In a couple of hours I will go pick up my family's (and my own) first snake.
After an afternoon at the San Diego ZOO last weekend (spending a significant amount of time around the reptile enclosure), my son expressed an interest in having a TURTLE as a pet. Now I'd mentioned to my wife a desire to have a SNAKE on a few occasions in the past but was met with much resistance so we (my son and I) felt it was a lost cause and never pursued it (she grew up in an area infested with rattlers...) My son had also expressed interest in a TURTLE in the past and again upon seeing the various shelled critters on that day. "Why a turtle....what do you do with a turtle?" I asked, all the while trying to sway my wife toward a much cooler creature, a snake or even a lizard but the attempt to again convince her was unsuccessful.
So we went to a local reptile pet store to procure a TURTLE for my son. We were in the store for about an hour looking at all of the animals and even some birds (which were considered at one point as well.) Then as I was looking at the tiny snakes behind the counter and just out of curiosity asked the sales guy "How big do these little ones (Rosy Boas I think) get?" Because of the events that were about to follow, I can't even recall what he said and some other details are fuzzy as well. But he proceeded to place a small stapled paper bag on the counter. And out of the bag emerged a beautiful (I think Okeetee) Corn Snake. It was bright red an orange with some black too I think. I haven't seen it in a week and I can't recall the pattern so I'm not really sure what kind of corn it is. Evidently someone who was shipping off to the middle east had just dropped it off that afternoon and we were lucky enough to be the first to see it.
Just then my wife and boys (9 and 3) came up behind me and sales guy continued to tell us all about the snakes. He was guessing that this one was about 2 years old but couldn't determine the sex. As my son held the the snake and interacted with it he seemed very comfortable and natural. Well this really impressed my wife and she began to ask more questions. This was a sign to me that the tables begun to turn and my queue to begin encouraging the snake over any of the other critters in the store. As we learned more about the corn snake from the sales guy, lots of people there were commenting on the color and beauty of the creature. Even the sales guy said he'd seen few of this color. So we decided we would give a deposit to hold the snake and we pick him up tonight. I've spent the week reading about them and looking at all of the cool pics. With all of the color and patterns out there, I could be completely off about the type of snake but I'll try to get a pic soon and post it.
This is already waaaay too long so I'll talk more later... THANKS FOR READING.
After an afternoon at the San Diego ZOO last weekend (spending a significant amount of time around the reptile enclosure), my son expressed an interest in having a TURTLE as a pet. Now I'd mentioned to my wife a desire to have a SNAKE on a few occasions in the past but was met with much resistance so we (my son and I) felt it was a lost cause and never pursued it (she grew up in an area infested with rattlers...) My son had also expressed interest in a TURTLE in the past and again upon seeing the various shelled critters on that day. "Why a turtle....what do you do with a turtle?" I asked, all the while trying to sway my wife toward a much cooler creature, a snake or even a lizard but the attempt to again convince her was unsuccessful.
So we went to a local reptile pet store to procure a TURTLE for my son. We were in the store for about an hour looking at all of the animals and even some birds (which were considered at one point as well.) Then as I was looking at the tiny snakes behind the counter and just out of curiosity asked the sales guy "How big do these little ones (Rosy Boas I think) get?" Because of the events that were about to follow, I can't even recall what he said and some other details are fuzzy as well. But he proceeded to place a small stapled paper bag on the counter. And out of the bag emerged a beautiful (I think Okeetee) Corn Snake. It was bright red an orange with some black too I think. I haven't seen it in a week and I can't recall the pattern so I'm not really sure what kind of corn it is. Evidently someone who was shipping off to the middle east had just dropped it off that afternoon and we were lucky enough to be the first to see it.
Just then my wife and boys (9 and 3) came up behind me and sales guy continued to tell us all about the snakes. He was guessing that this one was about 2 years old but couldn't determine the sex. As my son held the the snake and interacted with it he seemed very comfortable and natural. Well this really impressed my wife and she began to ask more questions. This was a sign to me that the tables begun to turn and my queue to begin encouraging the snake over any of the other critters in the store. As we learned more about the corn snake from the sales guy, lots of people there were commenting on the color and beauty of the creature. Even the sales guy said he'd seen few of this color. So we decided we would give a deposit to hold the snake and we pick him up tonight. I've spent the week reading about them and looking at all of the cool pics. With all of the color and patterns out there, I could be completely off about the type of snake but I'll try to get a pic soon and post it.
This is already waaaay too long so I'll talk more later... THANKS FOR READING.
