Why Reptiles?

We are all animal people. How many times have you been asked, “Why reptiles?” These inquiries are innocent, mostly. They are an indication of one’s curiosity seeking to discover the fundamental drive of our interests. We hold a fascination and love for these animals, otherwise we wouldn’t keep them, but why do we love them? I get asked this question a lot, especially since I am interested in venomous. “Can’t that kill you”, I am asked. Answering this question is really pretty easy. I always ask the inquiry about their personal interests. Why do people body build, garden, skydive, scuba, paint, etc, etc? What makes others love their interests? What is love? What causes fascination and what drives it? Philosophical nonsense? Reflecting upon these questions, for me, the answer is revealed. I honestly don’t think the drive can be explained any other way. Not in a way that anyone can understand whose not willing. You sorta know what you are dealing with, I guess. Ignorance, or prejudice? Both? We as hobbyists and keepers….we just "love", who knows why. Some of us are into it so much, we choose to dedicate our lives to studying, breeding, and caring for them. What are your interests in this hobby? We all keep for different reasons. Myself, I enjoy the animals and everything about them, but captive propagation is the ultimate rush in this hobby for me. Witnessing life, create itself is the most amazing thing ever. “The spark of life”…WOW! It could never get old for me. These are first to hatch for 05. The first pipped last Tuesday morning 2/8/05. Aren’t they cute? Enjoy!

Monocle Cobra (Naja kaouthia) egg tooth is visible in some photos

Life would be such a bore if we are all interested in the same thing? What about you? Why do you keep?

Sean

How cute...they can hood out even that little! LOL not that I have ANY intention of trying to "cuddle" them no matter how cute they are!
To answer your question, and that of the Great Unwashed (non-reptile people hehe) I keep them because I appreciate beauty. To me, there is great beauty in the blushing and color variation of "even" a normal BP, and am fascinated by the irridescence of my lone BRB's scales in the sunlight. You have to marvel at the feel of muscle and scale against your hand when you hold one of these. Like you said though, why does anyone like what they like??

Oh my gosh what beautiful babies. If they weren't venomous, I'd have a dozen different cobras.

People ask me why I can't keep a "normal pet" like a dog or cat. Like you're not normal if you don't have a dog or cat. I personally don't like dogs and wouldn't have one and certainly would not plunk down $300 or more for ANY dog. On the other hand there is a trio of albino KSBs for sale for $800 and if I had the money I'd buy them today. However there are a ton of people who would think I was crazy to spend that kind of money on a trio of snakes. While $800 is a lot of money it is small potatoes compared to what the BP morphs are going for and the non-reptile people would simply flip if they actually knew what some of these animals are selling for.

I can't say exactly why I like snakes. There are certain snakes that I like more than others. I still don't know why, just that I like them. I also like lovebirds. I don't know why, I just like them better than, say, cockatiels.