When did you start and why?

Genetic predisposition for sure. Always loved "wild" animals. As a child in Calif we would catch Aligator Lizards and Skinks, always on the lookout for a gopher snake or Kingsnake. I do not remember having them as pets though, so we must have released them. My first reptile pet was my fav, a reg. BCI.

As a kid i loved animals. Since my mom is super allergic to cats (and hates them) when i was growing up she extended her allergy-ban to include ANYTHING with fur so that pretty much just left goldfish and herps. Every summer we would go to our summer vacation house (which we moved into later when i was in high school) which was surrounded by woods and across from our driveway & dirt road there is a little pond. Every summer, and after we had moved permanently, i would go down to the pond usually in the morning and catch anything and everything i could find. I would catch eastern painted turtles, garter and ribbon snakes, pickerel, leopard and bull frogs, big snapping turtles, crayfish, spring peepers (the tiny treefrogs) and in the woods around the house redbacked salamanders. I had a great time and those are some of my fondest memories. I loved the snapping turtles the most and one year a big female dug a nest in the flowerbed in our yard. I covered the spot with chicken wire to keep out the skunks and raccoons and couldn't wait for them to hatch! Oh, the good ol days

When I got hooked and when I started are two entirely different timelines.

I got hooked on snakes thanks to my 8th grade Earth Sciences teach Mr. Kennon. He kept at least 3 snakes in the classroom along with other assorted critters. He would even bring in his personal pet which in 8th grade looked huge on special occasions. I believe it was a full grown adult RTB. One day a juvie western black rat decided I was going to eat it and tore me up trying to defend itself. From that point on... I was hooked. Here is a snake the size of a pencil holding its ground to a giant. Now it seems like everyone asks me... why in the world do you keep them. My stock answer is because I want to be different.... but in reality... the way I see it is.... here we have an animal that has no arms and no legs and is thriving. Could we do that. Im gonna say... nope.

As to keeping them... My parents were against it. My mom is terrified of snakes and I can only assume that dad didnt want to rock the boat (who can blame him... he dont want to sleep on the couch LOL) So I wasnt able to get my first as a pet till I moved out and went to college at 18.

Now I have a small collection and a small breeding business with the animals that I am addicted to.

For a short while I was staying with my sister and she couldn't understand why I was into snakes and other reptiles. She hated me having them but every weekend she would have people over specifically to see my critters. One of her friends wanted to see something eat so I decided to feed one of my burms. His enclosure had a 4' high by 3' wide plexiglass window in it's door. I fed through a 4" PVC cap which he quickly picked up as the source where his food came from. Well my sister was drinking that night (well, that wasn't much of a change) and actually stayed to watch him eat this time. As it turned out he killed and ate the large rat not a foot from my sister's astonished gaze while she sat on the floor with her forehead pressed against the window. After the 10 minutes or so it took him to eat it and reset his jaw she said "that was @#$%^%! cool!". I then told her that was why I kept reptiles. It is like watching the Discovery channel without the interruption of commercials.

Originally Posted by DAND

It is like watching the Discovery channel without the interruption of commercials.

I concur!!

Guess I'll break the trend. I had no interest in snakes or reptiles of any kind when I was younger. I've only really got interested in them about two years ago? I had a friend get me into them and that's when I started to find snakes fascinating and cute.

Originally Posted by radiotrash

Guess I'll break the trend. I had no interest in snakes or reptiles of any kind when I was younger. I've only really got interested in them about two years ago? I had a friend get me into them and that's when I started to find snakes fascinating and cute.

I knew there had to be at least one of you like this out among the Fauna membership. So how hard were you hit by the addiction? Is your want list longer than you have list? Or is just one or two to your liking?

I'm going to have to say I must've been genetically predisposed to reptiles; I certainly had no one to foster a liking for them with a single mother raising me most of my childhood.
My first encounter with one was when we moved to the country and my step-father killed an unknown type of snake when I was 12. He tried to chop the head off of this little creature that couldn't even have been a foot long. I felt bad that he did such a bad job & the snake was still moving, so I picked it up by the tail and carried it around hoping it would die soon and not suffer. I had also heard that a snake wouldn't technically 'die' until the sun went down and I wanted to see if it were true. I don't remember when it actually died, but I buried it. I have been fascinated ever since and got my first boa when I was 17...and out of the house where they were not allowed! I've had at least one snake (boas or balls) almost consistently ever since--some 30+ years now.

I didn't really care for them either...I got into this by complete accident. My ex husband did this as a hobby..got out of it...then got back in the last time 2 years ago with geckos and snakes. Decided about 6 months in that he didn't want to do it anymore. He sold the snakes I kept the geckos. I have a secondary Biology degree...so handling reptiles wasn't new to me...but I have never kept them as a pet until now. Now I am thought of as the crazy gecko lady...but I like it..

I've always loved em as kids, but it was sorta my kids that got me into it...i caught a little skink at a jobsite in autumn(it was cool so the little bugger was moving slow) and brought it home for my kids to see. i was planning on letting it go, but my oldest son(then 8) begged to keep it. i told him if he was to keep it he had to research it and tell me what it needed for care. this kid amazed me. he found the species, and gave me a list of stuff he needed. we got it and he kept that lil lizard alive for over a year. when it died, i told him i felt he was responsible enough to get something more involved. he researched beardies. we got one...and off to the races we went. now i..err we have 7 beardies and i'm paying off my 6th Ball Python lol. My office is a desk in the corner and cages lining the walls and i love em. my only hope is that breeding them in the next few years will help pay for the hobby, i could care less if i ever make a dime beyond that with em. Its also a hobby that brings all 3.1 kids and my wife and I joy together!!