Single snake owners?

[Minkness]

No, not if YOU are single, but if you only own ONE snake! Lol

I have always been a reptile enthusiast since I can remember. As little as 5 and catching snakes, frogs, lizards, ect. (Even caught an alligator once!). However I have always lived with my mom who haaaaates them. A few years ago I warmed her up to letting me have some geckos. She wasn't happy about it, but got over it, and even smiles at them and can tolerate handling them. She had never even budged on the thought of me owbing a snake however. It was a solid, no freaking way!

That is...until I told her that I was moving out so I could finally have one. (I'm 27 and we are best friends as well, so I didn't really want to move out, and she didn't want me to either lol) .

This changed her mind however, and she FINALLY agreed to let me have ONE snake. This is great! But also slightly frustrating as well lol.

I decided on a MBK as my 1....but really...in my head, I call it my 1st. Why? Because I like SO many other snakes! Garters, rats, corns, hognoses, Brazilian rainbows, and the list goes on.

I could still move out and get my MBK, but let's face it...I want my snake and to keep it too. (Get the pun? Lol). So, I am resigned to knowing that my soon to be MBK will be my 1st (and only ) for a very long time.

To commemorate my 1st and only, I would love to hear some stories about your 1st and only as well. Why that type? Was there a compromise? Difficulties along the way? Hillarity maybe? Just whatever y'all feel like sharing really. =)

[Aaron_S]

Originally Posted by Minkness

No, not if YOU are single, but if you only own ONE snake! Lol

I have always been a reptile enthusiast since I can remember. As little as 5 and catching snakes, frogs, lizards, ect. (Even caught an alligator once!). However I have always lived with my mom who haaaaates them. A few years ago I warmed her up to letting me have some geckos. She wasn't happy about it, but got over it, and even smiles at them and can tolerate handling them. She had never even budged on the thought of me owbing a snake however. It was a solid, no freaking way!

That is...until I told her that I was moving out so I could finally have one. (I'm 27 and we are best friends as well, so I didn't really want to move out, and she didn't want me to either lol) .

This changed her mind however, and she FINALLY agreed to let me have ONE snake. This is great! But also slightly frustrating as well lol.

I decided on a MBK as my 1....but really...in my head, I call it my 1st. Why? Because I like SO many other snakes! Garters, rats, corns, hognoses, Brazilian rainbows, and the list goes on.

I could still move out and get my MBK, but let's face it...I want my snake and to keep it too. (Get the pun? Lol). So, I am resigned to knowing that my soon to be MBK will be my 1st (and only ) for a very long time.

To commemorate my 1st and only, I would love to hear some stories about your 1st and only as well. Why that type? Was there a compromise? Difficulties along the way? Hillarity maybe? Just whatever y'all feel like sharing really. =)

I had a single snake for years as a young teen boy. Like you my parents were strict on that rule. I always asked for more so when I could finally work at a pet store they thought it would help keep the number at home to 1. It had the opposite effect.

[Minkness]

Lol nice. I'm hoping that my 1st will just be a gateway so I can get more. Not planning on any giants by any means but the colubrids seem to have my heart lol.

[EL Ziggy]

I'm with you Mink. I LOVE colubrids. It's tough to keep just one though. Good Luck!

[Sylphie]

I have a short story
As a child I dreamed of a snake. A year ago through a friend I finally gained my first... after long deliberation it fell on Russian Rat Snake. This friend having my russian for a few days before I was able to get him, also begin to liked snakes and bought a corn. In the meantime, we had a ball python, by which we became a couple, but we had to give it up :<
Currently, we do not plan rather more snakes, my boyfriend loves his corn, and I love my russian... although if I found somewhere anery / melano russian...

[sharthun]

Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

I'm with you Mink. I LOVE colubrids. It's tough to keep just one though. Good Luck!

Yeah good luck!

[Minkness]

Lol seems I'll need all the good luck I can get! Don't even have my MBK yet and already thinking of how to sneak in a small male garter or oeekee rat/corn (still new at memorizing all the colors and who they belong to, let alone how to spell it all! Lol)

[Sylphie]

You know, I advise to read, watch and search on the Internet as much as possible. After the first stage of fascination and "I want to have everything" man calms down and is able to better assess whether you really want this kind of snake or if this snake is really as cool as he seemed at first. For me it worked, now I'm quietly watch each different species, but there are only few that I would like to have in my home.

[Minkness]

Oh yes. I have been watching and researching for 20 years lol literally! I know I won't be jumping in to owning more than 1 for a while as mentioned, but I also have some experience with other types that leads me to know what I can handle and enjoy. A friend had an albino checkered garter male and he was awesome, another had a rat and corn, who I loved as well, yet another had a BP and a RTB...bot a fan of BPs other than their pretty colors and loved the RTB but it's on the 'too big for me' side of life lol.

I know theres the obsessive side that is totally "OMG I WANT THEM ALL" (which I call pokemon syndrome lol) but I do consider myself a responsible enough pet owner to know what I'll be getting into before actually getting into it. =)

Just because this is my 1st doesn't mean I don't have experience however. =)

[CrotalusR#1]

Not really a boa guy, is a blood boa a morph or a local?

[Minkness]

Depends. I believe there is a specific boa that is known as a blood, but many snakes seem to have 'blood' morphs.

[toddnbecka]

The first real pet snake (other than wild caught colubrids that I kept for a week or two then released again) I had back in the days of living with my mother was a red tail boa. My mother was strictly against snakes too, so I got together with my best friend and we shared the boa. She lived at his house, his mother didn't have a problem with snakes. There was one close call when I had the boa at my (mother's) house one day, sitting in a swivel rocking chair, and allowed the snake too much freedom. It meandered down under the seat cushion, and when I realized that it wasn't coming out from under as expected, I lifted the cushion and found it crawling through a hole in the lining of the chair frame. I couldn't pull her back out, the fabric was stretched very tightly around her, and it would have torn off her scales. I had visions of her popping out of the chair while My mother was sitting in it...
She disappeared into the chair, and I turned it upside down and tore off the bottom, ripped loose the lining under the back, felt all around and still couldn't locate her. I finally took a knife and slit the fabric along the back near the bottom, and found her tucked up in a hollow part under the arm. Stapled the bottom back together and sewed up the slice in the back. Amazingly, my mother never noticed the damage/repairs to the chair in the years after until the chair finally wore out.
The main thing I found about the boa was the difference in handling old world and new world snakes. Boas and pythons are less active in general, more relaxing to handle and hang out with.
There are smaller species of boas and pythons that don't grow any larger than a rat snake, some a good bit smaller even. Spotted or Children's pythons only grow to 36", sand or rosy boas stay small too. Dominican red mountain boas and some carpet pythons grow to about 5-6', and have the same general body type as a rat snake, not the heavier body of red tail boas or ball pythons. I never did like the BP's either.
The Okeetee corn snake is my favorite colorful colubrid, a MBK may be the next addition to my collection after I get some new enclosures built for my current critters. We just went to the Hamburg reptile show Saturday, and I was rather tempted to pick up a baby spotted python. I saw some for $35/each, but since I don't have a spare setup on hand I decided to pass. Quite a wide variety of '14 corn snake morphs for $20/each, and the last visit in October I picked up my beautiful baby carpet for $60 and Becka's red tail boas for $75. Supplies, everything from screen tops to substrates, heat pads, etc. are also available at low prices at shows.

[Sylphie]

Originally Posted by Minkness

Oh yes. I have been watching and researching for 20 years lol literally! I know I won't be jumping in to owning more than 1 for a while as mentioned, but I also have some experience with other types that leads me to know what I can handle and enjoy. A friend had an albino checkered garter male and he was awesome, another had a rat and corn, who I loved as well, yet another had a BP and a RTB...bot a fan of BPs other than their pretty colors and loved the RTB but it's on the 'too big for me' side of life lol.

I know theres the obsessive side that is totally "OMG I WANT THEM ALL" (which I call pokemon syndrome lol) but I do consider myself a responsible enough pet owner to know what I'll be getting into before actually getting into it. =)

Just because this is my 1st doesn't mean I don't have experience however. =)

I does not mean that you don't have experience or that you are not responsible. It is simply working with me, so I don't want more snake at the moment
And yes, "pokemon syndrome" is really good appellation, haha.

Anyway, I wish you good luck, but not with "i don't want more snakes", but with conviction your mother to tolerate them

[Tsubaki]

My mother (Slightly reluctantly at start) told me i could have 1 snake, so i got one boa constrictor. Once the animal was there, my mom got used to the idea and did not mind it at all. Especially because she did not have to pitch in with any of the care, that really helped. My collection grew rapidly from that point on I used to have a slight case of the 'Pokemon syndrome' when it came to location wildtype retics, i wanted to have them all. This time around i haven't bought any animal just because it was the species/locality i like, only looking for something that really catches my eye. And honestly that's the way to go, Quality over quantity. Nothing better than a snake being exactly what you're looking for.

I wouldn't go sneaking more animals in b.t.w, that could backfire into 'no more snakes at all'... try to get your mother used to the idea.

[Mikoh4792]

Originally Posted by CrotalusR#1

Not really a boa guy, is a blood boa a morph or a local?

The blood morph originated in El Salvadorian boas. There are a few people breeding pure El Sal. blood boas but it's a simple recessive gene bred into other localities/designer lines.