Reptile & Amphibian Forums

do you name your snakes, i do not, but have many friends that do. some with only a few and some with lot. i just use a number system, and we go round and round about it. they say my way makes it not a pet(for lack of a better word)and that its just a thing you have or own. i just think its dumb to name them. i would like to know what you all think about it.
steve

I guess it would depend on what you do with your snakes. Every animal I own, including snakes and any other reptile or amphibian are named if they are my personal pets that I plan to keep for life. If I have animals that I will be selling, such as baby snakes, then I wouldn't name them since they'll be leaving me shortly. (Although I probably would come up with something silly to call them until they left)

I'm one to believe that pets should have names though, since they are ''pets'' and not ''things''. ''things'' to me are the chair, the door, the desk etc... whereas an animal is an animal.

This is an interesting topic, I hope more people respond.
-----
--SneakySnakesINC--

1.0 Northern Pine Snake (Oshy)
1.0 Bull Snake (Irwin)
0.1 Ball Python (Nagini)
0.1 Yellow Rat Snake (Ember)
1.0 Albino Black Rat Snake (Vegas)
1.1 Oriental Fire Bellied Toads (Spot and Dott)

2.0 Equines (Sherlock the draft and Cleatis the donkey)
4.0 Felines (Caesar Ray, Pharoh, Phoenix, Boomer)
1.0 WC boyfriend (Ryan)

i do think of them as pets, and they are ones that i plan to and have had for a while, but they respond to you in a way dirrernt then my to girls(some people call them dogs) i guess it was the way i was trained or learned the hobby, my mentors never had names for there snakes so ive never done it, just because i think it dumb dosent mean i dont undersrand your points. the only snake i ever had sort of a name for was a boa born on hollween, and that was what i called it.
steve cant spell and my typos are just as bad

I keep saying that I'll name my snakes but it keeps not happening. I've had lots of pets and some get names, others don't. I'll probably end up with a name for the snakes eventually but sometimes it just doesn't seem fitting. I had two goldfish for nearly 15 years -- they knew more about me than any living person it seems yet they never got names. I don't really see why they should have names. I mean I know which one is which and can still develop the same emotional connection with the animals regardless.

This is an interesting topic though -- I can't really say that you should or should not name your animals because I don't have any consistency in the matter

My girlfriend is lucky I remember HER name, and you want me to remember names for 50 snakes?

Actualy, she names most of hers, and any that are real favorites tend to get names.

I also tend to name any that I regularly take to shows just because it's easier than having to explain 300 times why they don't have names.
-----
What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

when i think about it mine that have manes or what i call them is most offten named after a spot, strip, or a meanness. and even then i dont use that as much as the numbers. like was said 50 snakes is to many to name
steve

wow, I didn't even realize that there are people who DON'T name their pets!!! That just doesn't seem possible to me! lol We've always named every pet, from box turtles that I caught as a kid to the pet mice my wife used to have. I can't imagine not giving them a name. Hell, when I was a kid we even named the catfish we stocked in our fishing pond. We had several that had distinct markings or cuts and when we caught them we'd be like, "look at Ole Walter, he's gotten big, hasn't he!" aahhh, takes me back...
-----
-David

Check out my pet pics at:
http://www.myspace.com/obx_fisherman

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
1.0 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay)
0.0.2 baby corns (Romulus and Remus)
- 1 normal, 1 ghost
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.0 amazon tree boa (Pegasus)
1.0 colombian boa (Poseidon)
0.1 albino san diego gopher snake (Athena)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 dog (Luke)

the wife's pets:
1.0 bearded dragon (Leonidas)
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)
0.1 Boxer (Zoe)

NEWEST ADDITIONS:
1.0 adult Dumeril's boa
0.0.1 baby yellow amazon tree boa

to add to this, we used to raise our own beef cattle, and we would always name them, and call them by name when we fixed them to eat! It was never "boy, this steak is good!", it was always "boy, Lightning sure is good tonight!" lol some people thought we were weird, but everything always had a name. So not giving an animal/pet a name seems alien to me!
-----
-David

Check out my pet pics at:
http://www.myspace.com/obx_fisherman

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
1.0 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay)
0.0.2 baby corns (Romulus and Remus)
- 1 normal, 1 ghost
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.0 amazon tree boa (Pegasus)
1.0 colombian boa (Poseidon)
0.1 albino san diego gopher snake (Athena)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 dog (Luke)

the wife's pets:
1.0 bearded dragon (Leonidas)
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)
0.1 Boxer (Zoe)

NEWEST ADDITIONS:
1.0 adult Dumeril's boa
0.0.1 baby yellow amazon tree boa

I know!! It's the same for me...EVERYTHING gets a name! I can't imagine not naming my animals!
-----
--SneakySnakesINC--

1.0 Northern Pine Snake (Oshy)
1.0 Bull Snake (Irwin)
0.1 Ball Python (Nagini)
0.1 Yellow Rat Snake (Ember)
1.0 Albino Black Rat Snake (Vegas)
1.1 Oriental Fire Bellied Toads (Spot and Dott)

2.0 Equines (Sherlock the draft and Cleatis the donkey)
4.0 Felines (Caesar Ray, Pharoh, Phoenix, Boomer)
1.0 WC boyfriend (Ryan)

When I first started keeping snakes I named them, but as the years went by I started to feel silly when I referred to them by name. It got to the point that I just started telling people that they didn't have names, and that was that. I'm not saying other people shouldn't name them, just that it didn't feel right for me.

it seams that there are lots of people that feel strong about this on both sides
steve

Do I name? Yes and No.
There are several things that I have to take into account....and not just with snakes...I own tortoises too...

Survival. I don't know...it always seems like if I name something right away it doesn't do so well. Well, I've never had this problem with snakes, but I have with frogs and other smaller pets.
The same would go if I had a snake that refused to eat. I think we all know that can be hard, as even when force fed, a snake won't neccessarily survive. Luckily I've never had to worry about that...

Age and gender. I rarely have this problem with snakes, but with other pets such as tortoises, its very hard to sex them until they are pretty old. My only adult russian tort, I bought as a female. Turns out after a few years, he was definitely a male. Suddenly the name Natalia didn't fit very well.

The right name. This might sound wierd, but certain names seem to just 'click' for me. And I often don't name a pet until I find that right name...

Changing a name. I never change names, even if I don't like them. I've adopted a few snakes before and they have the same name the previous owner gave them...it just doesn't seem right to change it.

Of my snakes has a name, 116 and counting. Does get to be hard sometimes and have gome up with several themes while naming like...

Eve for a WC female BRB, gave birth to a wicked looking striped baby, Genevieve (Gen-of-eve) The siblings were all named after the adams family (Adam and Eve)

Or another group of BRB's I call pearl phase where the side patterns are solid crescent color. All the group has pearl related names

Akoya, Biwa, Pearl and others related to defined pearl colors or shapes
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

It doesn't do anything for the snakes. If it helps you keep better track of who is who, or helps you to personalize the hobby, then by all means enjoy giving them names.
-----
Mark