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Late to the Game

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BroomeSticke

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Hello everyone!

I've always been fascinated by reptiles, and convinced my parents to let me get my first corn snake back in high school. Unfortunately, due to time/space/financial constraints during college and pharmacy school, my experience with the reptile hobby was watching other people interact with amazing animals on Youtube. However, after 8+ years of school, I FINALLY have a job, FINALLY have space, and am excited to start building my collection.

I feel like I'm very behind all of the other people in the hobby who have been doing this for years, but I'm eager to learn!

I do have a question for venomous keepers in Virginia. It is a very distant goal of mine to someday keep arboreal vipers. I know a lot of skill is needed to keep these properly, and wouldn't feel comfortable keeping them without training. However, I know exactly 0 people who keep reptiles in real life, let alone venomous ones, and I don't know where to start. Does anyone have advice for a complete noob with no experience or contacts who wants to eventually own a venomous snake?

Thank you all for reading my blurb!
-Caitlin
 
Welcome to the herp hobby, Caitlin. Before considering venomous snakes, get lots of experience with non-venomous species, and gain an understanding of snake behavior and care, in general. I would also suggest, as you build your collection, don't try to do too much, too fast. It's very easy to acquire animals, and suddenly realize that you have more herps than you have time and space for. If you also breed them- then comes baby season, and suddenly you are overwhelmed, and burnout ensues. Keep the hobby fun.
 
Thank you, that's very good advice! This might be hard to answer, but what would you say is a reasonable rate at which to acquire new animals? Or how many animals would be reasonable for a beginner to have in their collection? I imagine this answer varies a lot depending on the type of animal.

I don't want to jump into breeding right away; my plan right now is to get a pair of young Suriname BCCs and perhaps try to breed them in 4-5 years when they are full grown. I'd also like to try building a bioactive vivarium, but there are so many beautiful species to choose from I can't decide which animal I'd like to display. I figured I would wait until I have a better idea of what I want before I start on that project, or just build the vivarium and see if I can keep the plants alive first...

As far as venomous keeping goes, I completely agree that I need experience with non-venomous snakes first. This is more of an end-goal for me rather than something I want to jump into right away.
 
I really don't know what is a reasonable rate at which to acquire new animals. I've never been able to stick to a reasonable rate, personally. I think that avoiding impulse purchases is key.
The best way to get an idea what species you might like is to see them first hand. Photos and care sheets on the internet only tell part of the story. Meeting other hobbyists and visiting their collections would be ideal. Interacting with the animals at shows would also be helpful, if and when they ever come back.
 
Thank you again for the advice! I need to stop browsing the classifieds; the urge to impulse buy is strong. Hopefully I can start meeting some hobbyists once the shows open back up.
 
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