What got you into reptiles?

[Bluetongue1]

I can certainly relate to a number of comments made, like chasing anything that moved, time spent in the garden, catching lizards and bugs around the yard, discovering the creek and been exploring ever since...

I have had a fascination with all things biological for as far back as my memory will stretch. I can remember mum telling me one day that she wasn’t sure were she got me from as I was chasing things in the yard before I could even walk. Reckoned I would want to bring in worms and anything else that wriggled or moved so she had to empty my hands when the washing was hung out and it was time to go back in the house. The only one of seven kids that was like that.

We had tons of garden and grass skinks around the yard and a resident bluey or two most of the time. I collected bird’s eggs with mates for a while, but didn’t like that. I’d still climb trees but in order to observe the birds or just to inspect the nest. I tried raising tadpoles a few years but the mozzies bred in the baby bath and dad tipped the lot out. We used to catch eels with our bare hands – slippery suckers plus! Cultivated silkworms, collected Wanderer caterpillars and fed them on privet until they pupated etc. Never missed Vincent Serventy’s Nature Walkabout or Marlin Perkin’s Wild Kingdom. Regardless of what else I did, reptiles were always the mainstay of my interest.

I used to take my lizards to school and was given the nickname “Lizard”, which my mates just shortened to “Liz”. That’s OK when you are at school but it sure turned some heads in a busy shopping centre or a crowded street when someone would yell out “Liz?” and I would yell back: “I’m over here!” One time the school bully meandered over to where I was showing some kids a full sized Eastern Bearded Dragon. “What ya got Lizard?” came the cocky question. I replied: “A Beardie” and thrust the lizard quickly and roughly within a few centimetres of his face. I knew it would arc up with that treatment and it didn’t let me down – full blown black beard, bright yellow mouth wide open, pitch black throat and a multitude of sharp white teeth. The manner in which the fellow went weak at the knees as he staggered backwards, suggested he was not far off requiring a change of underwear. He never bothered me or my mates from that day forward...


Blue

 

[Venomous_RBB]

When I was a kid, we always got warned about RBB's and Brown's (Live in Brissy and had sheep living at the back of us). We had a frilly that used to come and sit on a rock all the time, just chilling out (The neighbours dog got him) but I always love seeing him, I used to have a pet frog (wild green frog) that used to always come and sit at my window. My Aunty and her family lived up on the north coast of QLD, so we went up there to see them for 3 weeks. So many awesome Gecko's but the noise kind of annoyed me when I was a kid but they looked cool lol. I like Gecko's noise now.
Mum was petrified of snakes so was never allowed one and she thought that having a lizard in an enclosure was cruel. We used to see many different lizards, beardies, waters and frillies all running free and wild and thats how mum liked it. So was never able to get one.
Finally started to coax her into owning one but she still said no. Then the 2012 SOFAR expo came, we went there as a family and she looked at me and my dad and said OKAY you can get one each, but only 1 each. lol
I now have 6 snakes and 1 Beardie. Dad owns 1 snake and my brother owns 1 snake.
Pretty funny.

Edit: Yes and I used to catch garden skinks, bugs etc from the garden. Everyone thought I was weird because I wasn't doing girly things. Girls would scream because there was a Mantis and I would go and pick him up, play with him for a bit then let him go on a tree. lol

And yes I too had an obsession with Dinosaurs and still do.

 

[dragonlover1]

my story is similar to most,I spent most of my time in the bush as a kid in the 60's catching lizards,turtles etc. we had an old pool we kept them in,then I found girls and forgot lizards till my kids discovered dinosaurs in the early 90's and so we started catching,studying and releasing reptiles again so I got a license and bought a pair of CBD's (lost 1 in a heat wave at 3yo)then 5 years later all of a sudden I went from 1 to 8 in less than a year.
More to come;-What a great addiction

 

[skittles-1994]

I think my obsession began when I was around 5 or 6, when a reptile show came to my preprimary class and I got to hold (with assistance) the biggest olive python I have ever seen in my life! I just remember just being in complete awe of its beauty and grace and the elegant way it slithered around. I guess you could say I fell in love c; hahaha.