What bizarre or hilarious things have non-keepers said to you?
I don’t mean people saying, “Oh, snakes/frogs/bugs, how creepy,” I mean the really bizarre ones…
Like this exchange:
Them: “I wish that (bioactive enclosure) wasn’t so near your bedroom! Don’t be surprised if you get sicker!!” [I am chronically ill and speaker has only very vague understanding of how that works. No a bioactive enclosure can have no effect whatsoever on my neuroimmune condition.]
me: “What do you mean?”
Them: “All that dirt!”
Me: “Uh, yes it’s everywhere outside…”
Them: “But with that it’s INSIDE!!” [this person gardens. Not a nature-phobe. I keep trying to work out what exactly they think radiates invisible evil from a reptile enclosure.]
Me: “You do know I keep green onions alive in DIRT in my kitchen right next to the sink?”
Talking in a group chat about my snakes. I just hatched out my first clutch and was showing them off to 2 reptile people.
Me: so they’re leucistic ball pythons, white with blue eyes. The one on the right is feisty like mom.
Non-reptile person: they bite you?
M: they get scared and strike. Mostly just get air. I’ve only actually been bit a handful of times, mostly because one rescue ball python was in a lot of pain during treatments, so it happens.
NRP: How do you handle the antivenin costs? Have you gotten really sick?
M: excuse me?
NRP: the antivenin. Because snakes are poisonous.
Facepalm
Had to go on a long tangent about why poisonous is the wrong word, how not all snakes are venomous and that no, BPs would rather hide than hurt anyone.
Them: So how do you keep your dogs and cats from eating your reptiles?
Me: What do you mean by that?
Them: You know, with snakes all about your house, how do the other animals not just snatch them up?
Me: You’re joking, right? They live in enclosures, not just around the house.
Them: Oh. So how do you keep all the reptiles from eating each other if they’re all in an enclosure?
And by this point I’ve basically just given up on this mentally exhausting conversation and I just say I have to go use the bathroom to get out of it. This same exact thing has happened four times.
I also had someone once think my snakes freely roamed my house. Such a weird thing to assume! Even if they’re not familiar with snakes, have they never seen any other pet besides a cat or dog? Literally every other exotic pet has an enclosure of some sort.
I am in the same boat as @armiyana I had some bps on a classifieds site(long time ago, before MorphMarket ) and a potential buyer AFTER deciding to get one baby ball, haggle over the price, talk about when and where to pick said baby up- Emails me in the middle of the night and asks how serious the poison from this baby ball python is, and if it is expensive to get antivenom to keep in case! I said no python is venomous, and then he didn’t want it anymore!
It’s so weird how ppl think they just live in my house! Yup snakes are just every where crawling all around.
A few days ago I brought one of my BPs to an ‘outing’ and one of the ‘hosts’ was like:
“Wouldn’t it be funny if you let it crawl on the ground to scare people? I guess you wouldn’t want it being stepped on or anything.”
Of course I wouldn’t want HIM not it as I already told him stepped on! Clearly he doesn’t know the what it would mean if a snakes back were to be broken.
The host came up and pet him too he said, “Wow! he feels like boots!”
It’s also so strange how even if they don’t think the snakes are free roaming, they can’t wrap their head around the concept that snakes can have separate enclosures and that I’m not just putting all of my different species in one cage.
Man, non reptile people can be so weird. I’ve even had people see my tiny ball python and say “Wow, cool anaconda! Can I touch it or will it poison me and then choke me to death?” I usually give then the biggest facepalm I can handle.
That’s a good point too. When I’ve been showing off snakes or selling babies to new snake people, I’ve had people be shocked when I say that the baby corn they’re handling will grow to be around 4 feet long. But then I’ll pull out an adult to show them what 4 feet looks like (snakes are typically all coiled up so they never look as long as they actually are) and then they are relieved.
Re my two snakes:
Them: “So will they play together?”
Me: “…Uh… Not exactly, um, snakes don’t really ‘Play’. They explore, but these two live in separate enclosures.”
“Oohhh because the big one will eat the little one.”
“…Well he might, but usually ball pythons aren’t ophiophagous- not snake-eaters. You just don’t put two snakes together except in certain circumstances and you have to do it right.”
Me talking to a friend at work: “I have pet snakes too-”
Woman we also worked with: “Nuh-uh, nope. Snakes are evil. The bible says so. You are actually Satan if you keep those things.”
I am not religious, but I know snakes are God’s creation as well so I just told her that and walked away with my friend. She proceeded to avoid me like the plague for the rest of my time working there.
This next one happened recently, and it still makes me laugh.
Me: “I got 2 new baby snakes!” I showed my friend them and she had no idea I had so many snakes. She only knew of 2 I had. What she asked next will never not make me laugh.
Friend: “Do you also have a komodo dragon as a pet?” Her boyfriend and I both looked at her like “wtf are you crazy” then she said she meant bearded dragon. But she also didn’t know you couldn’t have komodo dragons as pets .
My son was sooo disappointed that he couldn’t get a komodo dragon. When the kids were young we had a membership at the Louisville Zoo. They had the coolest komodo dragon exhibit, which was very popular with my kids.
Me: “I’m here to pickup this terrarium I ordered online & I want the other two in your inventory.”
[Twenty minutes later I start aimlessly pacing the store & lo and behold, the employee is on a stool carefully inspecting doghouses on an upper shelf.]
Me: “About those terrariums…?”
Employee: “Yes, yes. I’m looking for something for you.”
Me: “Wha…???”
Employee: “We don’t have the ones you want but I’ll find you something else.”
[This is the cliffs notes version from the first chapter of the quest to locate & purchase the terraniums there.]
I recently visited the Louisville Zoo and it was beautiful. The komodo dragons were out basking when I went there, and can understand why they wanted one lol
I used to run a club for reptile lovers or people who are just curious about reptiles back when I was in high school, and whenever I brought in a reptile to talk about I would get all of the usual questions like does it bite or is it “poisonous”, but one question always baffled me no matter how many times I was asked it. People would ask me “How are you holding it like that? Aren’t you scared of it?” What could possibly lead you to believe that I, the owner of a REPTILE club who also owns several reptiles and scared of my snakes?
same! I only own one animal and honestly (the beardie) which I legit got 2 days ago, so he is not great with handling and even then, he hasn’t bitten me he really is just skittish been doing my best to get him handleable in fact I handled him right before writing the post, correction tried because he DOES NOT like it he squirms out and does not like it and yes, I really do need tips.
Sit in front of his enclosure for a while. You can be doing whatever you want during that time, like watching YouTube, reading a book, or scrolling through MorphMarket . Do that for about a week and don’t handle him in that time. Then, try tong feeding him. If he responds well, after a few days you can start putting your hands in the enclosure and gently touching him a bit. If he doesn’t run away, then gently scoop him up and start holding him. Continue tong feeding him at least twice a week and interacting with him inside the enclosure. Maybe after a while he’ll trust you without the need to interact with him in the enclosure or tong feed, but it’s fun to do anyway. Hopefully this helps you.
