# how long have you been keeping reptiles for?



## ryanharvey1993 (Feb 18, 2009)

just wondering how long have you been keeping reptiles for?

I have been keeping for 4 years now (with a licence) just curious how long everybody has been keeping for, been herping for about 8 years now and keeping for about 4 years before I got my licence and bought my first reptiles (all the wildcaughts were let go) my first reptile was delicate gardens skinks and my first licenced reptile was a central bearded dragon. I love keeping reptiles, but prefer herping.


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## missllama (Feb 18, 2009)

not as long as u lol 
when i met my partner he had all sorts of reptiles and he was in the stage of selling some things after a while we both ended up loving them so much that the collection just grew.... and grew.... and turned into a zoo


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## seumas12345 (Feb 18, 2009)

Just over a year, and loving it!


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## pythons_dragons (Feb 18, 2009)

for about 1 year now. all i have is a eastern bearded dragon which isabsolutely beautiful. he is 1 year old now and has cool patterns. he is so good and never bites and loves being handled. I AM GETTING MY FIRST PYTHON AS WELL IN 1 DAY. IT WILL BE A BLONDE SPOTTED PYHON AND I CANT WAIT


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## ryanharvey1993 (Feb 18, 2009)

lol my collections has grew, then dropped then grew as I changed what I kept, I used to keep all kinds of stuff but now only keep easy stuff as it was to hard with going on holidays, being sick, cleaning. used to keep a fair few skinks and dragons, sydney locale cunninghams skinks, some darker coloured cunninghams skinks, pink tongued skinks, blue tongued skinks, shingleback, central beardies, eastern beardies, jacky dragons


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## moosenoose (Feb 18, 2009)

A tad over 6yrs for me


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## Kirby (Feb 18, 2009)

5 years. and counting.


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## itbites (Feb 18, 2009)

5 years..


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## dickyknee (Feb 18, 2009)

A few months now .....


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## Drazzy (Feb 18, 2009)

4 to 5 years


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## JasonL (Feb 18, 2009)

Since last week, but I saw a snake in the bush a few years back


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## licky (Feb 18, 2009)

4 yrs


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## MrBredli (Feb 18, 2009)

Over a decade. :shock:


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## seumas12345 (Feb 18, 2009)

jasonl said:


> since last week, but i saw a snake in the bush a few years back


 
lmao!!!!!


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## -Andrew- (Feb 18, 2009)

A little over 30 years & I still have a couple of turtles & bluetongue lizards that are
still alive since then.


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## gravitation (Feb 18, 2009)

I was around reptiles alot when i was a youngster, friends of the family had all sorts of things, snakes, monitors, beardeds. I was obsessed with them, but personally i've probably been keeping reptiles about six/seven years.


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## Rocky (Feb 18, 2009)

Three Years. But have mainly focused on the Lizard group, until two weeks ago


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## FAY (Feb 18, 2009)

-Andrew- said:


> A little over 30 years & I still have a couple of turtles & bluetongue lizards that are
> still alive since then.



How can that be Andrew....aren't you only 29????


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## andyscott (Feb 18, 2009)

About 25 years now.
Got my 1st reptile (shingle back) for my 11th birthday.


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## Ned_fisch (Feb 18, 2009)

a little over a year 5 reptiles now.


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## Troy 1000 (Feb 18, 2009)

2 years next week.


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## ryanharvey1993 (Feb 18, 2009)

lol 5 years in a month if that includes


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## -Andrew- (Feb 18, 2009)

GARTHNFAY said:


> How can that be Andrew....aren't you only 29????


 
Thanks Fay.
I have always liked you for your compliments.


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## Isabel (Feb 18, 2009)

since sunday....


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## Reptile_Boy (Feb 18, 2009)

keeping in general 10 years. lisences for 5. herping for 5. first reptile ewd. first liscensed Childrens python


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## aliveandkicking (Feb 18, 2009)

about 19 years.


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## FROGGIESrCUTEo_O (Feb 18, 2009)

ummmmm I got Clank when I was like 7 so that makes it 6 yrs I guess


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## ShAdY12 (Feb 18, 2009)

I have been for 2 1/2 years

use to catch blueys when i was little


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## serpenttongue (Feb 18, 2009)

25 years.


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## reptilegirl_jordan (Feb 18, 2009)

since 2 days ago..found this kinda black snake in the bush behind my house,put him in a shoebox he seems happy enough.my mates are gonna think im so cool


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## JasonL (Feb 18, 2009)

-Andrew- said:


> A little over 30 years & I still have a couple of turtles & bluetongue lizards that are
> still alive since then.



As if buddy...you only have like 26 posts.......


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## Vincent (Feb 18, 2009)

GARTHNFAY said:


> How can that be Andrew....aren't you only 29????




He's actually only 22, it's all the grog that's aged him so much.


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## caradeller (Feb 18, 2009)

first blue toungue when i was 4...had a tiger snake..which i didnt know wat it was at 12 lol..mum nearly had a heart attack when she looked in my room


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## Chrisreptile (Feb 18, 2009)

It will be about 8 years for me in a few months.


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## paleoherp (Feb 18, 2009)

I got my first children s back in 1986/87 so about 22-23 years


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## Lozza (Feb 18, 2009)

reptilegirl_jordan said:


> since 2 days ago..found this kinda black snake in the bush behind my house,put him in a shoebox he seems happy enough.my mates are gonna think im so cool


 :lol::lol::lol:

Nearly 5yrs for me. Been studying them for longer though - I didnt realise you could keep them until I met someone who did lol.


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## amazonian (Feb 18, 2009)

30 years on & off.


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## rebeccalg (Feb 18, 2009)

First snake in 1994, but I had to sell her. Second snake now for just over three years.


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## shane14 (Feb 18, 2009)

Since January LOL ive been into herps for about 1.3/4 years now and finally got one after alot of begging and convincing!


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## ShnakeyGirl (Feb 18, 2009)

About 6 or 7 months now. My first was a female Bredli...now my partner and I have five pythons between us...of course thats just the beginning!


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## funcouple (Feb 18, 2009)

had turtles and bluetongues when i was younger. had just a few years away from reptiles before renewing the interest about 18 months ago thanks to my youngest daughter wanting a snake


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## DanTheMan (Feb 18, 2009)

Depends, if you want to count all the skink's, gecko's, frogs (would have been snakes too if we had them in nz) I would catch and bring home when I was younger, then 15 years.


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## sarah_m (Feb 18, 2009)

Since May 08


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## ryanharvey1993 (Feb 18, 2009)

how about all you keepers that have been keeping for 20 years or more tell us about what you started with back in the pre ammesty days would have been great. I know a heap of people back then had all different elapids, unusual skinks etc. 9 years of keeping pretty much now, all I kept before licence was boring stuff wish I found all the stuff you guys have around. all I had delicate garden skinks, eastern blue tongued skinks, jacky dragons and dwarf tree frogs all were released though. only snakes I saw often were green tree snakes and they were always to quick for me :lol: wont have any good storys to tell in about 20 years time of keeping all different stuff but oh well suppose times have changed now everythings illegal cant do much. it is good that reptiles are protected these days though.


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## scorps (Feb 18, 2009)

I got my license 2 weeks ago got my first bluey coming soon


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## spilota_variegata (Feb 18, 2009)

No good stories but about 40 years, but that's only because I'm an old codger. I used to go lizard hunting near the Darebin Creek in the Northern suburbs of melbourne in the 60s and 70s. Wow, I'm starting to feel really old now 

I used to keep everything I caught back in those days, ranging from blue tongues, the occassional turtle (not locally), tiger snakes, brown snakes, little whip snakes, various skinks as well as other types of animals. I'm not sure if it was illegal back in those days but everyone I knew did it and noone ever got into trouble.


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## Kris (Feb 18, 2009)

18 years


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## Vincent (Feb 18, 2009)

ryanharvey1993 said:


> how about all you keepers that have been keeping for 20 years or more tell us about what you started with back in the pre ammesty days



Nothing special, just all the local stuff. Tigers, RBBS's, Copperheads, Eastern browns, Adders, Swampys and YFWS's. The lizards i kept were mainly Waterdragons and Laceys. Still my favourite lizards.

I kept snakes for around twelve years before i owned a python.


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## ConsoleWizard (Feb 18, 2009)

um.... 4 days lol


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## eipper (Feb 18, 2009)

24 years


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## sweetangel (Feb 18, 2009)

1 year and 2 pythons, 4 ackies and 2 EWD's ago i started 

many more to come me thinks


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## amazonian (Feb 18, 2009)

ryanharvey1993 said:


> how about all you keepers that have been keeping for 20 years or more tell us about what you started with back in the pre ammesty days


 
Just your basic run of the mill Herps.
Beardies, Blueys, EWD's, Long neck turtles, Jackies, Browns, Red bellies, GTS, GTF, Blind snakes and Water skinks were all pre amnesty pets for me.


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## cris (Feb 18, 2009)

I started keeping when i was 5 or six, but have been interested in herps(and other animals) since before my memory started. I vaugely remeber ID'ing a Tuatara when i was about 4, there was a salesman trying to sell my parents some enclopedias and he showed me a pic of a Tuatara and he was probably thinking i would be ignorant enough to think it was a lizard, i taught him :lol:

I started keeping garden skinks, fence skinks(one fork tailed one sticks in my memory), Calyptotis scutirostrum(i think?) and GTFs when i was about 5 or 6 and moved onto keeping common tree snakes, dragons, turtles and carpets as i got a bit older. By the time i was about 10 me and my parents found out you were supposed to have a licence and stuff, so i have been keeping legally since then. All the animals i kept before that were only kept short term and released where they came from. I started getting more reptiles and became interested in breeding them about 3 or 4 years ago. I now have over 200 herps(even if most of them are tadpoles or froglets lol).


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## ryanharvey1993 (Feb 18, 2009)

awsome stuff, anyone got any old pics of stuff from back then, were herps more common back then?


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## cris (Feb 19, 2009)

ryanharvey1993 said:


> awsome stuff, anyone got any old pics of stuff from back then, were herps more common back then?



There were way more around where i live, i think it was just a matter of the development catching up with them. Some species are still thriving and should survive as long as there is suitable habitat around and im hoping they arnt being killed or relocated as much, as more and more become educated about reptiles. I must admit i dont mind being able to walk around at night without worrying about stepping on a brown snake, but its a shame how many species get squeezed out by development. There are also heaps more frogs around and less toads where i live, although GTF's seem to be less common than they were. We also have heaps of AHG's around that are no doubt helping to feed many reptiles and other animals. I was thinking the local carpets where in trouble as i went a few years without seeing any, but i have seen quite a few over the last few years including juveniles and a few large adults. There seem to be more common tree snakes and marsh snakes around the yard, which could be a result of providing more habitat for them and their food or just that ive had more practice spotting them. I have also noticed some small Eulamprus.sp skinks that i had never seen around before, but thats probably just because i didnt see them.


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## diamondpython (Feb 19, 2009)

A couple of years. I then sold up and now I am getting back into them.


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## KaaTom (Feb 19, 2009)

Almost 7 mths now... and wouldnt have it any other way


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## LullabyLizard (Feb 19, 2009)

4 years for me


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## Moreliaman (Feb 19, 2009)

26 years, my first snake was a red sided garter when i was 14.


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## -Andrew- (Feb 19, 2009)

JasonL said:


> As if buddy...you only have like 26 posts.......


 C,mon Jason you know I am just a quiet type of bloke.


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## -Andrew- (Feb 19, 2009)

ShaneBlack said:


> He's actually only 22, it's all the grog that's aged him so much.


 Ha, It has it's advantages of looking younger than I really am although my wife wasn't impressed when I made a joke about me looking a bit old to still be going out with my mum
everywhere. 
Shane when are you coming around for another beer to age gracefully with me?


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## bigguy (Feb 19, 2009)

Getting close to 50 years now. How time flys. Started off in Sydney with common bluetongues, then bearded dragons, followed by a diamond then swampies.


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## andrew (Feb 19, 2009)

5 years for myself, 
but it was so hard to stop with on reptile your collection always grows.


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## ryanharvey1993 (Feb 19, 2009)

bob, you came to my school about a year or 2 ago, remember you telling us a few storys about all different stuff like the bite you got from the hopo which you had mistaken for a diamond python, were they common back then? oh if you were wondering what school, was St Clares taree you did a good job, was much better then doing school work, loved the elapids.


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## mark83 (Feb 19, 2009)

About 8 years. Only have one snake atm. Hopefully that will change over the next few years


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## bigguy (Feb 19, 2009)

Ryan, Broadheads as I now know are not supposed to be found on the Central Coast. Yet the one that bit me numerous timeson both hands was on the mountain right above Gosford. Nastiest Diamond I ever found 

They are still common in their range, but only after long hikes away from habitats close to easy access. Most spots that are easy to get too have been plundered to death. Its hard in these spots to even find a sandwich rock the right way up.


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## ryanharvey1993 (Feb 19, 2009)

yer have seen plenty of pics of habitat that is destroyed its a real shame. I wouldnt mind seeing one, was a thread posted a while ago by a member about finding one near canberra or something, also got a mate who has found 8 of them recently, he reckons they are the most common snake in sydney. also said some havnt even been on massive rock escarpments. maybe they are more common then what is thought


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## nathancl (Feb 19, 2009)

They are still common in their range, but only after long hikes away from habitats close to easy access

I wouldnt say thats the case at all


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## Moreliaman (Feb 19, 2009)

bigguy said:


> Getting close to 50 years now. How time flys. Started off in Sydney with common bluetongues, then bearded dragons, followed by a diamond then swampies.



Jeezu....thats a long time bigguy.......anyone beat 50 ?? or is bigguy the oldest herper in town ?


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## JasonL (Feb 19, 2009)

-Andrew- said:


> C,mon Jason you know I am just a quiet type of bloke.



only online.......

when I was about 4 I spend all day playing in my private pond near the driveway (caused from natural seepage), it had a heap of Crinia in it, I made the pond even better for them, and due to the fact I was raised by my dad and my brothers, I spent all my spare time at the pond... then we moved to Bangor, one of the first houses in the area, I was about 8 years old, had a Heath monitor burrow in my backyard, and a Eastern Bearded Dragon living in the big pile of dead trees they knocked down to build the houses in the front yard, snakes were very common, and we backed onto the bush..fantastic!!! then we moved again   to the burbs (South Caringbah) but was near the water..so I fished almost every day..went to Scouts..did a heap of camping... on one camp I bought a whip snake back with me in my billy ( hidden from dad), and kept it for about a year, also had at that time a few Broad tailed geckos and some GTF's someone gave me.. I also remember when I went to my mums house, she had a massive pile of bricks, every second weekend, I would move the pile of bricks from one side of the yard to the other to catch the blueys living under it, one time I found a clutch of new borns!!! I was stoked!! funnly enough, I never wanted to keep them, I always wanted to release them to see if I could find them again.. At our Caringbah house we had a pond, I used to drain it every now and then, and lift the whole pond out of the ground to catch Golden Crown snakes under it.... it took a whole day to do, and I probably did it about 20 times for 2 snakes... how deperate was I....and of course, I used to let them go again 20 minutes later... I only kept frogs through my later teens..was massively into fishing and ladies..and paid for that with kids in my early 20's..still kept only frogs..wasn't till my late 20's that I started keeping and breeding and within a few years I'd like to cut that all down again to a minimum and spend more time out in the bush and fishing....


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## wizz (Feb 22, 2009)

9 years for me


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## mckellar007 (Feb 22, 2009)

10 years


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## shlanger (Feb 22, 2009)

40 yrs.


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## lovey (Feb 22, 2009)

8 yrs and counting!!


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