Lately I have had this question surface in the back of my mind more and more and I finally decided to post a thread about it. Many will say that to possess and care for snakes in and of itself chalks up to genuine experience. I suppose in a way it may be a form of experience, but what about the variables?



What if someone keeps numerous snakes of many different species but is the type of "herper" that seldom removes the snakes from their cages and predominately uses a hook to move the snakes about. I'd say this certainly ranks as experience with a hook,.. but very little with the snakes themselves.



Then say there is a guy (or gal) that has only one or two snakes,.. but handles them often, for long periods of time, virtually every day and learns much about these individual snakes. I'd say enough could be learned from a few snakes with intense study to gain a working common sense with snakes in general, at least of that species or genus. I'd also say that this ranks as more of a genuine form of "experience" than the former scenario keeper.



Someone once theorized that herp experience can be calculated by each snake owned for a year as counting as a single year of experience. (if my memory serves me correctly). And that by this standard if one kept 20 snakes for even a year it was tantamount to 20 years true experience. I can see the logic in this method, but I can also see a pardoxical flaw. I have noticed that the more snakes I acquire, that the less individual time I give to each of the snakes overall. By this I mean the time that I would otherwise be holding or studying, taming or other individual attentions I lavish them with. So it seems, for me at least, that there is a point which is reached in large colonies where there is a specific ammount of time devoted to the collection, as a whole, regardless of the number of snakes. So I think this method of a year per snake makes sense up to a point but not much beyond this point. So if one reaches this point and a number of their snakes are maintained but otherwise ignored,.. it can't possibly equal additional experience.



Anyhow,.. perhaps I am tired,.. these are just my thoughts. What are your thoughts on this?
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"If I had 365 enemies it would only take a year out of my life to settle all scores." Mia Miselfani

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