How did u get into this?

[SilverTongue]

Well I have always loved animals in general ALL of my live. Infact I do not remember a time not ever owning cats dogs birds fish ect. So having a addiction with animals in general has never been a problem. When I was about 16 my dad got 2 bps and all they did what ball up. Even when you took them out of the cage they just knotted up. Needless to say I lost intresed in them. I wound up getting three rescued abanded ferrits. Few months ago I got the idea to get my dad a snake for fathers day. My dad loves snakes! I never knew how much e loved snakes, because my mom is scared to death of them LoL. So my dads snake is in the mail and I now have a cornsnake, texas ratsnake, redear slider, japanese firebelly newt, 18+ fish, and 3 cats, a husband and a daughter With 3 more corns otw after they have eaten a few times.

[Nicky]

well first of all I've always loved animals cats dogs birds lizards snakes whatever so this is my story...


"It started 3 years ago when i moved from Calgary to toronto. I always liked lizards but never considered them as pets. Our cousins invited us to our cottage one day and I agreed because i love nature so whwen we were there My cousin cam eback from a bush with a garter I couldn't belive it I was amazed he had caught a real live snake.

so then i started asking questions and he told me u could have them as pets! I was amazed my mom on the other hand was not. After 2 years of begging and catching wild snakes showing that i could handle a real one I got one on dec 24 2002!

so now I have one snake (so far) named nicky after my cousin who started my ambition and love for herps even thoe I liked them when i was a little kid.

thats my story how it started".....


THE END

lol yup thats mine

[beyowulf]

I won a red-eared slider in a raffle in grade 8. Shortly after that I began taking in other people's sliders that they didn't want. I was always up to my knees in mud when I was a kid from catching bullfrogs and stuff. Last summer my friend Dale gave me 2 cane toads, and now next month I'm getting a W. hognose!!!

[PetCrazy]

I don't really know how to tell my tale...cause quite frankly, it's all a jumble.

I've been into animals ever since I was able to walk, so of course my first pets were cats, guinea pigs, a lop eared rabbit, a crab , fish, and a pony(then a horse) and canary (which is now a conure)...though I always had a thing for herps.
Even when I was in kindergarden, I helped take care of the water dragon in one of the older childrens classrooms.
At that young age, I also was known for taking off in the middle of the mall, to find the closest pet store.

I never knew I would ever be 'allowed' to keep reptiles when I was young. So I contented myself with planting myself infront of the tv to watch nature shows, and to read any articles I could find about them. As well as reading on the net, and e-mailing breeders on occasion with curiosity questions.

I never started keeping reptiles till I got hired at a petstore because I knew more then the associate there at the time. So I was hired pretty much on the spot (talk about boosting my ego)..and then I just...came home one day with a rescue leopard gecko (who is still with me as to this day).

Then from there, it's all a blur *lol* now I have a room entirely dedicated to my herps.

I love this 'hobby' 'passion' 'obsession'
As well as the people I meet along the way.

[Shroud]

I have always been a fan of ALL animals. When I was a kid, I would walk to the old railroad tracks near my house and find snakes. I would bring them home and keep them for a couple days before I let them go. I had pretty much every pet you could think of growing up. When I was 16 I decide I would get a couple Leo's as pets. I bred them for a year and a half and then decided I wanted a BP. I got my first python as a rescue from a pet store because i couldn't stand to see him there. About 2 years after that I got into boas and started breeding them. After a bad breakup with my ex, I sold off all my animals and I'm now getting back in by jumping straight in. I already got 1.2 breeder balls and am trying to get 1.1 Surinams right now.

Sorry, I was trailing. Anyway, yeah, don't eat yellow snow.

35 years ago at the tender age of six I caught a wild coachwhip (meanest snake alive lol). Mom didn't care as long as it stayed at the ranch. That led to greybands (I grew up in the Loma Alta, Comstock, 277 area), rattlers, and then blossomed into boas, corns, other kings, bulls, milks, pythons, gaboons, and have been hard at it ever since.
Sterling

[lance]

well i dont like bugs so whatever eats bugs i like makes sense right stated out with one trantula then up to five
now out of spiders and into lizards
sad thing is now i have to buy bugs lots and lots of bugs
oh well everythiong comes full circle i guess




lance

[gunnerslakeshor]

Ive been into herps off and on for over 20yrs , i got started catching snapping turtles and snakes in the river by my parents house ( drove my parents nuts) I dragged home everything.
Snappers kill baby swans here and at that time they had a bounty on them here so me being an enterpriseing type ( and money hungry) I put a dint in the local population 15 - 20 a summer at 20 + lbs each made a good buck .Ive since refined my herping and keep only that which i can take the best of care.
Like kings , Corns , Boa,s and pythons.
Phil

[SilverTongue]

you killed snappingturtles for money, or turn them in to be killed?? I would hat for the baby swans to be killed, but why not just transdplant the turtles??

[sophia]

Growing up in my aunt's home my cousin was in vet. school and had a virtual reptile farm in the basement, monitors, geckos etc. etc. though also being from the northern part of the country, I wasn't exposed to that many reptiles in the wild... also had a definite nervousness coupled with curiousity towards snakes. Moving to NC proved quite educational as there are just a couple of different varieties of snakes - especially the venomous variety. That was a new experience!

My love affair started when my wife and I visited a local pet store and I handled my first snake; California King and then shortly thereafter a Normal Corn Snake. I fell in love... and wanted one for about a year or so. We started off with fish - Jack Dempsey Cichlids to be exact... then traded them for the Arowanna... but it still didn't satisfy my snake fetish until I broke down and picked out a Ball Python and brought her home... if ever there was in international ambassador for reptiles.. Lilith is it. Calm and very mild mannered; she got me hooked. That and a wife that has a ton of herp experience to point out the mistakes ahead of time... better to make the wrong fast movement with a docile ball python than say a reticulated! It all got rolling there and then we had to get one for our daughter - a beautiful Snow Corn and then the Male Ball and then the Milk snake pair... and now either a pair of Bloods or Rainbows are in the plans for the future.

I have never been around such a fascinating creature... I love all of our animals, Dogs, Parrot, Fish.... but the Snakes get me every time.

I am such a sucker.


Jon