My name is Steve and I currently live in New Mexico. I don't post a lot on this forum, but I do keep up with it most of the time. I have been keeping reptiles since I was about five years old. None of my parents were into reptiles, but luckily they were very understanding (let me say again, very understanding)and accepting of my hobby. At age 15, I started getting into venomous snakes and by age 17 amassed a venomous collection of about 20 to 30 animals, including vipers and elapids. I would catch local venomous snakes and trade for exotics. I had successfully bred various vipers by the age 18. Besides local non-venomous, the only other snake I had was a Boa I received as a present when I was 16. At age 18 I enlisted in the US Military to go to the Gulf War and sold off all my venomous snakes. My parents were willing to take care of my boa, so I was able to keep my female boa. After getting out of the Military I started getting more snakes again, venomous and non-venomous. At that point I had two children and weighed the liabilities of keeping venomous, I decided to only keep non-venomous. Up until about 1998 I kept various non-venomous species and in 1999 decided to only keep boas. Since 2000, I have successfully produced boas every year, which has allowed me to reinvest the money and purchase other boas. Currently I maintain a collection of about 20 snakes. As for my first boa, she passed away in 2000. I still occasionally have venomous snakes in my home, most of these are rescued from back yards, but they all get released soon after. I am very excited about this year, because I had some really awesome pairings lined up. If I goes well I should have some very nice babies on the ground starting early next week.

I must say, looking back I was very fortunate about not getting envenomated as a child and I would definitely not recommend a young herper to follow in my footsteps. If you are interested in venomous, get with a mentor and learn as much as you can prior to dealing with any venomous reptile.

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