# What got u guys into reptiles



## pyhonead (Mar 6, 2022)

hi guys i thought i'd ask what got everyone into reptiles? for me my dad got into it because growing up he would always take me out on hikes walks in the park and look for little lizards. let me know your answers!!! : ) : )


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## ElapidHooks (Mar 6, 2022)

Hmm, what got me into reptiles... probably watching documentaries by David. A as a child, I always loved watching animal content on TV. But then it sort of broke off into this love for reptiles I suppose. I don't quite remember haha


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## pyhonead (Mar 6, 2022)

cool i like David Attenborough as well. hes good. but i used to watch him cus his brother was john hammond in jurrasic park. i love jurrasic park. but later on i started to get more into it


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## dragonlover1 (Mar 6, 2022)

I was into reptiles,turtles,frogs etc. as a kid in the 60's . But my kids got me back into it during the 80's. with all the dinosaur shows on TV. They asked what a dinosaur was. So I took them bushwalking and caught a blue tongue, "here is a dinosaur" It progressed from there. We would go camping and catch a lizard, bring it home and study it for a few months, then take it back home. Eventually I got a license and bought a dragon, now I keep more than 10 species


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## kankryb (Mar 7, 2022)

My grandmother who always took me to the lakes and moors and catch tadpoles or eggs and take care of them and watch them go on land before releasing them back into the wild


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## pyhonead (Mar 7, 2022)

i love hearing all ur storys about how u got into this verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyy interesting


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## CarlosTheSnake (Mar 7, 2022)

I was at a friends house for a birthday and his step brother had a 13 yo childrens python called Monty and i instantly fell in love lol


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## cagey (Mar 7, 2022)

I like the science of their physiology and the comparisons and differences from ours.... then I just like they way they move, and then... no more "and thens"


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## WizardFromAus- (Mar 7, 2022)

The fear of snakes is what got me interested.. but I learnt and did my research and once you realise that there not all as bad as they are made out to be, I fell in love with the snake side of things anyways for me .


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## Flaviemys purvisi (Mar 7, 2022)

Was always into reptiles and amphibians, especially frogs as a kid growing up remote on 400 acres. What got me into turtles specifically though was the horendous things I witnessed fisherman do to them as a young teen... it's no secret that turtles have always been the curse of freshwater fisherman but there's absolutely no call for cutting their heads off and throwing them back dead or pelting them against bridge pylons so they smash and die a slow and agonising death. As a child and early teen it became blindingly apparent to me that nobody gave a rat's A about turtles and I decided then and there that I'd do everything I could to learn about and help protect them and try to change people's attitudes.


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## Friller2009 (Mar 7, 2022)

Saw a freshwater croc and a frilled dragon at a zoo at age 3. Fell in love with reptiles and have ever since.


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## pyhonead (Mar 8, 2022)

WizardFromAus- said:


> The fear of snakes is what got me interested.. but I learnt and did my research and once you realise that there not all as bad as they are made out to be, I fell in love with the snake side of things anyways for me .


i feel like this would be the answer of alot of people because people often make them out to be like giant slimy beasts that want u dead but they are realy little cute creatures that are more afraid of you than you are of them. and once u know that they are realy interesting


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## adderboy (Mar 8, 2022)

Watching Harry Butler and Vince Seventy on Perth TV, plus seeing tv segments on Eric Worrell and George Cann, all back in the 1960's, got me hooked. I used to freak out my mother bringing various lizards and snakes home and was lucky that I was never bitten because I didn't really have a clue about what I was doing.


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## WizardFromAus- (Mar 9, 2022)

pyhonead said:


> i feel like this would be the answer of alot of people because people often make them out to be like giant slimy beasts that want u dead but they are realy little cute creatures that are more afraid of you than you are of them. and once u know that they are realy interesting


100% mate


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## morelia_mike (Mar 9, 2022)

A friends father when I was in preschool had an obsession with eastern water skinks. He had an amazing setup in his kitchen. He would take us helping around the Sydney area. I once watched him spend over half an hour trying to coax a water skink out of an abandoned mattress. I've been hooked ever since.


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## Culebra (Mar 9, 2022)

WizardFromAus- said:


> The fear of snakes is what got me interested.. but I learnt and did my research and once you realise that there not all as bad as they are made out to be, I fell in love with the snake side of things anyways for me .


haha same here. Until not long ago I was terrified of snakes. A friend gave me his ticket to a reptile expo. I didn't want to go but pushed myself. That day I left the expo with my first baby snake lol


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## Sanitiser (Apr 3, 2022)

kankryb said:


> My grandmother who always took me to the lakes and moors and catch tadpoles or eggs and take care of them and watch them go on land before releasing them back into the wild


same with me but my parents done it tadpoles in a giant pickled onion jar


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## shaylied (May 25, 2022)

I remember seeing a python with my mum when I was a kid, mum and I ran to the car and kicked my dad and brother out for an hour. Figured if the snake ate them, he wouldn’t harm us…. Then again I did grow up in Alice Springs and we’d have brown snakes (yup all of them) crawl into our home along with goanna’s and partenti’s. So the fear grew from all that. 

Turn the clock forward to about 2 years ago when one of my friends (I call her my Aunty) placed a little hatchie into my hands to help me conquer that fear. I looked at the little fella and figured I could kill it between my two fingers so what the heck was I so scared of them for? My love affair has grown from there.
Don’t get me wrong, venomous snakes I’m still crazy scared of (those that own them mad respect but not my thing) and probably will always admire them from behind the glass.


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## Sdaji (May 25, 2022)

This is always a fun topic to discuss. I'm really glad we aren't seeing people saying 'I didn't choose reptiles, they chose me' which used to be the cringeful most popular answer when this topic came up on APS, haha.

Despite what many herpers say, almost all humans do have a genetic predisposition to fearing snakes, and it's interesting that it draws a lot of people to them. People usually hate snakes and say they want them dead and don't want to go near them, but in almost every zoo around the world with a reptile house, the reptile house is the most visited exhibit. Pretty interesting. 

I'm one of those people who as a very young child just absolutely adored any frog, lizard, snake, turtle insect etc I saw (strangely though, I was terrified of spiders with an all out phobia until something flipped in my head around age 20 and now I quite like them). A lot of people who have that predisposition to loving reptiles and amphibians (love of insects etc are often associated with these people) will talk about the first interaction with them as the time they fell in love, but I think people like us already had that in us and were inevitably going to cross paths with a reptile at some stage and whenever that was, we'd be right into it. So, for those of us like this, I think what got us into reptiles was something innate about ourselves, and those first encounters were what revealed it.

My earliest memory of a herp was a Green Tree Frog on the wall at my grandfather's ex wife's home in far north QLD around my 3rd birthday. It was the most amazing, special and wonderful thing I had ever seen or could have imagined, and I still sort of get that feeling sometimes when looking at reptiles. About 40 years later in March this year I went back to that house, having had no contact with my... 'ex step grandmother' in all that time and not knowing if I'd be welcome or if she'd know who I was, and she rushed out, hugged me almost in tears and told me many stories about that visit when I was a little kid and insisted I stay a few days. The frog wasn't still there but it was fun to check, haha.


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## ameliasark (May 27, 2022)

When I was about 8 or 9 we had a big diamond that'd visit our garden a couple of times a week, the neighbours hated it because a couple chickens had gone 'missing' lol. Instead of letting me fear/resent it dad took me out into the yard and taught me how to make a snake hook from one of those wire coat hangers. When he picked it up I just remember being fascinated by it, it was made out to be some terrifying disgusting monster by the neighbourhood but all I could focus on was how beautiful and gentle it was. Today I recon reptiles are the most stunning animals on earth and I can't get enough of them!


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## Pythonlover007 (Jun 6, 2022)

My parents took us kids on a year long road trip around Aus - including up the red centre - when I was around 7, I was home schooled and my classroom became whatever caravan park we were staying at that week.
My dad was always pulling the car over when he saw a lizard or any other animal, and I had many a close up and personal interaction with reptiles that were just incredible. 
I’ll never forget seeing a thorny devil in the middle of the road, nothing but red dirt on either side, and pulling over to move it off the road. Best moment of my childhood by far.


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## dragonlover1 (Jun 7, 2022)

WizardFromAus- said:


> The fear of snakes is what got me interested.. but I learnt and did my research and once you realise that there not all as bad as they are made out to be, I fell in love with the snake side of things anyways for me .


this is what got my son into snakes, he was already a lizard lover. But to get over his fear of snakes he bought 1, and realized they weren't so bad. Now he has several and convinced me to get some as well


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## Herpetology (Jun 8, 2022)

dragonlover1 said:


> this is what got my son into snakes, he was already a lizard lover. But to get over his fear of snakes he bought 1, and realized they weren't so bad. Now he has several and convinced me to get some as well


Did u also have a fear of snakes? Or just weren’t interested in them before he convinced you?


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## Harpo (Jun 8, 2022)

I got into keeping snakes after keeping aquariums of fish for 30 years plus. I wish I'd discovered snakes many years ago now. Aquariums are nice - and I'll still keep one running untill I'm too old to maintain it, but snakes are superior in nearly every way, for me, pity I don't have a time machine to go back and do it all again!


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## dragonlover1 (Jun 8, 2022)

Herpetology said:


> Did u also have a fear of snakes? Or just weren’t interested in them before he convinced you?


no fear, just not interested. I've always been more into dragons.
He had Stimmies and Spotted, my other son had a Childreni so he said I should get a Pygmy to complete the set. I ended up buying a pair of Pygmy Banded pythons because of an advertising blunder. I now have a childreni and a pair of striped blonde spotted as well.


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