Kenyan Sand Boa, Eryx colubrinus. Female, 14 weeks. About six inches long, thick as a Sharpie. Ate her first pinky the second day I had her; gotta find another pinky this weekend.
What kind of non-dog, not-cat, non-parakeet pets do Dopers have? I’ve had everything from electric eels to nightingales. Anyone else have a penchant (please pronounce that frenchly) for exotic pets?
Congrats lissener!
I had a burmese python for years that I absolutely loved. I got her at about three feet and by the time I had to find her another home (because of babies) she was over 11 feet long and as thick around as my arm!
In my lifetime I’ve also had everything from garter snakes to tree frogs to mice, rats, turtles, lizards, and even a baby alligator for a little while. Sadly, I’m an old mama-type now and it’s all I can do to keep track of the kiddos. I’m down to a dog and a cat and am looking forward to the day when the boys are old enough to start pestering me for a snake of their own.
Yeah, at my exotica peak I had 64 different animals living with me. That was like 10 years ago. Since then, I’ven been mostly petless, but I find myself pining for a norwegian blue or something from time to time, know what I mean nudge nudge. The little girl I babysit (lives nextdoor; I mannied her for about a year; known her dad for 20 years), six years old, is FAScinated by bugs and worms and reptiles. So I got this snake mostly for her sake (her parents are not in any way herpy). She went with me to the breeder, helped me choose a snake, and I let her name the snake (Kenya, pronounced to rhyme with Shania).
E. colubrinus is a small, low-maintenance, docile snake, so I’ll probably give the snake to her when her parents think she’s ready for it.
But now my appetite’s whetted, and I’m on the lookout for a young Varanus dumerillii. Probly shouldn’t though . . . don’t want to wake up one day and find that I have 64 different animals again.
BADGER BADGER BADGER… Sorry. 
I love Eryx.
DH and I have Red Tail Boas, Ball Pythons, Corn Snakes, Rat Snakes, Irian Jaya Carpet Pythons, California King Snakes, Dumeril Boas, Leopard Geckos, Fat Tail Geckos, Marble Geckos, Tokay Geckos, Golden Geckos, Bearded Dragon, Savanna Monitor, and a Rose Hair Tarantula.
I think that’s all the species… although I’m probably missing something. All in all we’ve got about 80 total.
Cool, scarlet. you do any breeding?
Yup! We breed all of them except the tarantula, savanna monitor, bearded dragon, marble gecko & golden gecko.
We’ll probably breed the marble & golden eventually, but at the moment we don’t have mates for them.
Cool. Let me know if you hear of a good source for captive bred Varanus dumerilli!
I’ve bred turtles and birds, and lots of fish, but not snakes or lizards. I’m probly gonna breed my Eryx though, and if I can snag a couple Charina bottae on my next rainforest trek I’d like to breed those too.
cbb monitors are hard to find. You could ask around on faunaclassifides.com. I’ve found they’re the best place to go to get recommendations on whose breeding what.
I used to have some lizards and geckos and when I see a thread like this, I miss them terribly.
My dream pet is a shingleback skink. I also would love an indigo snake (but they’re a protected species) I’d also love a ball python. I python-sat one once and loved him so much I even used him in a presentation at my computer college.
I have 7 Ball pythons, for now. Once it gets warm enough for reptiles to be shipped to me, I’ll be getting a pair of Jackson’s Chameleons, maybe some Dart Frogs or a Bearded Dragon, and a Pastel Ball python. Some day I’ll get a Red Tail, when I’m confortable enough with the size.
The list of snakes I’ll never own on purpose (But may end up with via Rescue): Burmese Python (the most common rescue after iguanas - it’s horrible, but what I really want to say on that belongs in the Pit), Reticulated Python (Evil), African Rock Python (Evil). Green Tree Pythons, Amazon Tree Boas, or any Venomous species. No thank you.
Anyway, yup. This is what I do for a living, so. Good times.
Don’t be surprised if you end up with more. They’s addicting.
We have one bearded dragon. We don’t really have the room, time, or inclination to have more, though, because I’m neurotic enough about this one (I think she’s starting to brumate, and it freaks me out).
InternetLegend, we, too, have one bearded dragon (about a year and a half old), and I was freaked out for about three weeks in November. I was pretty sure he was brumating, but I worried about it every day anyway! He didn’t do that to me last year. He’s mostly back to normal now, thank goodness.
My mother still tells me to get rid of him every time I talk to her - she’s convinced that I’m going to get samonella, or maybe my throat ripped out. I’d rather get rid of her - my lizard is sane.
Congratulations on your snake, lissener. I’m afraid to ask, but what is a pinky?
We had an African Pygmy hedgehog until she died last year. Does that count?
Let’s see if I’ve got this right:
You live near a young child who is fascinated by creepy-crawlies,
so you buy “her” a critter that lives under the sand and only comes out at night?
The poor kid’s going to be traumatized, thinking the snake is hiding from her or that you got rid of the snake and never told her.
A baby mouse, lacking fur (hence displaying only pink skin).
In ascending size, there are 1) pinkies, 2) fuzzies–a bit bigger and have a coat of fur, 3) hoppers–the transitory cute period, covered in fur with heads about 1/3 of the overall body size so called because they hop everywhere, 4) adolescents that look like short, skinny adults, and 5) adults.
Ooh, pretty snake! I used to have a boa (well, we had two, but the first one was mine) and it was fascinating. She (he? I never found out) went to a captive breeding facility to get lots of snake nookie, and the other, a gorgeous big redtail boa, is being spoiled rotten by my mom’s former boss.
Snakes are cool. I want a bearded dragon, dang it! And I had a leopard gecko that was just the cutest little guy ever.
The only pet I currently own is Darcy, my leopard gecko. I got her for my birthday when I was 19. I’m now 26. She is my first pet.
I’ve also had other leopard geckos, fat tailed geckos, a queensland carpet python (gorgeous!) a pair of sugar gliders, a savannah monitor (well, I babysat him for months), a junglerunner, and the sweetest black tegu ever, “Rupert,” who is still sorely missed.
I run the reptile department at a store which shall not be named, because those who hold my job in other locations royally suck at their job and have a mortality rate way to high, but within company standards. I go so far as to take sick or injured ones home when they need it so they can be fed every two hours or what have you.
Currently I have only my Bearded Dragon, Scrappy, so named because of his missing digits on one foot and missing foot. Before I arrived at my current position, the imbecile running the department before me didnt realize that juveniles need alot of food twice a day. As a consequence several wound up nipping at each other’s feet. I nursed him back to healt and kept him, I gave the others who shared his fate away to good homes. Im hoping however to get some Indian Pufferfish soon though.
Welcome to the boards [bold]Scarlet[bold/]. Might I enquire as to why the holy hell you keep Tokays? I hate those little bastards with a passion you eill never understand. I have been barked at, bitten, snapped at more times than I can count. Once one would not let go despite tearing the skin on my hand. I had to dunk him in the koi pond to get him to release. I truly hate them, although they are very beautiful.
What about fish?
Right now I have six Dwarf Snakeheads in two tanks.
Totally cool fish.
