Snake people, and their pets???

[Magnum Man]

I was in the semi local pet store, last night ( I mostly buy frozen food there ) the food freezer is right by the reptile / amphibian “cages” there was a “person” shopping the cages… I think a girl ( not passing judgement ) but seemed really big, and “goth” dressed, but seemed to identify as a girl… I asked if there was anything interesting in there ( as most were hiding ) she was really nice and pointed out some that were special, then pulled out her phone, and started showing me pictures of her, and her 5 or 6 different 5 foot long snakes, that were still babies … it just made me wonder, what happens to these full sized snakes, as the snake enthusiast acquires them, and may need to take a break from the hobby, like I did for 20-25 years, with fish… maybe that’s where the Reptile Zoo the next town over gets all their display pieces??? She has the same problem as I do with fish, as she as obviously shopping for more…

 

[Back in the fold]

Why’d it have to be snakes ?

 

[Magnum Man]

I’m not afraid of snakes, but just had a bad experience… my buddies son, had one, and had to go to “treatment” and they asked me to watch their snake, while he was in treatment… it was small, but would bite me every time I fed it… I get the variety of pets, I just personally wouldn’t have something that bit me every time it got fed, weather that was a spider, lizard or snake… I know there are more tame snakes ones, people handle all the time, just related my experience…
BTW… I related my story to the gal last night, and she said some are “naughty” she has one that bites occasionally… the only one I had experience with was less than 2 feet long… I think I would have to have refused, if it was a 5 foot snake biting me…

 

[Colin_T]

If you get bitten by the snakes around here you die unless you get to hospital straight away. If you don't use a pressure bandage on the bite site and get to hospital asap, you can be dead in 15 minutes

A couple of rules when handling predatory reptiles.
1) Always wash your hands before going near them. If you handle other animals, especially mammals, the snakes can smell them on your skin and are more likely to strike at you.

2) Most captive snakes associate people opening their cage with food, because that is usually what happens when their cage gets opened, they get fed. If you are opening a cage and you don't know the snake, don't put your hand straight in because you will probably get bitten. If you need to get something from the cage use a pair of tongs.

One of the young guys at the pet shop was trying to get me to handle the snakes (they had a couple of small pythons) and I don't care for snakes, not even pythons that aren't venomous. He grabs one out and says "look, it's just a little baby". He was holding it near his face and the thing lunged at him and bit his nose. Everyone was lolling even though we were trying to be serious and see if he was ok. My response was that's why I don't touch snakes.

I have been to a number of pet shops that had snakes and a lot of the staff had been bitten because they had handled mice, rats, rabbits or other animals and not washed up before handling the snakes. Fortunately they were all pythons and nobody needed hospitalisation.

Big snakes that are unwanted usually end up at zoos or other collectors.

 

[CassCats]

Reptiles are one of those pets with a high turnover rate with rescues. People often don't do proper research on keeping them properly. Not even just snakes, but even small guys like geckos (we are our crested geckos 3rd home, and we were given her as a baby, if that explains it enough lol)

Many large snakes take a long time to reach the massive sizes, but many also wind up in rescues and surrendered to zoos and reptile sanctuaries. I'm not a huge fan of people keeping the large guys, most won't give them the space required, but serious keepers will provide them proper space and care and they can make great pets for the responsible owners.


We own a snake, a Kenyan sand boa. We did our research though and chose a species of snake that won't grow large enough that it'll outgrow its enclosure that we can provide for it and won't grow large enough to pose risk to our other pets. Our guy will stay around 2 feet max, because he's male, but if he were female he would have the potential to reach 3 feet

Snakes recognize their owners, even if it's not a "that's my friend/owner" type deal, they learn your smell and will know it's a safe smell to them. With that, they're less likely to deliberately bite defensively if they recognize your smell, but food time it's recommended to use feeding tweezers or a separate container to feed them hands off because they smell food. Most snakes have poor eyesight and strongly rely on smell.


They can make great pets for those who do proper research on them and have the right expectations of them. But, it's very true they're not for everyone and it's sad. There's a lot of bad repercussions with snakes as pets because many have been sadly released into the wild irresponsibly, but many end up changing owners or being surrendered many times in their lifetimes.


My guy for tax

We do like ball pythons, but they get too large for the space we are able to provide, so we didn't get one (imagine that, research lol)

 

[Back in the fold]

They have a very lethal poisonous snake in Australia that can kill a horse with one bite .

 

[Herpin Man]

As a lifelong snake person myself, I have pondered this issue extensively, and have known many people who had animals that they have eventually lost interest in or otherwise could not care for.
There aren’t really that many differences between the fish hobby and the amphibian/reptile hobby, other than the obvious fact that they aren’t the same class of animal. Many people keep both. So, like the fish hobby, herp keepers sometimes make impulsive purchases, or otherwise get in over their heads.
One thing that I’ve noticed that has developed over the last thirty or so years is the type of person who gets into herps has evolved. While at one time it was largely the science nerd type who kept herps, now you see people getting into herps as a component of some alternative lifestyle. Goth, tattoos, piercings, bikers, LGBT, etc are all commonplace in the herp hobby. Nothing wrong with that, but it begs the question of the motivation behind keeping them. Is it a true passion for amphibians and reptiles, or a desire to be unconventional? It is typically the latter who are buying, as in your example, neonates of large species of snakes, and then being unable or unwilling to care for them when they become too large, or when they realize that they have too many animals. Sometimes, the animals are sold or given away. Rescues and herpetological societies get quite a few of the animals that cannot be readily sold. (Zoos seldom take them). Some are unfortunately released, and either die or become established invasives; Burmese pythons, red eared sliders, and bullfrogs are well-known examples. So are goldfish.
A surprising number of people simply stop providing care for the animals, until they gradually waste away and eventually die.
Right now, reticulated pythons are very popular, due largely to the number of color morphs that are being bred. Retics are active, intelligent, food-driven snakes. They also are one of the largest species of snakes in the world; adults are well capable of killing a person, and can swallow a child or small adult. Most of the people who are buying neonate retics these days appear to be relative newcomers to the hobby, and are probably very unprepared to deal with these animals as adults. It will be interesting to see what happens in a few years. My prediction is that most rescues won’t take them, so a fair amount will be released into the wild, and more cities will enact ordinances banning “exotic” animals.