your first reptile encounter

[cockney red]

With a European Sloworm, on a London bomb site, circa 1965.

 

[Hooglabah]

my dad had snakes when i was a baby and he used to put me in the enclosure with his little childrens i dont remember but ive always had an overwhelming obbsession with reptiles the first real real encounter i had was actually when i was hunting and the bloke i was with spotted and eastern brown and went to shoot it but i told him not to and then stood between him and the snake (the snake was like a meter and a half away) it wasnt one of those disney kind heroic things we are responsible hunters and i knew he wouldnt even point the shotty at the snake if i was in front even if it wasnt directly if he did i woulda moved but he didnt....jerk waited the the snake had moved off then shot it

 

[misssullivan]

I dont think it was my first encounter but in primary school (prep, 4yrs old) ther were hundreds of the small drop tail skinks and we used to see how many we could catch in a recess or lunch break. there were rules tho, they had to have their tails, had to be alive and had to be released after ( so we could catch them next time ) we spent hours catching lizzards! woz fun!! : )

 

[wiz-fiz]

My first encounter was with a large tiger snake that i saw in a cats mouth, that came running from next door with the neighbour behind it with a shovel. The cat dropped it.I was like dooooonnnn't and he said ''move away boy these are deadly go on get"' so he chopped it , but he hit it in the middle of the snake and it wiggled around in pain then he draged it accross the road near the paddock. i went and had a look and it was still alive so i got a big rock and put it to peace. i was about 5 years of age. from there on there i had a passion for reptiles. I saw the cat after laying in the shade under a tree. Nothing happend to it. After that incident i was always on the look for reptiles. Then the snake dreams started kicking in.

cheers steve

thats so sad:cry:, good thing you put it out of it's misery..


WIll

 

[BenReyn]

I attended the local Farming expo. (Tocal Field Days) And a man came along, and pulled out a shingleback, and he asked the crowd what it was, I then swiftly replied "Mingleback!!' (having remmebered kinda what it sounds like fromw atching hours of steve irwin in my youth) He then laughed so much, he told me to come up on stage, where he pulle dout a Coastal Carpet, about 8ft. long. I then had about a year of studying down hard, and convincing the parents to let me get a snake.

 

[Smokey]

first reptile encounter

i was about about 5 yrs old ,my family and i lived up at bathurst ,when we camped around ther, a rule was "any snake kill it" because ther wer young children around ect when my dad killed one i wasn't afraid of it ,i went up and touched it and held its dead body ,looked at its head and eyes from then on always loved herps....

 

[Jay84]

Being born and growing u in the UK i have always been an outdoors kid. From the time i could walk i was outside catching bugs in my bug catcher, collecting tadpoles and newts in the pond and generally interested in all animals. Mum and dad used to take me to zoos and petshops where i would have first seen reptiles and developed an instant fascination.

My first reptile pet though was a Slow Worm (UK legless lizard) that dad found under a pile of bricks at work. He bought it home for me and we set up an enclosure for him, we called him sly. We kept him for a good few years before having to release him again to move to Melbourne.

As soon as we arrived in Melbourne i recieved many lectured from my mother (i was only 10) about the dangers of australian wildlife as i had never been exposed to the threats of poisonous animals lol. needless to say i soon got my first bluetongue, who is still with me now 14 years later, and my first pythons which i still have one of.

And as they say..... the rest is history lol.....

 

[LauraM]

. The caretaker came down to "relocate" it. I still to this day don't understand why a shovel is needed to relocate a snake though

haha awww poor snake

My auntie worked for CALM and they had a whole pile of lizards and snakes etc
i remeber when i was in preprimary my old school walked around thi big square showing off there animals and best animal got a prize me and my sistrs all had snakes draped around our shoulders, dont remeber what type it was but back then i thought it was HUGGGGGE.. I didnt bother asking mum if i could keep a pet snake or lizard etc till on the way home from the petstore buying some more tropical fish i joked next time your buying me a snake, she said OK i was like ar you serious shes like yeh..... since then everynight i researched lizards snakes and read every book i could find......
my dad freaked out though when i said i wanted a pet snake (luckly he oesnt lie with us )

Well we did go buy a stimson but i payed for it all.... all 1300 dollars worth, but it was so worth it .

 

[N0MAD]

First time wasn't too pleasant...

I was born and raised in NZ so knew very little about snakes. When I first moved here 3 years ago I was always watching AnimalPlanet and learnt about them from there and Australian Snakes from Richard Shine...good book!!

The first time I saw a snake, My girlfriend (at the time) and I were off to Gold Coast. We were just about to get on the highway when I noticed a black snake wriggling on the side of the road I'm guessing prolly a Red Belly. I was soo excited and about to pull over so I could get out and get a decent squizz at the lil guy, when my g/f disapproved... with authority lol.

First time I touched one, we were going to a friends house and we saw a Carpet on the road. I screamed at her to stop lol but it was too late I got out and picked him up, wrapped him in my t-shirt and we continued to friends place...I didn't realize how bad the lil guy was til we got him inside under the light. His head was busted real bad, he could barely move so I put him out of his misery :cry:

Having said that, I think it's fair to say my first time hasn't been a very pleasant one...actually come to think of it, My ex was scared of snakes now she has grown quite fond of them

 

[melgalea]

i grew up going camping quite a lot. we always saw monitors, turtles, dragons and snakes. i use to love watching them. it wasnt until i went to a very small reptile expo about 7 or 8 years ago and fell in love with a bearded dragon that my love for reptiles really started.
cheers
mel

 

[snocodile]

my first reptile encounter was when my mum stepped on a death adder:lol:

 

[cockney red]

Frog eater....anyone..no.......ahhh please yourselves.:lol:

 

[Inlandtaipan078]

the passion began when I was pulling in the yabbie nets and to this day very few people believe it there was A brown in the net fully submerged and he was pretty pissed I didn't even realize untill he was attached to my gumboot

 

[Snowman]

Muat have been while I was still in my mothers womb and this snake would come in now and then and say hello..... :shock:

 

[itbites]

Whilst opening up a new box of cereal one morning

& a wild crazy dinosaur came tumbling out!

You can imagine my surprise

 

[swaddo]

1977 and my year 3 teacher brought his rather large diamond into class for us all to meet. Everyone was fascinated (i dont remember one person who was scared of it). oh, and it crapped all over my desk

 

[Bax155]

Muat have been while I was still in my mothers womb and this snake would come in now and then and say hello..... :shock:

LMAO Im into a different species of snakes personally!!
I was 7 and on my way home when my dog started barking at something in the bushes which I discovered was a lil cute snake brown in colour so I pinned him behind the head so he couldnt bite me and ran home to show mum and ask if I could keep it, I didnt get the answer I hoped for instead a got a mad flogging:evil: and mum called the Australian reptile Park to come and collect it, they tolled me it was an Eastern Brown and I should never touch wild snakes and gave me and the family free passes to the park so I could learn about them, Ive been in love ever since but only recently (6months ago) purchased my first python!!

 

[zack13]

I grew up in the US live in Australia now my first time was in the US I was catching snakes with my grandfather, I was almost 4. We saw a eastern diamind back rattle snake and he caught it so I could touch it. Later when we got home someone told me it was poisonous and you can tell if a snake is by its eye and how they look. Not saying that is true. Later that day my mom found me laying on my stomach about 20 cintimeters away from a eastern diamond back rattle snake staring into its eyes to see if it was deadly or not lol.

 

[Kupres]

Always lloovveedd snakes on TV as a kid,, so Mum bought me a snake ID book... She said you can keep a snake when you learn every snake in there!! How wild was that now when i think back!!,,,I was probably about 7!! (My parents were WOGS & didnt really know that much about Ozzie snakes) anaway went camping with some friends,,, Was walking around a creek & saw a baby tree snake leaving the water & heading for a tree!! I instantly knew what it was & jumped on him like a cat on a mouse. He spent that day with me,, I never sleped that night while i held him,, then stuffed him in my pocket for the way home.. He was my pet for the next 4 or so years. Long time ago now,,, but one of the clearest pictures of my childhood...No way would i be letting my seven year old go out & catch wild ones though!!

 

[clippy]

can remeber my dad always had a turtle or two in our outside fish ponds and my brothers always catching skinks and bluey which they must've threw at me when i was little cause up untill probaly 5 years ago i was scared stiff of lizards and snakes .then one place we lived the skinks and occasional bluey used to come inside then i started to feed them my daughters silk worms to them .then two years ago one of my brothers rung my husband who has always loved snakes and said i have a mate that sell snakes his got some diamonds and childrens going cheap needless to say two days later we went and brought our childreni and i'm the one now pestering for another snake .while our daughter is into lizards but has shared her reptile love since she was 4 and went to australia zoo and held one of the pythons for a photo