What got you into reptiles?

[Varanoidea]

Curious to see how everyone ended up with scalies in their house and at what age. For me it is how ancient and different they are, and how successful they have been over millions of years.

 

[NickGeee]

When I was about 5 years old I came home from school to find my grandfather had found a little marbled gecko in our backyard. We let the little guy go but that weekend I went with my dad to a petshop and purchased a little gecko.
Afew years later my uncle gave me a bluey who I still own to this day, and from then I got a license and ever since loved these guys

 

[wildthings]

My dad kinda got into them, I'm a Kiwi, and my dad made a foray to a place called Nhulunbuy in the NT in 1979, when he came back to NZ he brought a book all about the NT and it's inhabitants, and the first page I opened the book too, had a photograph of a beautiful Python and a Gecko on the other page, had seen neither in NZ, thats what started me off, I was 9 years old

 

[HerpNthusiast]

When I was 3 and saw my uncle's huge collection of snakes, water dragons, angle heads, olive pythons, frogs and heaps others.
When I was 5 we rescued an injured Jacky Lizard we cared for it then released it when it was healthy.
And when I was 9 and got my first Bluetongue and that finally sucked me in

 

[phatty]

reptiles
when i was younger we used to feed monitors eggs when camping
but i love all animals but believe they should requirement to keep eg cats in a cage

 

[RedFox]

I've always had an interest in animals, including reptiles. And when I was really young, about 3, and lived in VIC we had a blue tongue that lived near our lavendar bush, I used to sneak it food I didn't want to eat, when my parents weren't looking. When we moved up to QLD I used to catch a few tree snakes that occasionally visited my primary school.

What made me want to own one though was when I was 12, when our cat came face to face with a young Scrub python. Neither were hurt. I ended up with a couple of cat scratches but it was love at first sight and even now at 20 years old, scrubbies are my favourite reptile.

I only got my first python a bit less than a year ago though. I never could convince mum to let me have one, due to her massive phobia and country Victorian upbringing.

 

[Brycerider]

Had aquariums for years and got fed up with the intensive maintenance but still wanted to keep some interesting pets. So settled on snakes.

Sent from my HTC One XL using Tapatalk 2

 

[ReptileMad_98]

Iv'e always loved animals and i had been asking since i was five to keep reptiles. last year my birthday was coming up and i asked to go down to the reptile shop, and saw the beardies and asked to have one, finally mum let me. now have 2 beardies and a gecko

 

[BDkeeper]

When i was younger (about 5) i used to always love going to the zoo and looking at all the reptiles and loved them all. And also loved watching steve irwin (could say hes my hero) but yeah then i got a scorpion 2 years ago at the newcastle reptile expo and it went from there and like reptilekeeper32 i now have two *pygmy* beardies, a thick tailed gecko and soon an ackie

 

[damian83]

catching them, or trapping them as a kid, kwept a bluie in a bowl for a while back when i was bout 10, never really thought about it till i was bout 15, mum wouldnt let me, a few years ago i got rid of aquariums and said right thats it im getting a cbd, then 2, then 3, then a childrens, and coastals and bluie and gecko

 

[Red-Ink]

Chicks and money....

 

[hnn17]

snakes - low maintenance and they have an interesting way of eating.

 

[GeckoJosh]

Always kept herps as soon as I was quick enough to catch them lol (I buy them legally now).
I remember a kid bringing in a frog for show and tell when I was in Kindy, it was the 1st one I had ever seen, I swear he was lucky I didnt mug him for it lol, I was so frigging jealous!! From that day I spent every spare min in the bush catching frogs, lizards and yabbies

 

[Rogue5861]

Used to catch local blue tongues when I was a kid, dad made a massive pit for them. When I was around 10 we got a rescued beardie that we keep in a 6ft aquarium. Had a lot of animals when I was a kid- magpies, crows, pink an grey galahs, fish, rats, chickens and turkeys.

Brought my first reptile around 2 years ago (central beardie) an have added to my collection quite quickly, the mrs keeps me in check with any additions to the collection though. Currently have 11 frogs, 3 geckos, 1 central beardie and 3 ridge tailed monitors. Can't really expand my collection unless I breed them or we buy a house first, hopefully the bank allow us to finally buy a house.


Rick

 

[emmalene_bunny]

I used to catch lizards and frogs while I was younger, I grew up in a bush area and ive always loved animals. I thought I could take are of them better than how they lived in the wild (let's just say that stopped very quickly when my mum found a huge container in my cubby house with around 10 skinks that I was hiding from her)

With snakes, when I was 7 I went to my best friends house and they had just bought two children's pythons, a male and female and kept them together, I fell in love instantly, nothing had ever changed my mind since then

 

[jedi_339]

When I was a kid we used to have a big colony of land mullets behind the chook pen, I used to stand half crouched over for what seemed like hours, but could well have been only 15 minutes or so waiting for them to re-emerge to bask (after getting into position and scaring them all initially) then I'd try and dive on them or grab them to pick them up. Then after a while I used my dads landing net from the boat with a bit of meat on top and wait for them to crawl on top then try and lift it up with them still inside (for all the effort I put in, I only remember catching one).

I always loved animals and used to collect tadpoles and take them in for show and tell and raise them up in the classroom.

A trip to the pilbara where I found Banded knob tails in the wild was the point where I decided to start keeping and breeding different reptiles.

And here's a picture of one of my little guys which I really enjoy going home to every couple of weeks

 

[Skeptic]

The first time I went around to my wife's place I noticed a fish tank with no fish in it. Instead there was a juvie coastal. Turns out when she and her ex broke up 6 months before, he left his snake with her. I was smitten. I didn't mind my wife to be either She wasn't really into snakes and didn't know what to do with it so I took over looking after it. 13 years later and I've still got it plus 27 more Funny thing is, the snake is an absolute psycho! A bit like my wife i guess

 

[spud_meister]

I'd catch anything that wriggled or crawled when I was a kid. I have distinct memories of trying to rescue a frog and a snake out of a flooded drain when I was a kid, I got the frog out, but my mum intervened before I could get to the snake. (It was probably a tiger snake, so that was smarter on her part). I kept wild-caught reptiles until I was old enough to understand how cruel it was. Then, when I could afford to, I got a Childrens Python, then a Bluey. Now I'm looking at getting frogs, or a Tree Snake, but I think I'll go for the snake. And have a shot at breeding them.

 

[greggles91]

Dinosaurs! obsession with Dino's as a kid developed into a love for reptiles (and all animals) and got my first beardy at 10 years old..

Oh and I was just like a lot of people above who caught anything that moved, I lived on the garden.... Found out I was allergic to caterpillar..

 

[spida_0000]

I used to be petrified of snakes but after a massive drinking session with a few friends we were walking home and stopped into one friends house as it was on the way to mine... he got his carpet python out and being as drunk as I was, got the guts to hold it and I fell in love!

I got my partner into reptiles, he grew up in country QLD.. so wasn't a massive fan, but he has come around nicely

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