Exotics you've owned, care of snakes, other reptiles

[Regalis]

I hated it I knew full well that most of the animals that left had a very slim chance of long term survival. That's why I couldn't get into breeding, either. It's hard to find good homes for dogs, much harder for exotics. I would have been content selling supplies and making people go through breeders. Funny part is, they would have saved money, too! I can not believe what stores charge! $150 for a regular baby boa! They wholesale for about $10!

 

[Tropicalbri's]

I can not believe what stores charge! $150 for a regular baby boa! They wholesale for about $10!

The prices are outrageous. They are making over 100% markup.

 

[Regalis]

At least! But, stores that sell puppies do the same. You can typically find one through a breeder for a better price, especially when you take health into consideration. Good breeders don't sell to stores. Period. It doesn't matter the type of animal. Stores get bottom of the barrel.

 

[KSmith]

Not all that "exotic" however I have two three-toed box turtles that live outside! They hibernate in the winter time so these photos are from last spring. Right now they are slowly waking up as it stays warm outside now and I am about to re-cleanup their pen. It's covered in leaves still right now haha!

 

[KSmith]

I took them in two years ago now, someone had taken them from the wild as babies and they were in pretty bad shape from the care they had received. They had been kept in a small aquarium indoors with a bland pet store diet. I built this outside pen (well, designed it.. Mr. Hubby built it!) and this photo here is the change just from the first few months of having her on a natural diet and outside with the sun!

 

[Gelcoater]

I had a desert tortoise for a while when I was a young teen. His name was Killer
Among his favorite foods were rose pedals, lettuce, most any fruit and if you weren't careful your big toe.

 

[Tropicalbri's]

Not all that "exotic" however I have two three-toed box turtles that live outside! They hibernate in the winter time so these photos are from last spring. Right now they are slowly waking up as it stays warm outside now and I am about to re-cleanup their pen. It's covered in leaves still right now haha!

Hey any and all exotics count and are more than welcome in this thread. It has a nice shiny shell.

 

[Regalis]

I'll have to see what I can find for pictures of some of the various animals we kept. Unfortunately, it was before the days of camera phones and such so it will probably take me a bit to dig them up. Lol.

 

[Tropicalbri's]

Marine is the one I'm totally inexperienced with.

I grew up around oceans and seas all my life, so we were on or in the water all the time. Lots of eerie looking sea critters to be seen and experienced. I have found that Bull sharks scare me more than the requiem or great whites. They are just so aggressive. I love diving and seeing all the different rays. The Leopard ray is very common here. When I spearfish I immediately take my fish to the boat, I don't drag a catch bag behind me because there are just too many sharks in these waters. I've seen, black tips, bulls, tigers, lemons, hammerheads, nurse and bonnet heads on almost every dive I make. The bonnets are usually in shallower waters though. Barracudas are everywhere. You can see them stacked up from 40' below the surface, 30-40 at a time just hanging out. Pretty awesome sight. The sea cows (manatees) come into the canals along with the tarpons.
I dove with the humpback whales when we lived in the VI. They are huge magnificent creatures. Occasionally we see the saltwater crocs when we are at the Dry Tortugas. One has made Ft. Jefferson it's home, as it showed up after hurricane Wilma and has never left.
It's a whole other world in the ocean. I love it.

 

[Regalis]

I grew up around oceans and seas all my life, so we were on or in the water all the time. Lots of eerie looking sea critters to be seen and experienced. I have found that Bull sharks scare me more than the requiem or great whites. They are just so aggressive. I love diving and seeing all the different rays. The Leopard ray is very common here. When I spearfish I immediately take my fish to the boat, I don't drag a catch bag behind me because there are just too many sharks in these waters. I've seen, black tips, bulls, tigers, lemons, hammerheads, nurse and bonnet heads on almost every dive I make. The bonnets are usually in shallower waters though. Barracudas are everywhere. You can see them stacked up from 40' below the surface, 30-40 at a time just hanging out. Pretty awesome sight. The sea cows (manatees) come into the canals along with the tarpons.
I dove with the humpback whales when we lived in the VI. They are huge magnificent creatures. Occasionally we see the saltwater crocs when we are at the Dry Tortugas. One has made Ft. Jefferson it's home, as it showed up after hurricane Wilma and has never left.
It's a whole other world in the ocean. I love it.

Yup, I really need to come visit. I've always wanted to dive with sharks. I think hammerheads are one of my favorites. But then there's turtles and Ray's and all the other various "creatures". I had a riot playing with an anemone in Bermuda lol come to find out it's one of the worse ones to get stung by, but I just let it grab the cord to my camera to show the lady I was with what they are like. I used to hand feed our personal ones in our tank. And saltwater fish are sooooo pretty. You just don't see stuff like that in the lakes. I lost track of how many different types of fish I saw just snorkeling in a cove. Some I was familiar with, others were completely new to me. It's one of the many reasons I did not want to come home! Swimming in open water at the end of September?! You just don't do that here!

 

[Regalis]

Alright, these are the ones I had on FB.

First is a friends male argentine. He was the most docile BCO I've ever encountered.

Second is my female retic the day I brought her home. You can kinda see her messed up jaw and her discoloration from layers upon layers of shed. She was about 12 foot there.

Third is my old fox. He was an Arctic/silver Cross. Cute as hell. But, he was really bitey and they smell, a lot. They can't truly be de-scented, either. Cool, but I'd never own one again unless I could build a really awesome outdoor enclosure. He LOVED my husky.

 

[Tropicalbri's]

I like your retic. I never messed with argentine because of their nasty attitude but friends of mine had a couple. I really liked my Colombian red tail. She was beautiful. My first Python was more like a chocolate as her saddle marks were not as vibrant as the other Burmese I had.
She was an extremely mellow and laid back snake. I used her for teaching kids at school about snakes and why having a giant snake is not a good idea for kids or anyone that does not have the time, money, space and knowledge to raise them. My ferrets were always a big hit with the kids and the iguana, albeit I would never own an iguana again. There are thousand upon thousands of them down here, eating and destroying all the custom landscaping. Between iguanas and key deer they could destroy a $40,000. landscape job in a matter of a week. We now shoot them. If I find their egg pouches, I put them in a ziplock bag and freeze them, then toss out with the garbage.
One year we had consecutive cold below 54 for 3 weeks and the iguanas were falling out of the trees. We had massive fish kills from the cold and the cleanup was disgustingly smelly and depressing. A lot of the trees and plants suffered as well. It was a bad year for the native habitats. Most houses down here do not have heat so all the heaters were sold out in a day. It was a miserable time for the locals and the homeless. :-(
And all the tree rats were coming inside through various ways. Yuck!!

 

[Tropicalbri's]

@Regalis i do believe you would fit nicely in my duffle bag.

 

[Regalis]

I told you I'm tiny! Lol

Argentines do have nasty tempers. That male I'm holding is a fluke. The female was not nearly as handleable and I would never trust her near my face like that. She's bitten her owner in the face a few times. I was/am about the only person stupid/brave enough to handle her other than the owner lol I've been told that should anything happen to him, I'm going to be inheriting the snakes because I'm the only one not afraid of the female.

Most Colombians are docile. The true reds can be hit or miss. Most of my trues were wild caught so pretty mean. But soooo pretty. I never really got into burms much, just the rescues. I think we had 2-4 at any given time. Most were pretty easy to work with. One female was evil. And ugly. She was really dark, missing an eye, other eye damaged. Needless to say, she didn't get messed with much.

The bar none worst I owned was the African rock. He was completely unhandleable. You couldn't even open his cage without him striking out at you. And if you weren't fast enough to dodge it, he latched on, coiled and had to be pried off. Pitbull of the snake world. (no offence to pits, but yeah). The tree snakes can be pretty testy as well, but atleast they don't get huge. The rock was a baby at 6 foot. He came in as a surrender and I tried like hell to calm him down. Finally found someone crazy (or stupid) enough to take him and never looked back. I hated him. All the others would eventually calm down enough to be tolerable, but not him. And if you tried to grab him by the tail and get him out to pin his head, he would go into a death roll. Never seen another snake do that! I'd worked with others that while testy, weren't that bad. I really think something was wrong with him. If he had been female he probably would have been euthanized. His saving grace was being male so not going to get stupid huge. No way a female with that temper would be suitable for anyone but maybe a zoo with the time, space and personnel to care for it safely.

I was asked to go to schools, but i was too much of a worry wart to risk it. I mean yeah, my female retic was awesome with me, but she topped out around 18 foot so one strike and a kid would be seriously injured. Just not my deal.

Iguanas. Ugh. So NOT a fan. I used to get stuck unboxing the new arrivals. Wild caught babies. Talk about a nightmare! They're so flipping fast! I think almost every order atleast one got away. And those tails hurt!

This is another retic, baby. She was not so nice! Lol. She never really calmed down, either. The tigers just seem to have attitude issues for some reason and no one really knows why. We had two, Hell Girl and Hell Boy. They were both like this. But it was all defensive. They'd just strike at you repeatedly.

 

[Tropicalbri's]

The rock, retic hybrid that I tried calming work with was one nasty tempered snake. She got me several times. The last time was straight on my nose and upper lip. Good Lord that hurt like hell and bled like crazy. I gave up on her. I had enough bites from her to say to hell with it.
I am pretty good at catching the small iguanas that run around on the plants.
My husband is a dead on shot when it comes to picking them off.
The big ones >5-6' I don't bother with catching. It usually takes 4 or 5 hits with the pellet to the head or heart to kill those suckers.
All the tourists that come down start feeding them and are horrified when we come over and shoot them. I always tell them to take them home with them if they like them that much!!
They are a destructive nuisance.
The Nile monitors inflict a painful bite. Had one ring my finger once and felt like it went to the bone. Those and the Tokays are taking over canal banks on the mainland (Cape Coral, Naples) even going through dog and cat doors on homes and getting inside the homes and garages. These are not small ones either.
On Big Pine Key we have gotten calls to come to homes where gators have broken through screen doors and gotten inside homes. When we arrive the entire family is waiting outside for us. Hahahaha
I don't mean to make light of it but it is pretty funny.
The sad part is when they come up on a dock and kill a dog or cat.
Before I had my last Dobie, I had a coon come through the porch cat door and kill one of my rescue parrots. I replaced the door and then put a fence around the house to keep them at bay. They are pretty brazen down here. I caught my husband in a tug of war with one that got the lid off the garbage can and he was trying to get the lid away from the coon and put it back on the garbage can. The coon won that battle. Now I tape a ziplock bag to trash lids with paper towels soaked in ammonia and prick holes in the bag. That keeps them out of the garbage can until pick up the next morning. Garbage guys hate it but it's better than cleaning up rotten garbage everywhere, which they won't do!

 

[Regalis]

I really dunno what it is about rocks lol I worked with one huuuuge female that was ok, but i sure didn't trust her either. She was like 20 foot and 200 frickin pounds. She would just sit there and huff and hiss at you. You could hear her as soon as you entered that room. Almost like a tire deflating. She was probably about the only one I truly feared to a degree. At her size, even just a bite would have been horrific. I imagine it would feel something like getting hit, by a sledge hammer, with teeth.

That is actually funny coons are brazen creatures, but I like them. As long as they stay out of my stuff lol and away from the dogs. A big momma can lay a serious hurting on even a big dog.

No way I would have a pet door! Nuh uh! We get deer, coyotes, coons, opossums, foxes. That's enough for me to say no way. The coyotes at my moms are pretty ballsy. They only take off if you walk out towards them. From get patio door, they're about 50 yards out and could care less. But they keep the mice population in check.

Niles can actually be ok. IF you hand raise them from a hatchling. Savannah's are usually ok too. Tokays are always evil. Always. And they get pretty darn big for a gecko and the bites hurt! I had one slice my finger open pretty good. Tore off a huge patch of skin. They do make some pretty cool noises, though. But you only seem to hear them if you keep a colony. Ours had this giant planted terrarium that I just tossed feeders into and had a misting system. Made it so I very rarely had to actually handle them. It was its own little eco system. I couldn't imagine having them running loose and wild though. Same with guanas. I've seen them in action at the store so I know how destructive they can be. They were one of those things I just never understood people wanting to own. They're big, messy, they tail whip and they're just generally a pain in the arse. And they require ridiculous enclosures to be cared for anywhere near properly. They're not like snakes that tend to just chill out. Old neighbors when I was a kid had one. It got out. My grandpa found it on our back porch. One of the funniest memories of my youth. Here's my 6'+ gpa yelling for my Gma to come get the "giant lizard" off the porch. My Gma is like 5' nothing. She just comes out, scoops it up and carries it home. But she also used to catch the bats that would find a way into our attic, wearing nothing but thick gloves. Lol. Woman is crazy. She even scooped up a seagull once! No clue wtf she was thinking. Then she wondered why I came home with baby squirrels and stuff. She also claims to have "no clue where that girl (me) gets her stubborn streak from!". Totally OT. She apparently said this at her weekly breakfast group of elderly locals who are tight knit. Apparently every single one of them just cracked up laughing. Stubborn old german, she fits it to a T.

 

[Doberman Gang]

I hated it I knew full well that most of the animals that left had a very slim chance of long term survival. That's why I couldn't get into breeding, either. It's hard to find good homes for dogs, much harder for exotics. I would have been content selling supplies and making people go through breeders. Funny part is, they would have saved money, too! I can not believe what stores charge! $150 for a regular baby boa! They wholesale for about $10!

Reptiles are a lot like Dogs in the fact that you are better off getting one from a Breeder than s pet store. We always buy ours at reptile shows or shipped right from the Breeder. This girl came from California.

We have always been big into reptiles, have had multiple snakes (bias, pythons and a few colubrids) also iguanas , bearded dragons, savanna monitors even some geckos when my son was little.

 

[Doberman Gang]

Here are a few we have now,

 

[Doberman Gang]

 

[MyBuddy]

I wonder if I have pictures of the iguana our son had way back when! My husband built him a cool enclosure too. I think he had a snake or two but I'm sure I don't have any pics of that. This was way before digital cameras.