Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In an effort to get to know more about each other, please post your story about how you became interested in and bought your first snakes. My story is probably more unusual than most. When I was five years old my mother (who has always loved animals)decided she wanted a pet that was out of the ordinary. She had been discussing what pet would fulfill her needs with my father when he had a brillant thought, why not a snake? But rather than share this idea with my mom he kept it to himself. A few months later their wedding anniversary rolled around and he surprised her with a baby reticulated python. No, it was not the most romantic gift, but very thoughtful and my mom was thrilled. That is where my snake passion sparked and soon burned. I loved my mom's new pet "monty" python and simply had to have a snake. A few weeks later I was given a ribbon snake named "Dee Dee". Sadly, she perished after only a couple of months. But I managed to save allowance and birthday money for a couple of months to purchase my first boa. I have been going strong with my love of reptiles since that day in 1979 and I'm grooming my son to be the next generation of reptile lovers.

Back in 1998, I was taking my cats into the vet for their yearly check-ups. The vet office had a sign at the front desk: “home needed for leopard gecko and corn snake, please inquire”. Being a big fan of CrocHunter and exotic pets (I had African cichlids) I asked (I had not thought about keeping reptiles as pets before). Turns out someone had been arrested and both reptiles had been found in the back of his truck living in shoeboxes. The leopard gecko had already found a home. They brought out the corn snake, it was a large 5’ albino corn, not the friendliest but they said he was eating good and they didn’t have the capacity to keep taking care of him. I brought him home and set him up in an extra 50 gallon tank I had. Then I jumped online and found out what I could. My roommates and I went in together to get a ball python a few months later (named Snakey, who still lives with one of the roommates.) Later that year I also adopted my first boa, Autumn, from a lady in Venice who had gotten a dog that was ‘stressing out the snake’. Motley, the corn snake, lived in my care for 4 more years before he died and Autumn is still with me.
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'There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."' -Rainshadow

as a young child I captured lizards and grass snakes but my first official snake was a Ball Python. I worked at a mall that had a small pet store. They had young ball pythons for sale..I just had to get one, this was in 1998. After that i became consumed with reptiles. That Ball python is now with my brother in law doing great in Cali!
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Adrian De Leon
Hissenia Reptiles

about 6 years ago my son kept bugging me for a "real snake" for his birthday. He was five at the time and I thought, yeah, right-forget about it. He was VERY persistant, so I thought the best way to solve this was to take him to a pet store and hold a real snake to see his reaction. At the pet store, he held a baby boa and when I was talking to the sales lady, it crawled in his shirt. He didn't like that AT ALL and I had to rescue him by taking his shirt half off and getting the boa. I remember being mesmerized by how the snake felt in my hand-I was 37 at the time and had never held a snake in my life. Got my son a Playstation 2 for his birthday and I bought myself a boa (found out later it was a female BCI.) I now have a male bcc boa and a male bull snake (separate tanks, of course.)

I'm a newcomer to all this. A dear friend of mine moved into an apartment in my building and brought with him 7 carpet pythons, 2 womas, 4 boas, and a small herd of ackie monitors. I began spending inordinately large amounts of time at his place, coveting all his reptiles. I have always been fascinated by snakes, and used to catch grass snakes and garter snakes by the fistful growing up in New England. So, after consulting the kind folks at this forum, I went to my first reptile show and came home with a yearling albino Colombian.

Seven months, six het for albino ball pythons, one albino ball, and two crested geckos later, I now find myself looking at rack systems and bemoaning my grad student budget. I'm happy as a clam, though, and Lilith, my boa, is still my favorite by far. (Ball pythons, though lovely to look at, have all the personality of a houseplant, in my opinion.)
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0.1 Boa constrictor imperator
2.5 Ball pythons
1.1 Crested Geckos

I caught it in my yard when I was 5 or 6 and hid it in a shoe box under my bed so my mom wouldn't find it....she did and promptly evicted it. My first snake was not my first reptile, but I bought an albino corn snake for my youngest daughter when she 5 or 6 as a Christmas present. My girls were (and are) HUGE Irwin fans and we all adore herps. We still have that corn along with a few more, some balls, a boa, a burm, and hognose, and a collection of lizards and inverts.

Since I'm basically a country hick, I got my first snake by catching it. My non-snake loving parents however were less than enthusiastic when their 10 year old son tried to come into the house with a 4 foot eastern king. They made me release it, but it was too late I was already hooked. On a side note they hosed me off in the front yard because the king sprayed me with musk lol.

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0.1 CB fiancee' Kelly (Pythona)
1.1 Albino Burms
0.1 Granite Burm het albino
0.0.1 Razorback Musk Turtle (Lil Cheney)
1.0 Irian Jaya Bluetongue Skink
0.1 Eastern Bluetongue Skink
1.0 Black Throated Monitor
0.1 Savanna Monitor
1.1 Ball Pythons het pied
1.0 Pastel Ball Python
0.1 Ball python
0.0.1 Fantasy frog
1.1 Amazon Tree Boas
Ever growing Boa colony
1.1 Cal Kings (50/50 and lavender albino)
1.0 Blood Python
2.2 Leopard Geckos
1.2 African Fat Tailed Geckos
1.1 Sugar Gliders (Memphis & Gravy)
2.1 dumb-estic cats (Nugget,Pedro & Dixie Bubbles)
1.1 American Pit Bull Terrier (Joker & SEGA) Punish the Deed not the Breed
0.1 Jack russell/chihuahua cross (Harley)

Well my snakes serve a second purpose...they keep my family out of my house

i was actually shopping for fish about 5 years ago... saw a gorgeous female colombian, and decided to get out of fish and into boas!!

i have always been into reptiles, catching all kinds of stuff as a kid, but that colombian was my first boa, and she led to many more!

she's being bred by a nice red hypo right now, and will hopefully give me my first litter this spring! (i tend to grow my boas at a slower pace than some... she's been ready to go for a while but i didn't want to rush it. i'll put up pics soon)

bc