Before I start, I would like to say that, I have encountered people with a different “most desired trait” other then what I believe and I completely get other’s opinion but this is what work for me so feel free to comment and discuss together.
Nothing in the whole world would have ever attracted me to an animal that was outwardly impossible to “tame” or what you want to call it. But growing up, I was told to that snakes were scary, and I believed this until I had a positive experience with one. Here is the story…one year when I was younger, my mother brought me to a nature park in my home state of New York. It was the Halloween thing that they would normally throw. And they would have a reptile show as part of the entertainment. There was a albino boa (of course a boa ) and I had never experienced any thing so strong, yet it didn’t want to hurt me. This shocked my reality of snakes, and it changed my mindset about their ability to be gentle and inquisitive animals.
I feel the ability to change is to far often overlooked when it comes to people and even down to animals (yes, snakes and lizards too LOL). So I feel that it is possible to change some people’s ideas about our scaly friends, but nevertheless, there are people who are hard and set in their ways and their beliefs.
So, tell me what changed your perspective, what interested you, what intrigued you about reptiles?
I never had any negative view installed in me for reptiles inverts amphibs or anything ever even as a child and as such my natural respect and interest in other lifeforms combined with my love of bio was allowed to thrive unhindered. I think my first in person encounter with reptiles was sometime during my teen years with green iguanas. I was able to sit down with one or two of them, observe their beauty in the flesh and give them pets (hard to remember if I was able to offer food or not). They were almost like scaly puppies so calm and relaxed.
As for a favorite trait in a reptile its hard to say what I would value most as I think there are several reasons to like reptiles (or any other animal). I mean what traits do you think attract people to more common mammalian companions like dogs and cats for instance. I know its a stretch to compare reptiles to say fido but similar to fido if you have an open heart you can see the beauty in them in a similar manner.
Every creature has their pros and cons even us Homo sapiens.
Growing up, I alway played with lizards and frogs but was taught to be afraid of snakes by pretty much everyone in my family. I started to feel differently when I was still in Elementary school and went to an aquarium on a school field trip. We saw a guy walking around with a huge snake around his neck (I think that one was also a boa lol), and when a bunch of us gathered around him to see the snake, it kept wanting to go towards me. I know it might sound stupid but it made me feel like “the chosen one” (I watched a lot of Pokemon okay lol) since it only went to me and none of the other kids and I kinda stopped being scared of them after that lol. It still took me a while to learn how to appreciate the venomous snakes, but now I love them too. I love pretty much every reptile now, but ball pythons stuck out to me with just how many morphs they have. I love learning about genetics, so being able to visibly see how different genes react to each other is really cool to me.
I’ve always been interested in reptiles. As a toddler I had children snake books and encyclopedias. I’ve always had an interest in all animals including snakes, lizards, amphibians, and arachnids. I’ve only recently started my reptile keeping/future breeding hobby and one of my first goals were black night leopard geckos which I just bought a pair of. I especially love all of the morphs, genetics, and of course I love reptiles themself which helped to being interested in the reptile hobby.
Like others have said I was never really afraid of reptiles. I’ve always been super fascinated by snakes but mostly ball pythons. I can never get over just how incredible the different morphs are! When I got my first ball python I fell in love with them and before I knew it I was breeding them.
) and I had never experienced any thing so strong, yet it didn’t want to hurt me. This shocked my reality of snakes, and it changed my mindset about their ability to be gentle and inquisitive animals.