Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm just wondering how many of you have herps and kids. how old are your kids? what kinds of herps do you have. i'm mostly looking for people with smaller kids and larger herps (like crocodile monitors or retics). I'm just curious, my family just wants me to die and burn in hell every time i add something to the collection - no matter what it is. do any of you have families that are into 'herp bashing'? if so what do you say to them?
Beth
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The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue

When I was a teen I had burmese pythons.
My parents became foster parents, the burmese pythons had to go

If I ever ran a pet store (unlikely) - I would obtain the biggest snake I could, place a childs shoe in the cage, and put a sign on the cage saying "Not responsible for lost children".

But that's just me.

Personally - I think dogs and cats are more dangerous than a properly housed large reptile.

As a teenager I kept retics and burmese pythons as well as boas and ball pythons. One time I had 20 snakes ranging in size from 4ft to 15ft. I was maybe 12 when I got boas. I knew several big breeders at a young age and talked about ways to prevent attacks and proper handling. I knew what to do in a attack. In my youth I had alcohol nearby just in case and the large ones were always two persons even know I did the feedings alone...
Now I keep few snakes but have kids... My two year old has a 100 pound sulcata tortoise as well as several leopard tortoise. I kept four boas and teach her even at a young age not to go near the snakes with out me there. We also had a gator for awile that she would get to watch... All of the cages are padlocked cause I keep wildcats also... I have been working with animals all my life. I would tell family members that are not into the trade. Look at the locks? Look at the sizes of cages and have emergency stuff nearby like hooks and snare poles.? Alot of people lose the fear when they see you take care of the animals okay... In a few years I plan on buying tiger and albino retics, water montiers etc and have no fear of my kids cause I bulid all the cages myself I make them fort knox safe

Frank

I am with u I have some large boas and i know if they wanted to they could hurt my younger kids but i build my own cages and they all have locks an the keys stay with me an the spare are well hiden out of reach. Kids cant get in snakes cant get out.

I have 2 kids, ages 3 & 11 months. When my wife was pregnant with my first child she asked me to sell off my established breeding colony of 13 Chondro's..

To tell you the truth at first i was TOTALLY against the idea of getting rid of the colony that took me so long to build, but after thinking about how bad i would feel if one of my animals escaped & hurt the baby i agreed to sell them.. We then agreed that keeping harmless mountain kingsnakes & milksnakes would be a much better/safer choice in a house with small children.

I don't care what type of rock solid enclosure you have or how carefull you are... The fact is mistakes happen & you really need to take some time to think about how bad you would feel if one of your animals escaped & hurt your child...

In my opinion there are plenty of safe reptiles out there to choose from and in this case (keeping boids & monitors) the benifit absolutly does not outweigh the risk!!

~ Mike Russo

I have 20 snakes with more on the way. I also have a wife and 3 kids. My wife isn't a real snake person, but she is ok with it. She wouldn't like me getting a large bodied snake, so I got a pair of Hog Island Boas, it is the closest thing to a large snake I have. I don't think I would want a big snake with my young children, but that is just me. My kids are snake lovers, and they help quite a bit. I am the only one out of all my family and friends that likes snakes, so I need new friends. Just kidding. Nobody has a problem with me keeping them. If someone bashes you, ignore it, it will go away. How many and what kind of herps do you have? Derek

I have a 2 1/2 year old rambunctious (spelling?) boy, before he was even born I had a savanah monitor and after he was born I bought a emerald swift. He loved them both but they died maybe due to sickness. Thats the only thing that worried me was the diseases. You have to take great care as far as handling. I now have a beardie and a painted turtle he also loves them both and helps me feed them, this boy is fearless, but I still take care as far as handling, a child should never handle an aquatic turtle. I will keep collecting herps and will just do so aacordingly to his age. Ive never been a snake fanatic but there is nothing wrong with that, I just wouldnt keep a snake that could in anyway seriously harm my child. As much as I love animals my child will always come first.

I have no children, but I do have a boyfriend who had never kept anything but mammals before he began living with me. He's become almost as obsessed as I am in the last few months though, and we've gone from 2 cornsnakes to an entire roomful of reptiles in the last 2 months.

All of our new reptiles are rescues, courtesy of craigslist. I have only bought one of my snakes outright, come to think of it...