Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Friday morning I went to my son's school's open house(5th grade)and somehow got into a converation with my son's Science teacher regarding reptiles and amphibians. I told her that I was looking to setting up a terrarium at home to eventually house dart frogs (this is going to be about pythons too, I promise). She quickly told me that she was totally against getting them because of my children (10 and 13 years old), and the dangers of bringing a venomous animal into our house... I first looked at her and was completely confused. Venomous? I explained that they were actually poisonous not venomous. She corrected me stating that animals that delivers it toxin through fangs are venomous and since dart frogs deliver toxin through fangs it is therefore venomous... Fangs? And here I was going to lick them to get high... That changes everything (joke)! I know I am just starting out learning about frogs, but Fangs? I must have missed that chapter!

At this point I tried to switch to another animal so we started talking about ball pythons. She explained that she approved of those being in the house since ALL pythons have no fangs or teeth to bite with... No teeth? Ugh! I think this is going to be a long year! Anyone got a burm or retic I can use to educate her with???
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

Wow, and this person is responsible for educating children?! You should ask if you can bring your snake/s in for show and tell...maybe talk about proper care of pet reptiles, etc? I've done it for a couple of schools, and the teachers were more impressed than anyone!

ps, if she doesn't believe pythons have teeth, I WOULD encourage you to find a grumpy retic for her to play with.

My wife is hoping to get to do some education programs within the school. She used to be an assistant teacher in the district, add that to the years she spent in the zoo (working/on display, I never figured out which she was doing), and she now works for an unnamed PetStore chain; she would be perfect to do it... The teacher agreed to let her bring in our bp and our mountain horned dragon at some point... I wonder if she would know the different if I brought a 20 ft retic
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

Of COURSE she wouldn't know the difference....'all' pythons get huge... didn't you know that?

what do you mean they don't all get that big?!? You mean I just converted the spare bedroom into an enclosure for our ball python for nothing?!? Next your going to tell me to get the iguana out of the 10gal tank just because he has to be folded 3 times to get him back into it!

Though that is a sad thing, the people get the big animals and don't have the room for them, or they get the small ones because they think they are going to get huge!
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

np

especially when it came to the science teacher speaking about herps..... then again I come from a culture that believes that snakes drink milk......and their forked tounge is what they use to inject their deadly venom..... myths will always be around...

Yes that would be fun...... take a ticked off retic to school and let her show you that they have no teeth..... make sure the snake is at least 10ft long......

Get the kids some dart frogs... they are a lot of fun and easy to breed. The frogs seem to get their "poison" from the ants they eat in the wild.... no ants no poison.... Just make sure you can find plenty of pinhead crickets or wingless fruit flies cause these little frogs eat about 3 times a week...

Good luck

Raul

Now that is the type of information that should be given out... I knew that there was something that lowered their toxicity but I had not spent much time yet getting the info on that! Thanks!
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

Yeah, apparently in captivity they don't have access to some enzyme that they get in the wild, and thus cannot make their toxin. Does anyone know if it's been proven to be ants? I thought they still hadn't discovered what it was... ??

From what i have read about them...
The poisen derives from plant life that the insects eat..which the frogs eat then secrete out of their skin.
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Charles Glaspie

Tanstaafl:
"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch".
An acronym created by my favorite author Robert A. Heinlein.

That is so funny - usually once a year we end up packing up our snakes and doing a trip to my sons school - the kids love looking at them - I guess teachers don't know a whole lot beyond their field of teaching - dart frogs are not poisionous or venoumous in captivity. But it was a good laugh - maybe your son can do a report on it and educate the educator LOL!
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Tosha

"One of these days i am going to wake up..look around...and realize my place looks more like "Ace Venturas"s than my own." Coldthumb

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope John Paul "JP"
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.1 lizard rescued from vicious feline

I don't know. If he did a report on it and actually told the truth she might fail him!
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

i have a big fat borneo female that would do the trick. she does not get long and she does have teeth!! big bad teeth. what you do is let the teacher show the cute hamster to all the children then hand her the blood. ouch. thats one lesson she will never forget.
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Tim Manucy
Bytheshore Reptiles
St. Augustine, FL
bytheshore.net

HA HA HA!! MY favorite is when people who claim to 'know' snakes put themselves in that position.......proves pretty quickly that they do NOT...

If this isn't a call to the Senate and the local education/Teacher Credential board. I hope this isn't in a area with Venemous reptiles, because those poor mis-guided kids would have no idea what they may encounter, and who knows how other parents are educated between those important differences. I don't know how I could have kept myself from falling out laughing. Thankfully you gave her a lesson that she needed.
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In Loving Memory of the best Brother God gave me
Sgt. Arnold DuPlantier II
(Army National Guard, Charlie Rock Co.)
06/01/1979-06/22/2005
Support Our Troops

My student teacher professor always said to us "if you do not know the correct answer don't make it up......."
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RicK @ BbI

Ball Boutique,Inc.
Proud sponsor of this forum

;

>>;
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

;

I have to admit that actually my wife is from Florida and was a product of their educational system... She thought until recently that the Ocean off the Florida's east coast was the Pacific... and she is from the Florida east coast!
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

;

I agree with you there. However, there are far worse states for education. It was your comment that it's Bush's fault that got me shaking my head. Part of the problem is Florida is a retirement state and most of these people have no interest in paying taxes for education. Their argument is that they have no kids in school so why should they pay. And guess who votes on these issues? That's right, "cue-tips".
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

I once had a girl as me if turtles can come out of their shells like hermit crabs...

I looked at her for a minute, puzzled, and replied "I suppose if you yank hard enough...but I'm sure the results are going to be messy..."

(Don't worry, I explained to her that the shell IS the turtle's body...and that it housed organs and such. She was amazed...
and this was not a kid, this was a grown woman...sigh....)

I work part time at a chain pet store, and you wouldn't believe how many people have asked me with a straight face "Do the frozen rats come back to life when you thaw them out?".

-Andrew Varela
AV Exotics

;

np
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

I right clicked on your shots to get the address strings to each and added the at the end of each string.

To get the address string...simply right click on the pic (it is labeled as "address:URL"...highlight the address string and then right click again to select "copy".
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Charles Glaspie

Tanstaafl:
"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch".
An acronym created by my favorite author Robert A. Heinlein.

I am a high school teacher and i continually get the question...do snakes goto the bathroom?

LOL
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Michael Enriquez

Well...they can't cross their legs.

Chris
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mean people suck

A turtle crossing it's legs......LMAO!!!
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In Loving Memory of the best Brother God gave me
Sgt. Arnold DuPlantier II
(Army National Guard, Charlie Rock Co.)
06/01/1979-06/22/2005
Support Our Troops

Taken from venomous forum (thanks Wes von P!)

FIRST COAST NEWS (Jacksonville, Florida) 21 July 05 Snake In Toilet Bites Woman (Deanna Fene)
Jacksonville, FL: Going to the bathroom will never be the same for one local woman, not since she was bitten by a water moccasin who was apparently hiding in her toilet.
Alicia Bailey spent three days in the hospital. She's now at home but she's not resting comfortably. She remembers what happened the night she got up to go to the bathroom. "Walked in (to the bathroom) opened up the lid to the toilet and got bit by the water moccasin on the leg."
She was bitten once on the thigh, and given the size of the bite on her leg, many predict it was a very big snake. Alicia says, "His head was every bit of three fingers wide."
She was rushed to the hospital and given anti-venin, but no one knows what happened to the snake or how it got into the house in the first place.
There are woods behind the family's home off Beach Boulevard and with all the recent rain, the snake could have been looking for higher and dryer ground. The family now thinks he could have gotten into the home through the dog door, but there's still a fear, it hasn't left.
Alicia's husband, Richard is searching the home trying to find the snake. He says, "What we're leery about is closets and drawers." He carries a big stick around the house as he looks for the snake and at times his shotgun. "We're not looking to take it alive. I just want it out of here."
Alicia just wants her life, and her house, back.
"We're currently very uncomfortable in our home and toilet shy I would say, and real anxious for closure."
The Bailey's have an 11-year old son who is now staying with neighbors. They said, doctors told them, given the size of the snake, if it would have bitten him instead of Alicia, he probably would not have survived.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=40891
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

sad that a teacher doesn't know anything about science at all.....sad she became a teacher for the money and security and not due to the fact that she knew anything about or loves science and nature......

I know more than her.....

fact is...I knowa few science teachers myself.and was also amazed at what I had to tell them because he didn't know squat.........and he wonders why he keeps getting "let go"....

another science teacher is a good corn breeder so if he's looking.Ted.you aren't one of the dumb ones.....

some are just like mechanics and all.......even doctors..........just keep poking and putting in new parts and sometimes it will not be broken anymore......

teachers should have to actually know their subject huh?....

..
.
.
.and a hirse.....I mean golden retriever.........fat fat golden retriever...............(yes..me too)......

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you know there Roy I do believe I can still smell xxxxx............

I know an 8th grade science teacher that knows a bunch about his subject..... I think you know him too... hes here... once in a while...

My wife is a teacher too.... she deals with the younger crowd but she knows her stuff too...

They are not all that bad..... its just sad to run into the totally clueless ones

Rauul

Hey,

You won't believe how many uneducated so-called 'educators' we have in the public school system. Give her some literature as your 'opinion' wont change things in her eyes. Print something off the discovery channel website or if you're really feeling generous, buy her a video to donate to the class.

Wow....

Steve Harrison

I am a teacher in southern Louisiana, outside New Orleans. I get the same strange logic and poor education on a constant basis. I teach Biology and Marine Biology at the high school level. I have a BS and an MS in Zoology, both from Michigan State University. I run into students, parents, and teachers who have this same problem. They are, for the lack of a better term, ignorant. You don't know how many times I have explained that my dart frogs are not poisonous because they get their poison from a precursor in an ant in the wild, and since I feed them fruit flies without that precursor, that they are in fact not poisonous. I haven't got the venomous question yet, that is real bad.

When people don't understand something they just try to explain it with whatever their mind makes up. This is why I keep snakes in my class, because if I teach the students they are harmless, then maybe they will teach their parents something. All we need to do is continually educate the masses whenever we can, and hopefully one day they will get it. Until then, keep showing your kids how great reptiles can be, and maybe they will help to turn a few more to the darkside.
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1.21 ball pythons
1 speckled kingsnake
1 snapping turtle
1.0 argentine horned frog
1.1 English Bulldogs