How'd you get into Reptiles? tell your story!

Just stopping in to say "Hello everyone", My name is Paul, I'm a retired steelworker, now just doing research and breeding exotic pets... Found this site in a quest to read reviews of online dealers. I'm new to computers also, so have been quite isolated with my animals, never met or heard of anyone breeding snakes (cornsnakes to boot!) until just this April.
Love the site, very informative, lotsa stuff to read about, take me a lifetime to scratch the surface, LOL
I posted a thread in General Herp Talk, click here to see, you can find out some more about me from my story of how I got into reptiles. A little long, but I think many of you will find it amusing. Hope to meet some of you here, I hear lotsa good stuff in reading ppl's reviews
~Paul Sutter

*jeez i hate typing lol ... Iforgot to put the right title on this thread - "Hi, Glad I found this place!" hehe
~Paul Sutter

I got into herps when I was like... 7? I was catching garters in the front yard with an old pair of my mom's pantyhose for a bag.

I've been fascinated by wildlife of any kind, especially observation, feeding habits, mating habits... very much an amateur naturalist. I have a friend who had about 15 reptiles (mostly snakes) from AZ and she's the inspiration behind my wife and I getting our first ball python.

Since then we've added on to our collection (from one to 6 in 9 months) and we've picked up 3 parakeets and a german shepherd along the way. Right now we have 10 animals... our collection is listed here.

I've been out field herping a few times this summer and I absolutely love it. I very much wish to complete our collection (which should be limited to about a dozen animals total) with MN-native herp species... but that's always open for alteration as well.

I, like you, am very glad to have found this location and look forward to seeing what goes on around here as time passes.

I myself actually grew up petrified of snakes and reptiles in general. I would have sooner walked in a tiger cage with a steak around my neck than go even in the same room as a caged snake(and now I work with African Rock pythons lol). Anyway years back I was working nights (9:45Pm-anywhere from 6-7 am). I was never any good at sleeping during the day and was often restless. A friend of mine introduced me to a lady that needed some help during the day doing deliveries for her flower shop and it paid decent so i did it. As it turns out the back 1200 square feet or so of the store(and a few rooms up front as well) were all reptile rescue. There were literally 100's of reptiles, it was like my nightmare at the time. Eventually due to nothing more than a zombie like state of lack of sleep for months on end I went back there and checked them out. By this point I was over my fear of caged snakes, just didnt want to touch them. Then I started seeing the various kids (some as young as 5) who volunteered there after school cleaning cages and such, and none of them were afraid of these animals. I felt a bit pathetic. About a week later the store was closed and the boss was on vacation, and I was there cleaning and feeding the parrots, as I had a lot of parrot knowledge and was working with the birds. I decided it, I am going to pick up a snake and get over this. I went in the back and handled every single snake under 7 feet, and cleaned its cage. I was petrified, but after about 50 snakes and zero bites, I was like WTF am I afraid of? Within about 6 months I was working with everything except the big female Rock Python, who fascinated me beyond belief. About another two months later I was finally working with her and it was awesome!!! To this day she is my favorite snake of all time. She is about 130 pounds and such a cute little girl. I have now worked with retics, rocks, bloods, burms, cobras, copperheads, boas...you name it. I wouldnt have it any other way!!! I am only sorry that I went thru like 18 years of my life afraid of these incredible animals! Dan M.

My very first experience with a snake was when i was about 6 months old. My dad had found a garter snake while mowing the lawn and came over to my mom and I with it. She scooped me up and said, "Don't you DARE throw that at me!" and was promptly chased down the driveway, screaming, with the snake. *LOL* Its amazing I don't hate them! I do prefer large, slow snakes, to fast, little ones, but I'm learning how to appreciate and even handle our fast guys.

Someone brought some boas to a girl scout meeting when I was oh, 8 or 10 or something and I thought they were SOOOOOO fascinating. I wanted a big snake ever since then. Fast forward almost 20 years and my husband and I were shopping for birdseed or something at PetCo and saw that they had baby ball pythons on SALE. We couldn't help it. It was an impulse buy. But we both had wanted one for a LONG time, so we got one. And they've come rolling in ever since. *L*

We have done a number of 'rescues'. SOMEbody needed to give the baby gator a home, so we stepped up to the plate. We got a second ball python who was in rough shape with a bad case of retained shed and parasites. He's beautiful now and filling out well. We took home a teeny baby black rat snake with 4 kinks in his spine (our local herp shop gave him to us cuz they couldn't sell him). He's been growing like a weed and his only issue has been one regurg, but we figure it was due to the fact that the dog was around at feeding time. The pinks didn't stay down for more than 15 minutes. Our last acquisition was a known jumpy, biter of a corn. He's beautiful and handles really well. We're guessing the snake's previous owners just didn't know how to handle him cuz he's never shown us a single sign that he's going to bite. My animal care background has given me the desire and knowledge to help the ones that need it the most.

I'm glad to have found this great resource!

Hello
I guess my first reptile belonged to my son 20 years ago. Two garter snakes that we fed Rosies and Worms, A couple years ago my oldest daughter brought me a Leopard Gecko to take care of until she settled in her new apartment.

Luis the Leopard has never left. He now has 10 buddies. And, 40 or so Crested Geckos. Crested Geckos are my favorite.

Just recently I touched my first spider, can't go there I am terrified of them.

Held my first bearded dragon, AHH Maybe? And of course found my first boa, I was in AWE. Kids said no, new grandkids in the house.

I will keep with my Cresties, Whoever said there is such a thing as empty nest syndrome.

Well, the long and short of it is that my high school/college girlfriend bought me my first snake, a boa constrictor, back in '92.
I still have the boa, but sadly, not the girlfriend...
I saw my first rosyboas up close the next year, bought a pair...the rest is history.

I was introduced to herpes about a year ago when I met my boyfriend . He failed to mention he had a pet store(JK) in his house full of monitors and snakes until after I fell for him . Then about 7-8 months ago we went to a reptile show and I really enjoyed it . I was talked into a baby corn snake by my 7 yr old son and my boyfriend. Great snake to start with . His name is Elvis and he is really awesome to watch. I still can't bring myself to place my hands in the cage to pick him up but when John hands him to me I am just fine with him. I think its a great accomplishment, since my only dealings with snakes was years ago. I was frightened by a snake on my deck when I moved to the country and threw a pan of boiling hot water on him . He ran like the dickens and I haven't seen but 1 or 2 since in the 13 yrs out here. (I feel bad about it now and would never do such a thing.)I even go snake hunting with the boys ,but I stay back a little with the camera. (hence the name girlygirl)a nickname he gave me ,but uses in a cute way.I have even talked about helping my boyfriend with setting up a table at a reptile show next year when he begins to have baby's from his pythons and milk snakes. No I haven't held any of his snakes yet, but I am sleeping in the same room with all of them occasionally I think there's 7 (3 ball Pythons, 2 Honduran milk snakes and 2 black snakes). He has them all in tanks in his bedroom. I guess when your in love you'll do just about anything (wink wink

Dang!!!!!!! Lol Herps !!!! not Herpes
OMG too funny!