Honestly, I think most of mine would prefer I bugged them slightly less often. Snakes like being left alone. Checking tubs 3 times a day 7 days a week sounds a little bit like washing your dog every day, to me. It’s totally okay that we all have our own standards and preferences, right?
My snakes are pets first. They are well behaved angels, and I love them all. Some are perhaps more livestock than pet, but they get the pet treatment too. I don’t think I’d have any P. regius except the market and my gf demand it. So she loves them and I love the carpet pythons. We both love corns and Pituophis.
I have a normal corn snake named Meg White who has been bred twice in her six years of life, and I think she’s retiring after her clutch last night. Not for health reasons, but because she’s has the best personality and I like hanging out with her. It is totally selfish on my part, she’s my favorite. A normal ‘classic’ corn snake. Well, okay, she’s a quad het…but still.
I am not afraid to clean, water, and ignore my snakes for 5 days, sometimes more. I don’t do it often, but it’s nice that I can. They are not dogs, thank goodness. We had several dogs, and a little human, for many years. I don’t miss either of them enough to do it again, and I enjoy the freedom that comes with their absence very much.
i find it more convenient to refer to everything i have as a “collection” because its a simpler way to refer to everyone i have. If someone wants me to elaborate on what exactly i all have, ill then explain in more depth.
I love all my “pets” and my “breeders” the same. When I think about what category i put my animals into, pet or breeder, it just comes down to who ill be keeping for the entirety of their life and who i wont be keeping. I have no shame in saying that some of my animals wont be here forever, but when they DO go, i make sure they go to other responsible pet owners or breeders. i brought these lives into the world, so its my obligation to make sure they all live long, healthy lives.
So I have pets that are also part of the bigger collection. Some pets are in tubs, some breeders in tanks. All get the same level of care and attention (poop and water check once a week during feedings). I have bought and then resold several in my collection due to figuring out what I want to concentrate on and above all else temperament. And that temperament factor goes majorly into females I plan on breeding. If I can’t handle any of my snakes safely then they are out the door to someone with more time and skill. When you buy these cute little babies it’s hard to tell what temperament is like before the first year sometimes.
This is a good thought-provoking topic regardless of what animal you’re referencing. I have bred gerbils and 5 species of hamsters. Even when I had lots of gerbils and hamsters because I was working on different genetic projects, they were all treated as pets because most were being sold as pets. One of the hamster species had/has a bad reputation as being fur-covered piranha, my focus was breeding animals that could be handled aka pets. I was able to put my hand into a tank of 36 of these hamsters and not a single nibble. At a time when they were being sold in pet stores for $1 as snake food I sold all 36 in 1 day at a church bazaar.
I doubt I could bring myself to house my snakes in racks. My 3 adults are in bioactive setups and the 2 itty bitties are on shredded aspen until they grow some. I do intend to breed a couple of times and already have a local store willing to buy any babies I can’t sell otherwise. But I can understand when people are working on multiple projects there is a need to keep a number of the offspring for future breeding.
All of my animals are pets first and breeders second. That’s just the way I am.
I’m sure most of mine would prefer this as well lol. I have a lot of huge females that have a tendency to knock over water dishes. I don’t like any living creature to not have constant access to fresh clean water daily.
Totally
Is not a dirty word lol What else can we call a Group of living animals. I have a lot of other fancy words I could use but collection is pretty universal!
Same, I have snakes that aren’t genetic powerhouses that will stay with me forever just because I’ve grown to attached.
Also I like to look at my snakes everyday because they are simply beautiful creatures! This is why I breed snakes they are amazingly beautiful and it brings me joy to look at them!
I always wanted a nice collection ever since I got my first pair of blood pythons. It seemed like a pipe dream forever! So I honestly feel truly blessed every single time I go to my snake room! I never thought I would get to this point so I enjoy every single minute of it!
You will get there! That I’m sure of! Before you know it you too will be singing emo rap cleaning snake tubs at 3 am! I personally wouldn’t trade it for anything lol.
I try to check on all of my snakes once a day. Clean any messy tubs, replace water, mist down tubs of snakes that are in shed, etc. I feed most of my snakes on Saturday, and some of the younger hognoses get fed on Wednesdays too. On Friday’s is when I weigh all of my snakes, to track their growth.
It just makes me incredibly happy and giddy being in the snake room, and getting to handle them while I clean. It’s also just really nice seeing my snakes grow and me learning their personalities. I also try to spend a little extra time handling some of my more temperamental ball pythons, which has helped them calm down quite a bit.
My animals will always be pets first and breeders second. I feel like after a certain point, It’s easier to refer to them as a collection. I have my ball pythons in enclosures and my hognoses in several racks. I was actually against racks for the longest time. My wife and I enjoyed seeing the animals everyday and opaque tubs made it feel impersonal. Then ARS started making the crystal clear tubs and changed my mind.
I check on them all on a daily basis but every Sunday I do water changes. It’s one of my favorite things to do. I find it weirdly relaxing for some reason.
I am not a fan of the term collection either as it seems uncaring and impartial to me. No shade on anyone who does, just not for me. I prefer to call my animals a nest, partially because that’s one of the accepted terms for a group of snakes but also because I think it’s funny.
Mine are pets, first and foremost. They all have decently sized enclosures so they can have some enrichment (burrow, climb, what have you) but that also means I keep my numbers pretty low. I’d love to have more but I have neither the space nor time. I may breed a couple in the future and made sure the animals I purchased have genes that I want however that is secondary to them being my pets.
I could never turn around and sell my animals but that’s from my own attachment and not theirs. I love them and they definitely prefer me to other people but that’s most likely familiarity and trust over an attachment. I don’t think it harms the snakes to change owners except the fact that changing environments and shipping is pretty stressful for them.
I actually have the opposite experience and I had snakes in tanks that didn’t eat for 3+ months until I built a rack and then they ate every time, and that was with my entire collection.
My point for this topic really wasn’t to throw shade at breeders, especially since I plan on breeding shortly (start small, grow the business slowly and organically). If I can’t sell the babies I’m not holding back, well I’m going to be responsible for them (that’s just how I operate on a personal level).
As I am sure some of you are, I am a member of my local herp society. But every single time I see the same people constantly rehoming and selling animals on their Facebook pages. The trend I see is that in California TONS of people who are in a living situation with housemates or strict landlords are amassing these huge collections of reptiles that aren’t really good for those type of situations (Burms, Retics, Tegus etc).
I personally think the word “collection” does give a negative connotation to the non-reptile community. So when my friends come over I call my animals my zoo.
PS: that guy who was ****** about me not selling my pet received some very choice words from me LOL
When I first became a part of the reptile-keeping community the term “collection” put me off too. It does sound objectifying. Now that I’ve been around for a while I’ve made my peace with the term and even started using it myself.
The fact of the matter is that when you’re breeding, some animals aren’t pets. Some are just breeders that you have for a while and then let go when you reach a desired goal, or babies you produce to sell. Not everything sticks around long-term or has the same place in your heart as a pet.
I’m not saying that makes them objects, but I can’t keep all the babies I produce. It’s better not to get attached to the ones I’m trying to sell. Otherwise, I might not end up selling them. Sometimes it’s hard to let them go and I end up holding back more than I should, lol.
I view “collection” as an easy term to describe all the animals I keep without having to go into detail about which ones are my treasured pets that I will keep forever and which aren’t. Honestly, sometimes the line isn’t even that distinct. A snake may start out as a breeder and then I get attached and it ends up becoming a pet.
“Collection” may not be the best term, but I think it’s better than “breeding stock” or “livestock”, both of which are used to refer to other types of breeding animals. I also don’t think that using a term that sounds objectifying necessarily means the animals are being mistreated.
I respect how you approached the question as people on both sides of the spectrum can get sensitive on the topic. I have about 20 ball pythons that I refer to as a collection. That’s simply because in my limited vocabulary it’s the best word for it. Each snake has a specialized set of genes that I’ve selected to use in my breeding program.
However, I provide a high level of care for them each just like I do my dog. I have a dedicated room for my reptiles, invest hours of my personal time every week in them, and value each of their lives tremendously. Respectfully, I believe people get hung up on the verbiage used to describe their animals instead of looking at the quality of life that’s provided. To me that is what’s truly important.
We all know people with “pets” that don’t really care for their cats and dogs appropriately. Perhaps I’ll start saying hobby as others have mentioned in the forum.
We have at least 75 snakes and we refer to them as a collection. All of them are breeders or future breeders, but they all have names. We do not name offspring that are intended for sale.
That’s a good breakdown of it. I think there’s a lot of connotations being carried in all kinds of language we use every day, and I find everyone’s thoughts on this very interesting.
What about curation? I’m interested in building a curated collection. Sometimes collections are just a pile of junk, we all know about hoarding, yeah? Other times a collection can be museum quality, curated, and thoughtfully assembled around a theme. I think the notion of curation is something that belongs in this discussion.
When it comes to the word hobby:
My jobs are all also my hobbies. Back in school they told me it wasn’t possible. I better get a job and work until I’m dead. I’ve been all about that life ever since they said I couldn’t. They didn’t know how the world was going to change in my lifetime, none of my school teachers knew the internet was coming. Don’t let anyone can tell you they can see the future.
I have been writing computer code since 1983, mostly for kicks. That’s my main source of income, and probably always will be.
I love gardening and I have a small agricultural concern in Oregon.
I started learning music in fifth grade and I’ve worked as a professional musician quite a bit, I plan to do that some more.
I’ve been keeping herps since about 1982. I spent more than five years as a “hobbyist breeder” in the early 2000’s and now I’m taking a run at it again.
The line is blurry, at best, between hobby and profession in my life. I used to practice collection and now I practice curation as mindfully as I can muster. Languistics is fascinating and communication is hard. I’m leaving that little typo there, I like it.
