How did you get started into reptiles?
- Thread starter mrhellboy218
- Start date
Elizabeth Freer
Well-known member
Elizabeth Freer
Well-known member
Hey mrhellboy218 ~
:yahoo: What a wonderful idea for a thread!
Very interesting to read people's stories.
:yahoo: What a wonderful idea for a thread!
Very interesting to read people's stories.
mrhellboy218
Member
Thanks Elizabeth Freer 
Elizabeth Freer
Well-known member
You are welcome, mrhellboy218 :banana:
JIMI
New member
I somehow developed an obsession with iguanas and chameleons when I was maybe about 5 or 6. I watched a lot of The Crocodile Hunter, maybe that was it...yeah that was probably it lol (R.I.P. Steve Irwin T^T). I always asked my parents to get me an iguana, but they always said no and I just couldn't seem to understand why:coverlaugh:. My parents are pretty traditional and don't think it's normal to have reptiles as pets. Haha I didn't listen though. It was only recently that they allowed me to get one reptile. I know now that iguanas aren't the best option for a newbie lol. I originally wanted a ball python or corn snake, but they seem to have an irrational fear of all things snake so of course that was out of the question (my mother told me not to get any snakes when I'm older because they'll eat my children and she seemed pretty serious...:lol. So I chose to get a leopard gecko! Instead of purchasing from a breeder I chose to adopt a leopard gecko that needed a new home via Craigslist and I found my baby, Theseus :yahoo:. He's a Super Giant Mack Snow. I plan on owning more reptiles when I move out for grad school, but for now I'm enjoying spoiling him .
. So I chose to get a leopard gecko! Instead of purchasing from a breeder I chose to adopt a leopard gecko that needed a new home via Craigslist and I found my baby, Theseus :yahoo:. He's a Super Giant Mack Snow. I plan on owning more reptiles when I move out for grad school, but for now I'm enjoying spoiling him .
Elizabeth Freer
Well-known member
I somehow developed an obsession with iguanas and chameleons when I was maybe about 5 or 6. I watched a lot of The Crocodile Hunter, maybe that was it...yeah that was probably it lol (R.I.P. Steve Irwin T^T). I always asked my parents to get me an iguana, but they always said no and I just couldn't seem to understand why:coverlaugh:. My parents are pretty traditional and don't think it's normal to have reptiles as pets. Haha I didn't listen though. It was only recently that they allowed me to get one reptile. I know now that iguanas aren't the best option for a newbie lol. I originally wanted a ball python or corn snake, but they seem to have an irrational fear of all things snake so of course that was out of the question (my mother told me not to get any snakes when I'm older because they'll eat my children and she seemed pretty serious...:lol
:banana: rehoming leo Theseus from a Craigslist ad! You can be assured that he will not consume any children you might have in the future. :rofl:
Well-cared for leos can live into their 20s. Any idea how old Theseus might be?
Elizabeth Freer
Well-known member
Hi JIMI ~
A warm welcome to Geckos Unlimited! Good to have you and leo Theseus on board.
A warm welcome to Geckos Unlimited! Good to have you and leo Theseus on board.
Tamara
New member
Sweet topic.
Guess we both got into them at very young age after a visit to the zoo.
We started both individualy with snakes, i was keeping corn snakes for abouth 10 years, when i met Kevin, he at that time had way more experience since he had been keeping and breeding al kinds of rare ( at that time ) constrictors such as Corallus caninus, Sanzinia madagascariensis, Acrantophis dumerili, ...
At one time he even kept 3 green anaconda's and a 6 meter long reticulated python. During that time he also kept Phelsuma grandis and Gekko vittatus.
That was before i met him tough and when we started dating he had stopped breeding snakes, sold of all of his collection and terrariums and was focusing on the aquarium hobby, keeping and breeding a whole variety of freshwater predatory fish, Arowana's, stingray's, rare catfish, ...
He also kept 16 different species of piranha, from 4 different genera. At that time i only knew abouth the notorious redbelly's and that's it, turns out they are the pussies amongst the piranha's.
Well after abouth a year when we where a couple we decided to move in together, sadly there was no way we where able to fit abouth 10 very large , and abouth 20 smaller fishtanks into our new appartment so he made the hard choice to sell his entire collection.
Keeping only 1 extremely hard to find, wild caught Serrasalmus sp. that is still living in his parents house.
The rest of the Piranha's and a few rare ray's we decided to donate to one of our country's zoo's that held a public aquarium, the rest was sold to other breeders, together with most of the tanks.
And we moved in together...
The only thing at that time we kept at home where 3 of my corn snakes, a young couple and my very first male, now 20 years old and still doing great.
But Kevin, used to something more challenging was not very exited abouth the corns, he wanted something for himself, so he decided he wanted a little palludarium with frogs and live plants, so he made one from scratch from one of his old leftover fishtanks, after a while this aquarium was changed to an exo terra terrarium, and then he realized he could put another next to it, and in that one he was going to keep some sort of.., yup, Gecko's !!!
We bought a pair of G. vittatus, since he kept them before, and we got a young pair of H. frenatus with them for free, they whent in with the frogs.., after a while we visited this local little reptile store and that's where our eyes where opened good, in big contrast with other reptile store owners/helpers this guy acturely knew what he was talking abouth, and he had an awesome collection of Chameleons and Uroplatus...
WTF!!! You can keep Uroplatus???
We didn't knew that, we only saw them on the discovery channel one or twoo times and that's it.
There and then Kevin bought (and dusted off) a load of books abouth the reptiles of Madagascar, we became very good friends with the guy from that store, and that's how the madness got started all over again, but this time it where gecko's.
He denies it but Kevin started to get an addiction to reading and learning as much as he could abouth gecko's in general, and he decided he wanted to keep and try to breed some of the Malagasy species, and a few other species as well.
I almost instantly fell in love with these amazing creatures too, becomming very much interested in the gecko's from Oceania.., wich resulted in a rather large collection of abouth 100 gecko's from all over the world.
At this time we still keep the frogs too, but they are living on there own now.
They are Epipedobates tricolor's, we also keep Boophis rappiodes and Dyscophus guinetti.
The young pair of corn snakes we gave to a very close friend who still is keeping snakes, my first corn is stil with us.
And the rest are all gecko's, you can see the list below, they are all breeding pairs or small breeding groups.
Our appartment is filled to the roof with gecko enclosures, breeding rack's and grow up containers, with the collection still expanding.
Most recently we both also decided we wanted a chameleon now , i want Furcifer pardalis, ofcourse mister difficult wants Calumma parsonii. :roll:
So yeah.., the story continues and i guess it's abouth time to move again. :biggrin:
Greetings.
Tamara & Kevin.
Guess we both got into them at very young age after a visit to the zoo.
We started both individualy with snakes, i was keeping corn snakes for abouth 10 years, when i met Kevin, he at that time had way more experience since he had been keeping and breeding al kinds of rare ( at that time ) constrictors such as Corallus caninus, Sanzinia madagascariensis, Acrantophis dumerili, ...
At one time he even kept 3 green anaconda's and a 6 meter long reticulated python. During that time he also kept Phelsuma grandis and Gekko vittatus.
That was before i met him tough and when we started dating he had stopped breeding snakes, sold of all of his collection and terrariums and was focusing on the aquarium hobby, keeping and breeding a whole variety of freshwater predatory fish, Arowana's, stingray's, rare catfish, ...
He also kept 16 different species of piranha, from 4 different genera. At that time i only knew abouth the notorious redbelly's and that's it, turns out they are the pussies amongst the piranha's.
Well after abouth a year when we where a couple we decided to move in together, sadly there was no way we where able to fit abouth 10 very large , and abouth 20 smaller fishtanks into our new appartment so he made the hard choice to sell his entire collection.
Keeping only 1 extremely hard to find, wild caught Serrasalmus sp. that is still living in his parents house.
The rest of the Piranha's and a few rare ray's we decided to donate to one of our country's zoo's that held a public aquarium, the rest was sold to other breeders, together with most of the tanks.
And we moved in together...
The only thing at that time we kept at home where 3 of my corn snakes, a young couple and my very first male, now 20 years old and still doing great.
But Kevin, used to something more challenging was not very exited abouth the corns, he wanted something for himself, so he decided he wanted a little palludarium with frogs and live plants, so he made one from scratch from one of his old leftover fishtanks, after a while this aquarium was changed to an exo terra terrarium, and then he realized he could put another next to it, and in that one he was going to keep some sort of.., yup, Gecko's !!!
We bought a pair of G. vittatus, since he kept them before, and we got a young pair of H. frenatus with them for free, they whent in with the frogs.., after a while we visited this local little reptile store and that's where our eyes where opened good, in big contrast with other reptile store owners/helpers this guy acturely knew what he was talking abouth, and he had an awesome collection of Chameleons and Uroplatus...
WTF!!! You can keep Uroplatus???
We didn't knew that, we only saw them on the discovery channel one or twoo times and that's it.
There and then Kevin bought (and dusted off) a load of books abouth the reptiles of Madagascar, we became very good friends with the guy from that store, and that's how the madness got started all over again, but this time it where gecko's.
He denies it but Kevin started to get an addiction to reading and learning as much as he could abouth gecko's in general, and he decided he wanted to keep and try to breed some of the Malagasy species, and a few other species as well.
I almost instantly fell in love with these amazing creatures too, becomming very much interested in the gecko's from Oceania.., wich resulted in a rather large collection of abouth 100 gecko's from all over the world.
At this time we still keep the frogs too, but they are living on there own now.
They are Epipedobates tricolor's, we also keep Boophis rappiodes and Dyscophus guinetti.
The young pair of corn snakes we gave to a very close friend who still is keeping snakes, my first corn is stil with us.
And the rest are all gecko's, you can see the list below, they are all breeding pairs or small breeding groups.
Our appartment is filled to the roof with gecko enclosures, breeding rack's and grow up containers, with the collection still expanding.
Most recently we both also decided we wanted a chameleon now , i want Furcifer pardalis, ofcourse mister difficult wants Calumma parsonii. :roll:
So yeah.., the story continues and i guess it's abouth time to move again. :biggrin:
Greetings.
Tamara & Kevin.
Last edited:
Tamara
New member
Haha, story got a little out of hand.
Anyway, we got into reptiles at the zoo when we where both young.
Edit, Kevin says he didn't got it at the zoo but he watched a stripper doing a snake act when he was young and that's where his obsession with reptiles came from. Tsss.
Anyway, we got into reptiles at the zoo when we where both young.
Edit, Kevin says he didn't got it at the zoo but he watched a stripper doing a snake act when he was young and that's where his obsession with reptiles came from. Tsss.
Last edited:
mrhellboy218
Member
haha awesome story, thanks for sharing and a stripper? haha :crackup: