What was your FIRST herp?

[KLG]

How'd you get started in this whole crazy hobby/obsession?

I caught a rough green snake on my back porch when I was 10 - game over! Hooked ever since!

:)

K~

[B]

when i went to my cousins and saw all of his snakes. than a few months later i got a ball python.


B
:lol:

[SickPyth7]

When I was 5 I had a thing for trains. So when I seen my first snake(garter) , I saw a train w/o tracks!

[LowerGround]

Garter snakes, caught in my backyard :)

[cagecrafters]

I was 8 and I cought a black rat in the back yard, that proceeded to bite the ever living hell out me for about 10 minutes. Well after I i got over the fear of being biten, I had the fever for MORE snakes... And it just gets ugly from there. hahaha :eek:

[faze]

i used to catch banded water snakes and corns back in the day :)

[Apython]

My Dad bought a florida kingsnake when I was very young, maybe 4 or 5 years old. Then we had some type of garter snake, and later on a gophersnake and a black ratsnake. I don't really remember ever not having any snakes growing up.

[faze]

...you know... i've lived in florida my whole life and never even seen a king in the wild florida king nor brooksi....so far the snakes i've seen as far as i can remember are banded water snakes,cottonmouths,black racers,pygmy's,coachwhips,corns,rats, and i think thats it.....

[Ian]

My neighbour used to be an importer and ran his own pet store. One of my earliest memories is his big burm "Kathy" that was about 6 feet. I think I was hooked from then on. We grew up playing with Desert Torts, Ig's, Water Dragons, countless garter snakes that I would catch, "blue racers" (Coluber constrictor mormon...I dont know what their real "common" name is).
But the first python I bought myself was a ball.

[JERICO]

Used to catch grass snakes and slow worms when i was about 9, then at 16 got myself a garter, then a ball. Stopped for a couple of years because of work and still lived at home. Then when me and the mrs moved in together I gave her the bug and now a few years later the place is full :D

[Schlyne]

My dad would also catch turtles when I was a kid and we'd keep them for a while and then let them go. In high school, somebody gave away a ball python to the anatanomy class. Unforuantely, I think that snake never settled in, was horribly stressed out, (could have had other problems..like being WC, parasites) and it died. It was so cool..and I was one of the few people who would hold it. It was also the first real interaction I'd ever had with acutally holding a snake, but I'd touched them before.

Early in october of last year, I was out and about at a park when a girl had two ball pythons with her. Sweet, gentle..inquesitive. I was definately interested. Some time later, I found ball-pythons.net, some top breeder sites, and kingsnake.com...and the NARBC show in Tinley was about 2 weeks away..so I figured I'd go to the show...and pick up a baby ball.

I went to the Chicago Reptile house to get caging..asked to hold one of the ball pythons (since I wanted to be absolutely sure I really wanted one, and wanted to commit the entire time to having it..etc)...and I left with everything I needed...and my first snake (a normal ball python..who is hiding and going into shed as we speak).

[Reptilemama]

I was never a reptile lover as a kid- I'd look at the few reptiles at the pet store (at the time they were a rare find) but didn't think much of them. When I was dating my ex in high school, we went to a little pet store looking for fish stuff, and saw they had anoles. Something about them made me want one, so we bought everything we needed and took one home. It lived at his place until we got married and moved into an apartment. After a while, I started looking at the other reptiles when I'd go buy crickets for the anole, and the store had a juvie cal-king that caught my eye. I eventually bought her, and that's when the real addiction began. I'm now more of a snake person than a lizard person, although I do love tree monitors. Little did my ex know that letting me get that little anole would turn me into an obsessed herp-o-phile. And now that he's gone, I can get as many as I want and can afford! :D

[JTrott]

First herp was a male ball python 2 years ago and the collection has blown up since then.

Jason

[bogwan]

I grew up right near the Bronx Zoo. I used to go all the time. I would spend hours in the reptile building. One day when I was about 7 my Dad surprised me for my birthday with a baby boa. The rest is history as they say :P

[Andy]

I use to catch garter snakes every summer with my brother when I was like 5. When I was 8 or 9 I got my first ball python name Willie.

[blood67]

When I was about 8, I would find cornsnakes quite often around my house. I wasn't allowed to keep one until I was 12, that was the start of it for me.

[savannah_babe]

when i was a kid, i was obsessed with anoles. caught them left and right.. but i didnt really get into it until after joe and i met. :)

[Kitt]

It kinda makes me sad, because like many of you my first herp memories are of catching them -- not snakes, but frogs, bullfrogs and leopard frogs, whole buckets full of 'em. The fun part was catching; most of them we through back, except for one notable bunch of about four. I left the four in a tank together and when I came home, I just had one -- one really big bullfrog with the leg of one of his tankmates still sticking out of his mouth.

What makes me sad is how completely the number of frogs in that pond has diminished since I was a kid -- and I'm not even sure why; I didn't think I had *that* much to do with it. ;)

:smt010 For the frogs. :smt010

[rcrowley]

My fascination began when I was very young visiting relatives each summer in southern Illinois and St. Louis, MO. I caught anything and everything I could find and it stayed with me when I returned home in Chicago suburbs. I caught garter snakes, frogs, toads, turtles...you name it. I was 10 when I caught toads and kept a bunch together outside and found them in amplexus (didn't know the word at the time) and later hatched babies out.
It wasn't until college when my sister got a job at a local pet shop that I realized you could BUY a snake. My first love was a red rat snake which I passed on since it was $120. Instead three years later I bought a ball python for $45 and it cost me over $200 in vet bills to find out it was subjected to extreme cold during shipping with a meal in its belly. Lower GI was necrotic and it had to be euthanized (separate story). After that I swore to learn more and not have that happen again. 15+yrs later, I find myself breeding herps and rehabing any that come my way from the herp society so others can begin their enjoyment successfully.

[PadraigC]

i think the first herp i ever got was a spiny crevice lizrd that I got when I was 10seeing that think maow crickets kept me captivated for hours. :smt005

[Hawkeman]

Great anecdotes, guys. Very interesting!

My first herp experiences were in and around Roswell, NM as a little kid. We caught Horned Toads by the dozen and an old Native American man in the neighborhood taught us some pretty good captive husbandry.

It was crazy when they'd make blood come out of their eyes (Mom hated that, BTW). We also kept various lizards, but most of the visible snakes around us made this odd rattling noise with their tails. We left them alone. ;)

My first snake was a common king that I hid in the closet in an old fish aquarium on a human heat pad. My first husbandry mistake was thinking that a young common corn could coexist with my big king. I honestly thought for a sec that the corn had escaped... ...until I saw the teltale squiggly lump in the king's belly.

Our first python was a rescued BP we named Lucretia. She was the first of MANY rescues we kept/fostered/adopted out in the early '90's.

Tom

[Robilyn]

I rescued my first pet ribbon snake from some tormenting boys down at the creek when i was about 11. been hooked ever since!

[Adam]

when i was 5 i got about well...5 anoles

[#1ReticLover]

When I came home from school one day to find one of my neighbors outside the main entrance door, just standing there with a super scared look on his face. All he could do was point to this teeny tiny grass snake that had him, and everyone else standing there waiting to go inside, scared senseless, I laughed walked over and picked it up and brought it to the side yard and set it free. I was the only person out of like 3 adult males that would even get close enough to it to move it. I knew then I had a connection with snakes. That year for my birthday I got a Normal Ball with the set up and all. I've never been without a snake since!!

Smootches,
Mary~

[fkdmatt]

When I was 5 my Dad was into fish and was helping out this pet store by building tank stands and I got a Red ear slider and a fire belly newt, then a week later a garter snake.

[Outback Bill]

My earliest is about 5 when my parents got me the old red ear slider. Later catch all sorts of toads and frogs from PA to Western NY to NH. My first encounter with anything venomous was when I was 8 in Western PA with a Timber at a campground boy he looked real big. My first Snake of couse is the old garter that I caught and sneeked in to the house and of course got loose and ended living in our basement for years. About 16 years ago after a number of herps here and there I met Kevin who had more herps then most zoos and the hook was sunk and the rest is history.

[Morti]

I got a pair of Anoles from the local pet store when I was about 12 for my reptile study merit badge. :)

[Tiffanybea]

I've always been an animal nut. I don't care if it is mammal, reptile, or bird...I love it.
I remember going into hysterics when I was about six years old while watching my grandmother and great-grandmother kill 4 little hatchling snakes under a piece of wood in the yard. I can't remember what kind of snakes they were, but I remember hearing that they were not venomous. They just killed them to kill them. It broke my heart!

When I got older, a guy I was seeing and some friends purchased three ball pythons from a pet store that shut down the next day. All of the snakes were WC adults and terribly sick. One of the snakes died within a week. The other two were being so abused by the guys. I knew nothing about snakes or keeping them at the time, but I knew that the snakes were being abused. They were in a tank with no lid, on cedar bedding with a heat rock (uncovered), no hides at all, and they would just dump in about 3 live mice and leave them. The snakes were mauled. I finally talked them into giving the snakes to me. They had open wounds from the mice, mouth rot, belly rot, burns from the heat rock, RI's, digestive tract infections, and pneumonia. They also would not eat and had to be force-fed. I spent so much time at the vet's office with these two guys. The vet taught me what I needed to know to help them thrive. I had to nebulize them and give them shots every 3 days for months. We kept them alive for a year. They finally lost their battles, and I cried so hard over those two boys. I knew my heart was forever hooked on snakes because of what I'd been through with those them. And thus...my obsession began. I also rescued another ball python from a kid, and I kept her for over six years. She died mysteriously. She never showed a sign of illness, ate like a pig, and seemed perfectly healthy. Not knowing anything about her history, since she was a rescue, I just had to suffer another heart break. I have decided to purchase from reputable breeders since then. But I actually feel a physical sadness when I am away from snakes for too long. It's like an itch that only they can scratch. I think it's actually something in our DNA that makes us love them so. :)

[BPBabe448]

I grew up around herps. My family had 2 RTBs and a uro....then when I got a RTB of my own, been hooked ever since.

[Amelia]

Always was into every kind of critter, and then it happened when someone brought them to my school and i got to be close to snakes and handle some of them, then I started with my first snake, a ball python of course.

[chondrogal]

I grew up a "flower child" in the 50's/60's and always had a love for all animals also, especially unusual or exotic ones. I've worked with native fauna in many ways and always enjoyed the time spent with the snakes but never kept any of the ones we'd catch locally.

I bought my first "pet" snake when I was 21 and bullied my new husband into allowing me to buy one...... lol, bought a pair of baby burms! Only had them a few years until our son was born and anguished inlaws convinced us to give them up!

Have continued to work with animals and got whammied by the reptile bug once again when I was handed a green tree python rescue about 3 years ago. I have since "found" my calling and finally at nearly 50 figured out what animals I wanted to "play" with for the rest of my life!!!

[bigretic]

My retic.
If I knew then what I know now...

... I still wouldn't change a thing. :smt004

[DwCp05]

I owned a baby T Rex it was awsome never ate, never died, still the same size, and never bit. No my first herp was a horny toad, garter, local newt, local frog. I got all these the same day, we had a really bad rain and it washed them out. My friends and I caught like 75 garter snakes and we kept all of the under his trapoline for like a month.

[anny]

I've been catching backyard Garters in my billion stone walls since before I can remember. My father used to catch them for me.

I knew something was going to pull me in when I watched my first regurge (young garter had eaten a worm and then I stressed it out by catching it) and thought it was awesome. Also the fact that I used to get sad when a garter would get chopped up by the lawn mower but I didn't reallly care much about other animals.

[dubs]

i got bit by an eastern milk when i was like 6. and my mother freaked and called poison control . she was terrorfied after that cuz by the time i was like 8 i needed it all and the rest is history

[TommyD.]

My first would be a garters and black snakes that I used to find on the farm when I was little. Although I used to try to keep them in mason jars or anything else I could find ( I don't do that anymore I know that's a horror story) and place them in the building cause my parents wouldn't let me keep them in the house. That act used to get me in alot of trouble cause both of my parents were scared to death of snakes and spiders and I loved catching both LOL. But finally I grew up and educated myself and them and got a place of my own with snakes everywhere I love them. My dad used to think that I would grow out of it but I didn't so here I am today happy as ever the parents don't come out much cause of them I guess that kind of worked out for the good LOL.

[Alias47]

My first reptile was a Painted Turtle...got it when I was nine...used to spend a lot of time catching turtles and frogs by the river and garter snakes in the woods by my house...finally got a turtle to keep...I always released everything I caught. When I was in my early twenties...I had a cali king for a while...but gave it away...never lost the bug...just moving around too much to take care of it...so once I got married and settled down...I finally got my wife to agree to a snake...and got a cali king.
That was late July last year...

I now have 13 snakes in my house...and 9 more ordered waiting for warm weather or hatching...

This is an absolute addiction...

[vipergecko]

found a babysnapping turtle when i was 11 and raised up last year he passed away
20 years old :smt010

[Thomas Jones]

It started whenI was 5. I was out in the yard eatting a peanut butter sandwhich. I happen to look down and see a snake I threw the sandwhich down and start running, yelling SNAKE SNAKE. The land lords son was coming down the road and heard me yelling SNAKE. SO he came and caught the snake. It was a kingsnake. The guy got me to touch the snake and from then on I was fasinated with snakes. I did not actually get my first snake till 94 or 96 it was a BP. I have been hooked since.

[Carole]

First herp was a white's tree frog named Jubba. To me she was the coolest critter ever. From frogs it progressed to lizards, then to snakes. First snake was a cal king...which managed to escape on me a year and a half later :smt022 Snakes have the top spot in my book!

I LOVED dinosaurs when I was a kid. Guess it only makes sense that I love the modern day ones :toothy8:

[clintf]

I got started when i went in this pet store, when i was 8. They had an adult pair of veild chameleons. From then on i had always wanted one. The day of my birthday at age 9, i was going into the mall to go watch a movie. We just so happened to walk past a pet store and of course i had to go in. Well ended up finding a little bitty babie female veild in there and fell in love, convinced my parents i wanted it so we got it that night. From then on its history. Oh and i sucessfuly bred the veilds at age 10 1/2.

[Anonymous]

I started with Palmate newts in my first year of "big school". I used to go down to an old dissused railway line on my way home and pick up a couple every day during the breeding season. I had about 50 or 60 when my parents finally found them. I was allways trying to immitate a local guy called Adrian Nyoka who had a private zoo a stones throw from my house, he had these awesome and huge snakes. I found out a few years later they were retics and by all accounts "Nick" was quite the front of the revolution. He had one of the first calico's ever exported and had "Cassius" a giant beast of a retic.

And people say life is what you make of it, HAHAHA, lifes already planned for you - all you gotta do is follow the clues !!

[JasonBrennan]

Little wc garter snakes when I was "knee high to a grass hopper", been keeping them ever since (well, snakes, but not garters anymore)

[VileHabib]

I got started by adopting a corn, then it led to me getting a ball, and we'll see what comes next

[larspython]

Bought a ball python a year ago, and have been trying to suck up all the info I can on all types of species.

[RhacBreeder]

I used to take garter snakes from my grandfather's garden and put them in the woods behind his house, this is when I was really young. Then my friend and me used to catch red back salamanders in the woods from like 1st-4th grade. The first herp I owned was an adult green iguana that my neighbor gave me. After that it was on!

[Detoured4now]

We always had turtles growing up. The ones crossing the road that we would "rescue" from the traffic. We'd keep them a couple of weeks and let them go in the woods.
The first Herp I ever bought was a Bearded Dragon, about 11 years ago, his parents were hatched in Germany and sold to a local guy who bred them. He had a stubby tail and we called him Pookie. A few years later I was working at an AZA accredited Zoo Reptile House caring for and breeding a diverse collection of frogs, salamanders, lizards, snakesand turtles. I learned alot, I always liked fish and turtles, but Pookie turned me into a Herper.

Chad S

[diablodragon]

the first herp i ever had was a green anole, but the first snake I had that got me hooked for life on snakes was a corn. My parents regret every day that they let me get a snake! :D :D

[vstroh]

Native PA snakes, it was probally a garter snake.

[TVIR]

I never really cared for herps growing up. At 25 I started hanging out with a friend that has snakes. After being in the room while he was cleaning and helping him take his Indian for walks I ended up getting a rtb.

[RRusso70]

Garter snakes Definitly when i was young we caught them by the dozens !

[snakeman55]

The biggest Ball Python I've ever seen to date was the 1st herp I ever owned, but I caught baby alligators and snakes and turtles by the dozens in Florida when I was a kid. Although the 1st herp that made me obsessed was my 1st retic "Nicotine". After her it was all over.

[jimcal]

A gray banded blair. Still have it 20 years and counting

[Biscuit71]

Besides the normal Garter and Ribbon snakes you catch around here, I would have to say catching my first BIG snake (or what i thought was big at the time) a Common Water snake got me hooked... it was pretty impressive to pull out from under a rock at the bottom of the stream.... especially for a 13YO... it was great, and I have been hooked since.

[TomO]

Field collected a brown house snake when I was in high school. Amazing snake - I was hooked