What was your first reptile?

What was your first reptile? How old were you when you got it? What did it look like? How was its temperament? :black_heart::snake:

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My first ever reptile was a male normal ball python. Iā€™ve had him for about 15 to 16 years and I was about 6 or 7 maybe possibly even 8 when I got him ( the time that I got him is kinda fuzzy in memory) and I am now 23 so hes been with me for the long haul. He isnā€™t a breeder or anything but just a really cool pet with a nice backstory and hes basically just a scaly dog. His temperament is extremely relaxed and he moves great even for his age.

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I used to catch and keep wild garters for a few days all the time when I was a kid, and there was one point where I caught a rat snake and kept it. It ate for us in a separate tub, all was great. Then my little sister got ahold of it, and wellā€¦ there was no more snake.

I officially bought my first snake in August of 2018, which was my little girl Delta. A normal ball python from a pet store. She was a little scrawny, and was fed f/t fuzzy mice.

Sheā€™s still one of my sweetest snakes, always so curious and bold. She loves to explore too.
An awesome eater, and the first snake I was able to switch from mice to rats with no problems.

Now sheā€™s a fat and happy little snake. Went from 150 grams to around 650 grams, and sheā€™s getting bigger every week.

Another thing to note about her is that she has the track marks and high blushing similar to my other het pied balls, so Iā€™m a bit curious if sheā€™s possibly het pied herself. Something Iā€™ll have to prove out when sheā€™s breeding size :grin:

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I donā€™t know how to answer that, lol. My brother and I caught lizards and frogs and snakes all the time as kids and kept them for a bit. Iā€™d guess very first were some wild caught lizards around 5-7 ish and I have no idea what species they were. They were not calm and easy to handle. Then around 10-ish for me we got called on to remove two baby garters from neighbors driveways, they must have been born near to our row of rentals we lived in at the time, they were awesome and we loved watching them ā€œfish.ā€ Those were the first snakes we kept for any length of time. Moved from the rental after a year into a new house and were hunting grasshoppers to feed to our praying mantises and the neighbors thought we were looking for snakes, so gave us a great big adult garter they had caught, not knowing a great deal about them, we assumed it was a boy. Kept them for over a year when the next spring we got surprised with 12 baby garters in the tank with our big "boy!ā€™ garter. Weā€™d have been very puzzled about that but Iā€™d recently watched a show on the Discovery Channel (back when they actually had educational shows) about live birth in reptiles and birds and they covered retained sperm as well. That was cool but was also the breaking point for my mom, who made us let them all go at the nearby marshy area.

The first reptile I ever actually bought was a corn snake in 2008 and she was great, although that led rapidly to many, many more snakes and geckos and breeding them. Thankfully my husband was on board with that and has just as much will power to say no to more animals as I do, lol.

My first corn snake, Tavi/Tavia. She was unsexed from a Petco and remained unsexed until at 5 years old and never bred, she laid a nice clutch of slugs, after acting like a male for years during breeding season.

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I havenā€™t got my 1st reptile yet but am hoping to get it later this year. Im aiming for an Uromastyx lizard (either U. geyri or ornata but most likely geyri). I want to have something that isnt just another dog for once although I have a dog and will always have dogs.

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@kitten do you yourself have any reptiles? Or planning to get one? If so then what kind?

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First reptile was a Bearded Dragon I named KyJinn. Got him while still in college and had no idea what these guys really needed when it came to space, lighting, ect. Despite his poor care he lived for nearly 13 years. Eventually we got his living conditions sorted during his later years though having always eaten crickets never really took to salads (though he loved the salad bits that had no real nutritional value).

He was the most chill lizard ever (maybe because of his bad husbandry) but would ride on my shoulder during most outings to local stores, parks, ect. I never needed a harness for him and he was fine with most people who wanted to look at him or touch him.

I thank these constant outings in the sunlight to be the reason why he didnā€™t get any common bone issues. All the uvb from natural sun (and powdered crickets constantly on demand) helped him more than I knew. Though he never got to be as big as some of these dragons you see.

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After digging through my Twitter I found a single old picture of him. I canā€™t believe any survived.

IMG_20200225_212730

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As much bad info as there is floating around the internet, I am still very grateful to it! Being older than the internet and from the middle of nowhere, I remember how hard it was to get good information on nearly any kind of pet. The bookstores and libraries didnā€™t carry books on much and one was usually dependent on whatever the pet store employee, who generally didnā€™t have a clue but was real convincing with whatever they made up, to tell you anything. Have to wince at so much of our husbandry my family did back then but it was the best we knew how.

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@kitten so what was your first reptile what do you currently have and what got you interested in these neat creatures?

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@elementalexotics I guess it took what was wrong to find what was right huh. Especially since back then half the good info probably wasnt figured out yet.

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Iā€™ve had all sorts of pets, scorpions, millipedes, bearded dragons, a sand monitor, frogs, hermit crabs, leopard geckos, turtles, rats, mice, birds, bunnies, and even a horse :black_heart: I currently have 3 cats, 3 dogs, a ferret, a Thayers kingsnake and currently waiting for my ball python to arrive (:

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My first reptile was a leopard gecko and I loved him soooo much. One of my brothers would take me herping with him when I was around 6 and ever since then Iā€™ve loved snakes :black_heart::snake: I currently have 3 cats, 3 dogs, a thayers kingsnake and currently waiting on my ball python to arrive (:

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She is beautiful! :green_heart::snake:

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I love the color :heart_eyes:

Omg he was ADORABLE :heart_eyes:

Thanks. Iā€™ll probably never get another cause of the amount of special care and setup they need. But KyJinn was truly special and I miss him dearly.

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Wow thatā€™s quite the collection. What morph bp are you getting?

My first was a WC brown anole with three legs, as a young child. He was already unhealthy when I got him and I didnā€™t care for him properly, so he didnā€™t last.

Red-eared Sliders at age 6, as an adult my first was a rescue green iguana.

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