Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is an old picture. We don't take Checkers or Puca or any other giant out very often, but every summer or other we will take a giant or two out for picture taking. These were taken last summer. This female is actually much bigger now.

Here's my eldest son, Cole, hamming it up with Checkers in 05.

Our Website

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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com

Gentle Giant!!
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0.1 Normal Burm ( Stewie )
1.1 Albino Granite Burm ( Dollar and Cents )
1.0 Super Tiger 100% Het Albino ( Blue )
0.1 Purple Albino Retic ( Puzzle )
0.2 Kids ( Kaylee and Angie )
0.1 Wife ( Danielle )

Sure is as long as your there to supervise. Never know what "could" possibly happen. Even though we come to know these guys as gentle giants and even family members...they are still wild animals.
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John Light
JL Exotics
Contact Me
Web Site

Of course these "sessions" are always 100% supervised. But not so much because we believe any of our girls would ever take one of our children as prey, but just because it is common sense to always watch over every activity with our pythons, whether they are interacting with children or adults. This is NOT because we buy into the unfounded concept that these are "wild animals". We don't. But we understand through years of experience that accidents can happen and we know how to avoid them.

Thanks for your comments.
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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com

Few Burms have ever made me concerned with children (under supervision). However, I would feel a lot less comfortable if the giant was a Retic, or an anaconda.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

We have even more retics than burms and they are all docile and trustworthy except one female that came to us psychologically damaged via abuse by her previous owners.

We allow the kids to hold the tics (under supervision of course) but not nearly as often as the burms. This not because they are any less trustworthy but because they are just not a comfortable hold. They are always on the move and very insistant on getting somewhere else. Unless one is quite strong this is just a recipe for trouble. The burms, however, are very slow and calm in their movements and almost always content to lay where you put them and can easily be guided back should they stray.

We have anacondas too but I would never allow the kids to handle them, short of when they are much older and much more capable and experienced. Though our condas are all tame they have demonstrated to me through the years that they can never be trusted 100% and they can easily become "upset" by odd things, such as an alien smell.

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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com

I'm going mainly on the fact that the only snake that ever made a serious attempt to kill me was a 17 foot Retic that grabbed and wrapped me when I was in it's cage at Lion Country Safari where I worked. Fortunately, I am a very large and strong person. I was able to carry it to where I had help removing it. The snake by the way was a long term captive-though not handled much. A kid would have been dead.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

"The snake by the way was a long term captive-though not handled much." Ok by long term captive do you mean it was WC not CB or CBB. Sense David has been doing this for.....what is it now David 30 YEARS? Im sure he knows what hes doing. Im guessing when you say (long term captive) you are saying it was WC i could be wrong. I dont think that he would let his son play with a 17 foot wild retic, know matter how long it was in captivity. I hope i never hear again where someone compares one of David's snakes to a WC one. If you owned a snake that he produced you might think different.
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0.1 Normal Burm ( Stewie )
1.1 Albino Granite Burm ( Dollar and Cents )
1.0 Super Tiger 100% Het Albino ( Blue )
0.1 Purple Albino Retic ( Puzzle )
0.2 Kids ( Kaylee and Angie )
0.1 Wife ( Danielle )

The general heading of this thread was about whether it is:

"Acceptable 4 kids 2 play w giant pythons."

Your reading this into to my comparing his animals to W/C is way wrong.

So relax. I'm not attacking your friend. I don't even deal with him, and have never met him, or have even (knowingly) seen any of his animals. So lets return this to the actual thread.

My point was (and is) in answer to the question he posted that they can kill and an adult should supervise any children handling very large boids.

For the record, To the best of my knowledge the Retic was C/B. a long time resident of this zoo.

In my thirty five years in this hobby as a professional and hobbiest I have seen retics that were pretty tame, but I have also seen C/b that never will be.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Thanks for the vote of confidence Derek, but I didn't perceive Franks post as any kind of an attack or insult. He was just pointing out a not-so-good experience with a big python.

Plus, my initial post and the title text was a bit of a joke, not really intended to start a debate as to whether or not it's okay for kids to play with giant pythons, lol. Sorry for any confusion there. I would never recommend that small children play with giant pythons. Any pictures with our kids are always taken under the very strictest supervision and as soon as the pictures are taken the snake goes right back in her cage.

Actually, I will verify that accidents can and do happen with these big snakes, even the tame ones, no matter how big, strong old or experienced the person may be. I have had big female retics push against me and almost snap my arm in two just with their very customary "flinching" when they are touched. Just their weight and strength alone is cause for extreme caution at all times by any person of any level of experience or age.
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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com

Bottom line, and I think you'll all agree, that anytime big snakes are around kids (especially kids) that they should be "closely" supervised - we use big snakes for MANY programs and have literally 1000's and 1000's of people each year interact with our burms at various education events; in the 15 years that my wildlife center has been in existence, we have never had a single incident. BUT, I have also personally witnessed a young child get a full face shot from a burm at a "snake show" by some supposed "snake expert" who I knew from the get go was very suspicious and acted in a reckless manner with the animals. The snake was thin, I even saw mites on the body, and had a RI....and that's what he used to let kids touch! My stomach went sour and I couldn't bite my lip; I approached him and gave him the loudest earful he'll ever get; w/in 5 minutes, everyone vacated the area and I spent a good deal of time educating them on responsible methods for using snakes for education. I think as long as you use common sense, most situations are fairly uneventful.

>>Thanks for the vote of confidence Derek, but I didn't perceive Franks post as any kind of an attack or insult. He was just pointing out a not-so-good experience with a big python.
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>>Plus, my initial post and the title text was a bit of a joke, not really intended to start a debate as to whether or not it's okay for kids to play with giant pythons, lol. Sorry for any confusion there. I would never recommend that small children play with giant pythons. Any pictures with our kids are always taken under the very strictest supervision and as soon as the pictures are taken the snake goes right back in her cage.
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>>Actually, I will verify that accidents can and do happen with these big snakes, even the tame ones, no matter how big, strong old or experienced the person may be. I have had big female retics push against me and almost snap my arm in two just with their very customary "flinching" when they are touched. Just their weight and strength alone is cause for extreme caution at all times by any person of any level of experience or age.
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>>David Beauchemin
>>High End Herps.Inc
>>http://HighEndHerps.com
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

I don't keep large snakes, nor do I have any experience with them. But as an outside observer looking at the pictures of kids sitting at the business ends of enormous snakes, I wonder exactly what precautions are being taken? People mention strict supervision and having someone else around just in case.

But what if the worst case scenario happens? How much time do you have to remove the snake to save the kid's life? How many people does it take to remove a large snake when it's constricting something/someone?

If the snake for whatever reason decided that it's time to eat, how much time would it take for a child to end up with lacerations and broken bones? It seems like this damage would happen before anyone layed a hand on the snake to remove it.

I'm not out to attack anyone or get on a high horse. I'm just a casual observer and these are the things I wonder about.

Im sorry about that. That is the only thing that sucks about typing, you cant tell if there being a a$$ or what. I didnt think you were attacking him. I just felt like you were saying he was wrong for letting his son handle big pythons. Once again im sorry.
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0.1 Normal Burm ( Stewie )
1.1 Albino Granite Burm ( Dollar and Cents )
1.0 Super Tiger 100% Het Albino ( Blue )
0.1 Purple Albino Retic ( Puzzle )
0.2 Kids ( Kaylee and Angie )
0.1 Wife ( Danielle )

My husband and I run a reptile rescue out of our home and garage(recently finished the conversion for them, heater, ac, blah blah blah, they're happy critters now) I have never been bit by anything other than a macklots python and a corn snake. We have zillions of giants and we love them to death! we got a burmese a while back that was malnourished and you could see scars on her SCALES from hair brushes, belts, coat hangers, and various other objects. Now, this is NOT a nice snake. Anytime an adult comes near the cage, she balls up hisses jumps at you and strikes. The only time she is somewhat friendly is at feeding time suprizingly enough and there is only one person that can feed her, little old 150 lb me. If my husband is in the room, she wont eat, he stands outside the door to make sure i dont get bit or wrapped up. This is the most bizzar thing i've ever seen. I've never even heard of a snake that prefers one person over another. We have recently been able to take her out of her cage for exercise and that also has to be done by me. Now, i said i weigh 150.... so does the snake. its quite a task to get her out and an even bigger task to get her back in. Now, how does this relate to children. well we got her when i was 7 months pregnant. my son is now 8 months old. and the burm just moved to the garage today (we finished the conversion yesterday) Will my son ever 'play' with her? hell no. Will he 'play' with the other giants i have, absolutly. we have tons of great pics of him holding red tails and yearling burms. since hes only 8 months, we put the snake in his lap and take the picture and remove the snake. we take all the saftey percautions you can imagine. every cage has a lock if not more than one, the giants only come out when he's with his grandparents or asleep and locked away in his room. and now, after the garage conversion, the giants aren't even in the house anymore. we have smaller things like RTs, dumerils, etc... in the house. so is it ok for kids to play with giants? absolutly, if its safe. and yes, you never know what will happen, but i have never ever ever been bit without fair warning. if im about to get bit, i have enough time to say im gonna get bit! thats what i think anyway...
the rescue site