I know you’re out there: people with darling ball pythons, sweet geckos, cuddly iguanas. I want to hear about yours.
I have two ball pythons, Raphael and Vincent. Both came to my by circuitous (ha!) routes; basically their owners couldn’t keep them and I ended up with them.
Raphael had some wounds on his belly from, I assume, a heat source, and I had to bring him back to health. It required a lot of time soaking him, putting cream on his tummy, wrapping him up in saran wrap, and telling him he was beautiful. He healed up and he loves me beyond all reason. He’s a lap snake, essentially, and sits blissfully there in the evening while I read or watch TV.
Vincent is a baby and quite shy. I haven’t tamed him yet. But I will, as God is my witness. He is very skittish. He eats quite a bit, and I don’t want to handle him too much, which works against the taming. I’ve only had him since July, and he’s so itty bitty compared to Raphael. Only about 10-12 inches.
I love reptiles, but I’m not allowed pets at my place. I have, however, managed to squeak an exemption for my axolotls, by pretty much pretending they were fish. Today though, I’m gonna pretend they’re reptiles
I’ve had them for about 5 years now, my wild type (Taniwha) I got as a day old tadpole. I originally got a few hatchlings, but I didn’t have space for 5 adults, so I swapped the others, once they got a decent size, for a baby leucistic one (Calcifer) that a friend had bred.
Tani’s definitely the boss of the tank; even by 'lotl standards, Cal’s a bit of a dim bulb, he frequently has trouble hunting food that is literally on his foot.
I like reptiles just fine but don’t keep any–I don’t think they make all that good a pet. Instead I prefer to admire them in the wild where they can get rid of pesky rodents and the like. Although one of my fondest memories was of finding a nest of baby garter snakes with my grandson when he was around nine or so and we had a lovely time winding the tiny snakes around our fingers like rings until they got very warm and active, then we let them go again.
Our family had two ball pythons when I was a teenager. We were hoping they would have mate and have little pythons, but apparently they were both the same gender. One day, one of them disappeared and my mom put a notice in our community apartment building - We’ve lost a pet snake, but don’t worry, it’s non-venomous. That didn’t assuage the nerves of our neighbors. As it turned out, the snake never left our apartment; we should have checked under our sofa.
My sister later had another ball python - this one much bigger - when she went to college. This one was prone to going AWOL, too, so much so that my sister suggested naming it Red October.
I would love a snake, but my husband is not a fan. My sister has a few snakes which she inherited when her son went off to college. I keep saying that I will take one off her hands, but no luck so far.
Herping Arizona is a great Facebook page. I belong to several pages for turtles, reptiles etc. Last several years I have been fancying
g the idea of a tortoise but I am getting older so I don’t feel I could give him a long term security.
We have an African Spurred Tortoise (Centrochelys sulcata). We got him when he was 7 weeks old. He is now 10 months old. He has doubled in length, but is still pretty tiny. One day he might reach 200 pounds, but that’ll likely be after I’m gone.
In the morning I eat my breakfast while watching him eat his. His diet consists of grasses, greens, and weeds. It’s a very low calorie diet, but he eats a huge volume and eats throughout the day.
Haven’t had any for a while. Izzy was an iguana we raised up from a baby. Eventually he was 4 feet long (iguana length is measured with the tail unlike most lizards). When we were moving we weren’t sure what to do, he needed more space, then we found a local guy who had turned a whole bathroom into a terrarium. Izzy got a place to live that was big enough for him. Several comedic conversations emerged also because our neighbor had a close friend named Izzy. We kept a few smaller lizards over the years also.
I have a ball python, normal color morph. I don’t have a specific weight or length (photo shows my attempt) and never got it properly sexed, but at this point I suspect Pretzel is a girl.
