinate me.

[Jay]

Born into a House filled with em... Steve was amazing, I hope I can die doing what I love. For everyone who is not Australian try saying "GOOD, EYE" without sounding Australian lol

[marionsclan]

i actually watched what happened to him, i was upset myself, my dad cracked a joke and its was the only time that i hit him enough to knock him clean out, thats how much i love steve

You HIT your dad?

[vendettaseve]

I personally dont really understand the love for Steve Irwin. Im sorry if I offend with my opinion, but I always felt like I was watching the village idiot antagonizing reptiles, turning the entire science into a joke.

As far as the original question, Iv always been a fan of reptiles, when I was a kid I used to hunt down frogs and lizards, never snakes tho. Because of the area I was in when I started with my little hobby my parents always feared Id grab a copperhead and it would be game over lol.

As far as that hurricane thing, it was just mentioned on a show im watching "Python Hunters"

[Kayla90]

Lol nope no offense.. To each his own, how ever I do not understand why you saw him as the 'village idiot' type. If it wasn't for watching his show as a kid, I never would have known anything about reptiles and would possibly be one of the many people who have a fear of them because they don't understand how truly beautiful a species they are.