When did you start and why?

I started with whatever I could catch in the woods behind my childhood home. I remember catching a leech and thinking I had the cutest baby snake ever (I was 5).

Noelle

I was maybe 3 or 4 years old. My Dad brought home a baby painted turtle, then a box turtle... Nothing was allowed to eat mammals in my home growing up so I kept indigenous herps (turtles and small ground snakes) and released them in the fall. Fast forward to college -> acquired corns, rosy boas, kings, etc. Over a decade ago I graduated from school, started breeding colubrids and geckos. I am still in it but I find myself attracted to insectivorous lizards. My 3yr old daughter is interested in Daddy's pets and Mommy's bearded dragons.

Its now a family hobby.

Anyone else old enough to remember when anoles were sold as chameleons, and we put red-eared sliders into those plastic bowls w/ a 2 inch fake palm in the center?

Noelle

My friend won a iggy at the fair- it was like th e mega- win, the normal win was an anole. Luckily, my friend is a good pet owner- once she realized it wasn't an anole, she provided the best care. The iggy did pass away a few years ago, but she won it while still in HS. So, at least you know of one story where the poor animal was indee dprovided with proper care and lived a good life.

I was never really into the lizards or turtles. They are very neat- just not my cup of tea.

it was 2003 and I lived less then 200 meters from Matco pets down in Tememcula, California. not the best pet shop but a few nice animals, mostly reptiles with a few mammals and some birds. I would go in everyday after school to play with their baby beardies and sometimes the two 8ft albino burmese they had, I was 12 at the time, and they had some rather large red tails in the back where I would sit in front of the enclosure and watch the 9ft female and she would coil up right in front of me; sometimes watching me too.

that went on for a looong time until one day i went in and they had some new animals. baby red tails! they had been the babies of my big friend in the back and i took all the money I had and bought a 20gallon, substrate, ect and ran out of money just on supplies and a few weeks worth of f/t mice. when i got enough to buy a snake there were only two left and i put my hand in the cage, after a few minutes one of them slithered onto my hand an wrapped around my wrist. I then bought him and wore him home like a bracelet and he wasn't stressed at all. Now I know this isnt really true but its like he was waiting for me to pick him ><


He was very important to me and i fattened him up nice over the next 6 years but my roommate couldnt afford rent and I lost my home. Had to move in with family for a while but they lived in hawaii so i had to give up my babies, 3 red tails at the time :'( made sure they went to good homes with help from Tim at house of reptiles in Oregon

Well that's my story (:

oh and I recently found out where I got the herper gene! talked to my estranged mother and found out she used to keep albino burmese before I was born but didn't think it was safe to have an 6ft burmese around a new born haha

i got started at the age of 7, such an odd way for someone to start loving reptiles. i was visiting with family and had a very rude, mean cousin who loved to do mean things to me....this time could have been serious. he decided to put a cotton mouth around my neck, i was terrified at first, then realized the snake wasnt actually that bad and wasnt out to just kill me as i was told it was. i soon got my first reptiles a pair of green anoles, then soon after got a year old ball python.
unfortunately the anoles died a few years later, but i still have my ball python.

I started because of a cottonmouth and a gator! I was about 6 years old and my dad took me fishing for the first time. He said "watch out for snakes and gators". Just as he said that I saw my first gator in the wild! I turned to get him and got bit by a cottonmouth on my calf. After my dad rushed me to the hospital my grandma and mother came to see me with books and stuff on snakes and lizards. When I got home I started trying to catch everything I can find! My mom then got me my first Iguana when I was 7 and then she started introducing me to other reptiles. By the time I was 10, I had more snakes than most of the petshops I went to. I just never gave it up.

I think I came out of the womb loving herps. I always loved dinosaurs and I felt that reptiles were as close to having a dinosaur as I could get. I loved the frilled dragon since I was a toddler because of a Disney movie that had one but I didn't really express an obsession in wanting to keep them until I was about 8 years old. My school had an educational assembly on reptiles and amphibians and the guy brought in a reticulated python, rhino iggy, chameleons and a bunch of other animals and I got to touch all of them. I fell in love with the rhino iggy and made it my lifes goal to own one so I drove my parents crazy to let me get some reptiles and fast forward a bunch of years and I finally got one (I also got the frilled too). I've been lucky enough to live in an area where reptile shops are common which has helped my love for herps grow.