What got you into the hobby?

[kiiarah]

I came across a post on another site about how addictive snake keeping can be and it got me thinking. I am curious how others got into the hobby. Were you just born loving reptiles? Was there a specific event that got you into snake keeping? I would love to hear how others were introduced to snakes in general and what hooked you.

I didn't always love snakes, but never disliked them either. I had a rough green snake when I was younger but wasn't obsessed with snakes in general at that point. I was always drawn to ball pythons, just based on what I had read about their temperament and their overall appearance. They just look like gentle, beautiful snakes. I always wrote them off as something I would just have to admire from afar. I tend to get attached to animals very easily (can't even bear to kill house spiders) so the idea of keeping a snake that eats rodents seemed impossible for me. I am not sure if I realized at the time that frozen rodents were an option, though I think even that would have seemed too upsetting. I do remember researching "snake sausages", just trying to find some way that it might work.

Skip forward about 10 years. I had been helping relocate wild snakes from my workplace and was trying to persuade a friend and co-worker that many snakes are really gentle and not the aggressive beasts people make them out to be. I had a ground snake at the hotel front desk that I was visiting with before releasing away from property and she actually wanted to hold him. At least with a tiny snake like that, she could see him as cute and gentle. Shortly after this we were at a petstore and managed to get one of the store employees to take out one of the baby ball pythons so she could see just how wonderful they are. At this point, I was still not even considering keeping one. I had never actually held one up until this point. The plan was to handle one so she could see how non-threatening they are, hopefully make a "believer" out of her, and return to life as usual. The moment that little guy was curled up in my hand everything changed. For the rest of the day I kept telling my husband that we needed to get one. He didn't really take me seriously and I really didn't think I would do it, but I just couldn't shake the idea. The next day I started researching breeders, still thinking I was just curious about prices and availability....certainly not planning on acting on it. I emailed a breeder (again just out of "curiosity"), who I heard back from the following morning. By that afternoon my little one was on hold. I was really amazed by how instantly actually handling one of these guys changed everything for me. I went from believing I wouldn't be able to handle their care to being willing to move mountains to make it happen in the blink of an eye.

And here is a pic of one of the best decisions I have ever made.

As a hatchling:




And now: