how long have you been keeping reptiles for?

[funcouple]

had turtles and bluetongues when i was younger. had just a few years away from reptiles before renewing the interest about 18 months ago thanks to my youngest daughter wanting a snake

 

[DanTheMan]

Depends, if you want to count all the skink's, gecko's, frogs (would have been snakes too if we had them in nz) I would catch and bring home when I was younger, then 15 years.

 

[sarah_m]

Since May 08

 

[ryanharvey1993]

how about all you keepers that have been keeping for 20 years or more tell us about what you started with back in the pre ammesty days would have been great. I know a heap of people back then had all different elapids, unusual skinks etc. 9 years of keeping pretty much now, all I kept before licence was boring stuff wish I found all the stuff you guys have around. all I had delicate garden skinks, eastern blue tongued skinks, jacky dragons and dwarf tree frogs all were released though. only snakes I saw often were green tree snakes and they were always to quick for me :lol: wont have any good storys to tell in about 20 years time of keeping all different stuff but oh well suppose times have changed now everythings illegal cant do much. it is good that reptiles are protected these days though.

 

[scorps]

I got my license 2 weeks ago got my first bluey coming soon

 

[spilota_variegata]

No good stories but about 40 years, but that's only because I'm an old codger. I used to go lizard hunting near the Darebin Creek in the Northern suburbs of melbourne in the 60s and 70s. Wow, I'm starting to feel really old now

I used to keep everything I caught back in those days, ranging from blue tongues, the occassional turtle (not locally), tiger snakes, brown snakes, little whip snakes, various skinks as well as other types of animals. I'm not sure if it was illegal back in those days but everyone I knew did it and noone ever got into trouble.

 

[Kris]

18 years

 

[Vincent]

how about all you keepers that have been keeping for 20 years or more tell us about what you started with back in the pre ammesty days

Nothing special, just all the local stuff. Tigers, RBBS's, Copperheads, Eastern browns, Adders, Swampys and YFWS's. The lizards i kept were mainly Waterdragons and Laceys. Still my favourite lizards.

I kept snakes for around twelve years before i owned a python.

 

[ConsoleWizard]

um.... 4 days lol

 

[eipper]

24 years

 

[sweetangel]

1 year and 2 pythons, 4 ackies and 2 EWD's ago i started

many more to come me thinks

 

[amazonian]

how about all you keepers that have been keeping for 20 years or more tell us about what you started with back in the pre ammesty days

Just your basic run of the mill Herps.
Beardies, Blueys, EWD's, Long neck turtles, Jackies, Browns, Red bellies, GTS, GTF, Blind snakes and Water skinks were all pre amnesty pets for me.

 

[cris]

I started keeping when i was 5 or six, but have been interested in herps(and other animals) since before my memory started. I vaugely remeber ID'ing a Tuatara when i was about 4, there was a salesman trying to sell my parents some enclopedias and he showed me a pic of a Tuatara and he was probably thinking i would be ignorant enough to think it was a lizard, i taught him :lol:

I started keeping garden skinks, fence skinks(one fork tailed one sticks in my memory), Calyptotis scutirostrum(i think?) and GTFs when i was about 5 or 6 and moved onto keeping common tree snakes, dragons, turtles and carpets as i got a bit older. By the time i was about 10 me and my parents found out you were supposed to have a licence and stuff, so i have been keeping legally since then. All the animals i kept before that were only kept short term and released where they came from. I started getting more reptiles and became interested in breeding them about 3 or 4 years ago. I now have over 200 herps(even if most of them are tadpoles or froglets lol).

 

[ryanharvey1993]

awsome stuff, anyone got any old pics of stuff from back then, were herps more common back then?

 

[cris]

awsome stuff, anyone got any old pics of stuff from back then, were herps more common back then?

There were way more around where i live, i think it was just a matter of the development catching up with them. Some species are still thriving and should survive as long as there is suitable habitat around and im hoping they arnt being killed or relocated as much, as more and more become educated about reptiles. I must admit i dont mind being able to walk around at night without worrying about stepping on a brown snake, but its a shame how many species get squeezed out by development. There are also heaps more frogs around and less toads where i live, although GTF's seem to be less common than they were. We also have heaps of AHG's around that are no doubt helping to feed many reptiles and other animals. I was thinking the local carpets where in trouble as i went a few years without seeing any, but i have seen quite a few over the last few years including juveniles and a few large adults. There seem to be more common tree snakes and marsh snakes around the yard, which could be a result of providing more habitat for them and their food or just that ive had more practice spotting them. I have also noticed some small Eulamprus.sp skinks that i had never seen around before, but thats probably just because i didnt see them.

 

[diamondpython]

A couple of years. I then sold up and now I am getting back into them.

 

[KaaTom]

Almost 7 mths now... and wouldnt have it any other way

 

[LullabyLizard]

4 years for me

 

[Moreliaman]

26 years, my first snake was a red sided garter when i was 14.

 

[-Andrew-]

As if buddy...you only have like 26 posts.......

C,mon Jason you know I am just a quiet type of bloke.