have shown that an overwhelming majority of snakes sold as babies end up with multiple owners. I began keeping captive snakes as an 18-year-old college student, and my collection grew from a single ball python to as many as 15 during my college years. I had a few big ones, with the most at one time being five snakes over 10 feet long. I had two big retics (12 foot male, 15 foot female, both quite tame), two big burms (my current albino and a very light colored 12 foot female with a nasty disposition), and a 10 foot African rock python (nasty as well). I also had a green anaconda that was a hefty seven footer, along with an 8 foot amethystine python. I also owned several smaller snakes, including rat snakes, small African rocks, burms, retics and a lone carpet python. I did the buy/sell/trade thing for a while, and as I got older, entered the workforce and had less time to spend cleaning the cages, I began selling my snakes.

The only one I kept was the albino. I was her second "official" owner, but I helped care for her from the time she was purchased. I helped a friend pick her out, and I helped him with her for the first two or three years of her life. In '95, he sold her to me very cheap under the condition that I not get rid of her. I agreed and have kept her ever since. She is 10 years old, and about 14 feet long and 180 pounds.

When I married, my wife had no problem with the big female (Alberta), and she has been with us ever since. And she will stay with us. Our first child was born 7 months ago, and I look forward to him being able to grow up with Alberta around (but never working with her unsupervised!). The male I have was a rescue that I had no intention on keeping (I was his fourth owner). However, he and Alberta mated during the fall, so I decided to keep him. And he has tamed down nicely and turned into a great snake.

I went through all this to say that most people who buy a snake never have any intention on keeping the snake for its entire life. This is a hobby to many, and you get a snake you've always wanted, keep it for a while and then trade it to somebody for something else. You keep that one until another animal catches your eye and the cycle repeats itself. That's the approach I took for about seven years. The last five, however, have been different. I've made it a point to keep my collection low so I can concentrate on taking good care of what I have. I plan on keeping both my burms for the remainder of their lives. I use them in shows (I've done about 40 shows for nearly 6500 people in the last 12 months), and I've traveled from the metro Atlanta area down to the Florida state line with my burms. They are very valuable to me, and are very much a part of my occupation. But I'm not sure most people look at herpetoculture in this manner.

Just for kicks, I would like to know how the percentage of snakes hatched in captivity that live to adulthood compares with the percentage of those that are hatched in the wild that make it to adulthood. I know this would be impossible to figure out, but it's neat to think about.

RP

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