How you got your first reptile

Cold Blooded · 10-05-02, 09:38 PM

Does anyone have an interesting story behind getting their first reptile? I found my ball python in my backyard. Before I was scared of snakes (I threated to kill it if my mom brought her in the house) but now I have 3.

Vanan · 10-05-02, 10:35 PM

I got my first snake while working at an animal shelter. They had a stray BP. When it came up for adoption, I adopted it. The best part was, I was afraid to pick him up as he was the first snake I ever touched.

Vanan

Alphonzo · 10-05-02, 10:49 PM

I caught my first lizards (Lacerta agilis and vivipara) when I was about 10 years old (1966). Since then it never stopped

My first reptiles that I bought were Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis when I was 14-15.
As you know...loving reptiles is a disease that cannot be cured.

o>

Syst3m · 10-06-02, 01:46 AM

hmm, commong garter snake.
I live in the suburbs no where near the woods and stumbled upon a common garter in the middle of the city. Unfortunatly I was only 8 and it managed to get lose in my house

but it did survive and was let lose after a short time roming the home !
its all downhill from there.

Lisa · 10-06-02, 06:02 AM

I brought home a snapping turtle when we were at the cottage. Mom wasn't happy. I had to release the little guy at the end of the week as i couldn't take it back to the city with us. We have snakes exclusively now, but I still have a special spot in my heart for turtles and tortoises.

corr · 10-06-02, 06:23 AM

My daughter's Brownie troop had the "Snake Lady" for a show one time (3 or 4 years ago) here in London. We got to hold a Milk snake so that peeked my interest. A short time later I got heavily into fish keeping and ended up with an empty 20 gallon tank. Well, we couldn't have an empty tank just lying around doing nothing, now could we! LoL! So, I thought I might put something in it that wasn't a fish. I started searching out reptiles that could be housed in a tank that size... Leopard Geckos, Anoles, Grass lizards, etc. I couldn't decide on anything. All the lizards I liked got too big.

Then one day, our family was at SuperPet and a woman had two adult Ball Pythons with her. I was very impressed with them but didn't consider that I might be able to keep them. I went down the fish aisle to browse, came back and my daughter (9 at the time) had one of the Balls draped around her neck! He was just chillin and my daughter loved him! As soon as we got home, I got online and started to read as much as i could about them. The rest is history.

Linds · 10-06-02, 07:22 AM

When I was 4 years old my mom sent my dad and myself to go get a hamster, this was to be my first pet. Well, we ended up coming home with an iguana instead

. Needless to say she wasn't impressed. Now Iggy is 18 years old and still kicking, very much a part of the whole family

.

wonder_chunky · 10-06-02, 11:00 AM

well we got an iguana from a friend who was going to the states to get a hadgehog, she was going to get one for me too, and when she got back, she gave me my hedgehog, and an iguana, she fit inside of a shoebox, and now shes about as wide as one....but that didnt get me into herps, last december i went to a pet store for some dog food with my mom and i was looking at the lizards and decided that i wanted a little lizard for in my room...i kept asking for the chameleon but she said no, so i bought a leopard gecko, but i was unhappy that it slept under it's rock all day and it wasnt eating properly, so i took him back and got the jacksons chameleon, i brought it home and about 1 week later she had 13 babies!!!....and not only that i figured out that she was a werners chameleon, so i sold all the babies except one and with that money bought me some veileds, and now i just cant stop buying herps!!! ahhhh!

Tim_Cranwill · 10-06-02, 11:08 AM

My first herp was actually 7 herps. Whan I was about 13, my long time buddy and I were camping and found this great place where Red Sided Garter Snakes seemed to like passing through. We caught as many as we could and brought them home. We kept them over the winter and couldn't figure out why they wouldn't eat... duh. We released them in the spring.

The first herp I ever bought was a Newt.

josefg · 10-06-02, 12:06 PM

I liked snakes from when i was young but i didn't know that people kept them as pets. However about three years ago, i went into this pet shop to get a male tortoise for my girlfriend (she keep both the male and the female as i have no space, so they are considered as her reptiles). This petshop had a large ammount of snakes but i thought that it was better if i told my mum, before i got one. She didn't want any snakes in the house so i didn't buy one.

However this summer i decided that i should get a snake, and i got a corn snake. At first my mother didn't beleive that i was getting a snake, and when i arrived home with mine she wasn't impressed. But now she's getting used to it, and i may get more.....

jsnake0 · 10-06-02, 01:48 PM

first reptiles were blue belly fence lizards i caught as a kid.
turn them on their backs and stroke their belly then they go sleep
still can't resist going out and catching them to put to sleep.

then garter snakes mom would not really let me keep them
and now i glad she didn't i didn't know how to care for them.

now it's corns, a cal king, a milk and 2 gophers.
snakes are the best.

BIG SCOTT · 10-06-02, 08:20 PM

For as long as can remember my parents have always been very anti reptiles. However my uncle breeds and sells snakes as a hobby so I was introduced to snakes at a very young age. Now that my mom knows that a career with reptiles is what I want to do with my life she has become a bit more supportive. My mom has always said that I would never own a snake as long as I lived with her. I remember going to reptlie show one day with very explict directions on not to buy a snake. But about 2 hrs later I came home with a nice Red - Tail boa. Since than I have added a Bearded Dragon a Tarantula and added 2 more Red-Tails a Speckled King, 2 Florida kings,1 corn snake and 1 Texas Rat to my collection and everytime I bring something home I here this is the last snake coming into my house. But what i always say is you can never have to many snakes.

BeHeMoTh · 10-06-02, 08:40 PM

when i was a kid i wanted to be a herp (then i realised that was impossible) so one day at my cottage i found a smooth green (bad condition severe trauma) my dad let me keep it but over night it died. snakes were always my favorite but i had had many an anole but they sadly passed away......then in april i saw him my bp he was so sweet my dad asked me if i wanted him....i felt like slappin him who could turn down a bp sheesh.

Edwin · 10-07-02, 02:49 PM

I was about 8 or 9 when I went on a trip to Thailand. On the main streets of Bangkok, there were several locals holding burms for tourists to take pictures with. My dad jokingly asked if I wanted to have my picture taken with the burm wrapped around me, and I said sure (he expected me to chicken out). That was my first expericence with a snake. After that, I really got interested in reptiles. I kept frogs, and even tried to keep a tokay gecko which I caught in my back yard, but it bit me so many times that I had to let it go. My parents would never let me keep a snake, although retics were very common in my neighbourhood (I guess this was a good thing). When I came to Toronto, I found many pet stores that carried herps. I went to my first Toronto Reptile Expo 3 years ago and bought my first ball python. I badly wanted a burm, but felt that I should 'cut my teeth' on something a little smaller first. Now I have a ball and a columbian BCI, and may get a burm if I ever move out of the GTA (snakes over 10 feet are illegal here).

storts · 10-07-02, 07:43 PM

Wife finally left. Got snakes. The rest is history!