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What was your first experience with a snake?

patm1313

patm1313

Pyromaniac
I was posting a reply about kids being exposed to snakes in school, and thought about making this thread. It's just you telling everybody about your first experiences with snakes (any snakes, not just corns) and how you eventually worked your way to corn snakes.

Here's my experience:

I was about 5 years old. I was playing near a rock pile at my house, slamming some rocks together, and I was just about to hit a rock when a presumed garter snake came out of the rock pile (probably pissed by the noise that I was making at its front door) and bit me on my lower right leg. I went inside, showed my dad, and he told me I was bitten by a snake. Well, Cool. But he had to go get the phone, call poison control and make sure I wasn't bitten by a freakin' black mamba (google it). I live in PA, so there is only like one species of poisonus snake in the state, which was far away from my location anyway. Well, there was the beginning of my love of snakes. Well, I got bitten one more time somewhere in the woods. And the third time I was just screwing around with a garter that I had found resting on the thick branches of a pine. I went down to pick him up off the ground, and he bit me. Oh well that's my fault. Well, I handled several more large and small snakes over the years, temporarily caring for one, and evntually, just this last christmas, I asked for one (after pumpig my mom full of info about corns and their wonderfulness). I was the only thing I wanted. So, I got one. A creamsicle Motley that I named that day as Flame. I lloked in the 5 gallon plastic tank and was thinking Haha, that's funny, you got me an empty tank with a water bowl, you evil (insert explicitive here). Anyway, there, coiled up in a little oval (not unlike the way he is in my picture) is my corn!
 
I was about 4 years old and I always went to the circus to look at the animals, which was what I loved since I was born, animals. So I went there one day and they were taking pictures with a burmese python. Of course, I went up and got the picture taken. I was so fascinated by them since that day that I wanted one so badly. I just loved how their skin felt and how docile they were. I think I still have that picture in my house, but I think it's lost. When I moved to the place I live in now, there was a pet store so I went to look at the animals. I saw what was going to be my first snake. A snow corn snake. I looked at it and said: "Mom!! I want this!!!" She agreed after a while and after I raised the money for it and it's cage I got it. I loved him, but then I lost him.. LOL I never found him, he's probably dead since I lost him in the winter. I have 5 snakes now, but I still think of Snow from time to time.
 
I was in grade 8 and I love catching gardner snakes. When my buddy showed me this snake whole, I guess it was a breeding ground under this old broken down tree stump. We caught about 40+ of them and put them in a clear garbage bag and decide to bring them to school to show everyone. Well we were late and as we were running in the hall to get to class, we didn't notice that the bag had a rip near the corner bottom. Well lets just say that I was in the office while the janitor was trying to catch the 40+ snakes in the school hallways.

OOPS
 
my dad had a 7ft boa constrictor when i was first born, but he soon sold it because it tried to eat me many times, apparently i looked like a big mouse haha. then when i was 8 or 9 i was walking in the nearby state park with my mom and bro when i was almost bitten by a rather large copperhead. (i live in MD so they are very very common snakes.) both were not exactly good experiences but ive been into them ever since. just this semester a buddy of mine went to the local pet store and bought an emperor scorpion and it rekindled my need for something living in a cage haha. so i went online did my research and decided a corn would be the best first snake for me. so i went down to petsmart and bought Trousers, my little amel corn snake.
 
Not much to tell..My first experience was at the "Bayonne yearly fair"..someone brought a 7 ft. boa to show off with them one night and I was fascinated by it..I petted it and asked all sorts of questions..Then whenever my dad took me to the zoo I would always want to see the reptiles first above anything else...I always asked for a snake but my mom always said no..So once I moved into my own place with my boyfriend..I got my first corn snake Maize..and haven't stopped since :0)
 
When I was about 6 years old I had my first memorable experience with a snake. Some weekends we would spend at a cabin (we called it "the cottage")on the banks of the Susquehanna River. Sometimes there weren't any people there for weeks at a time, wildlife started moving in.
One time when we first arrived for the weekend I was trailing behind my grandfather as he was opening up the place. I just came around the corner of the bunkhouse part when he opened the outer screen door. Sitting between the outer and inner doors was a snake, a snake that immediately stood at attention and faced us.
My grandfather said, " that's a cottonmouth!", and he reached down off of the little porch for a stick. When he poked the stick at that snake it EXPLODED! It attacked the stick and I would swear it advanced at us(but I was little,maybe it just scared me). It hissed with a terrible sound several times and stayed in attack mode with it's mouth wide. My uncle got the poker from the woodstove in the kitchen and killed it. Not a very positive introduction, but a very impressive snake.
My second was extremely positive, and just a few months later. We had a presentation on reptiles in our school, for the whole school. I got to HOLD, BY MYSELF what the man called an Indigo Black Snake. It was amazing to feel the weight and the movement and the scales. I don't even remember any other animals he had with him, all I remember is that snake.
 
I always was obsessed with nature centers in my Northern Virgina area when I was very small. My parents fostered a love for all animals in me,and not much scared me.

I used to beg for left over snake skins at these nature centers, who thought I was cute and gave them to me.

Then when I was 6 or 7 I went to a B-day party for a very "cool" friend whose parents had hired an exotic animal guy to come and let us play with his animals. I don't remember much about that day except that I was one of two people who would actually touch the snake (I think it was a reticulated python..can't remember). I was the only one who let him place it around my shoulders. I remember how heavy it was...but I was very little. I was so excited!!!

It took me another 14 years to get my own snake, though.
 
PAIN said:
I was in grade 8 and I love catching gardner snakes. When my buddy showed me this snake whole, I guess it was a breeding ground under this old broken down tree stump. We caught about 40+ of them and put them in a clear garbage bag and decide to bring them to school to show everyone. Well we were late and as we were running in the hall to get to class, we didn't notice that the bag had a rip near the corner bottom. Well lets just say that I was in the office while the janitor was trying to catch the 40+ snakes in the school hallways.

OOPS
Click to expand...
That's hilarious!!!
 
PAIN said:
I was in grade 8 and I love catching gardner snakes. When my buddy showed me this snake whole, I guess it was a breeding ground under this old broken down tree stump. We caught about 40+ of them and put them in a clear garbage bag and decide to bring them to school to show everyone. Well we were late and as we were running in the hall to get to class, we didn't notice that the bag had a rip near the corner bottom. Well lets just say that I was in the office while the janitor was trying to catch the 40+ snakes in the school hallways.

OOPS
Click to expand...

Hilarious!
 
I got to say, reading these experiences, some are the most interesting things. There's something about snakes, that whenever you see one, you remember it.
 
I don't remember too much about mine. I must have been four or five and someone's parent brought a snake in. I remember letting is crawl over the top of my hands and I was kind of mezmerized...although I remember that, I don't recall the colour or type of snake, just the feeling. I always watched the documentaries and everything. I've never seen a snake in the wild. It's very rare to see them here. I think you'd have to go further south. Either way, I didn't see a snake again until 2-3 years ago when I stumbled upon a tiny hidden reptile shop, fell in love with an amel and couldn't help myself...
 
lyndy299 said:
I don't remember too much about mine. I must have been four or five and someone's parent brought a snake in. I remember letting is crawl over the top of my hands and I was kind of mezmerized...although I remember that, I don't recall the colour or type of snake, just the feeling. I always watched the documentaries and everything. I've never seen a snake in the wild. It's very rare to see them here. I think you'd have to go further south. Either way, I didn't see a snake again until 2-3 years ago when I stumbled upon a tiny hidden reptile shop, fell in love with an amel and couldn't help myself...
Click to expand...

Thats stinks that you can't find them in the wild where you live.

BTW I hope your anery is a boy, your ladies need a man, LOL.
 
I've heard it may be possible to find adders in the mountains in the heather (how scottish and stereotypical does that sound?) but mostly adders are rare anyway, its the grass snakes you see a lot in England.

Unfortunately the anery is looking like a girl last I saw, but I'll have to get her/him probed to be sure. If probed as female, what more excuse to get another snake...although they're in temporary homes right now (Im living in halls at uni with a no animal policy), so I havent seen any of my animals since the end of December....my sob story...
 
In kindergarten, somebody from the community brought a truly massive snake (can't remember what kind of snake it was, I just remember it was 10+ feet long and had to be handled by two adults) in for us kids to see/touch. It was pretty cool.

The first wild snake I've seen was a couple years back at a public beach in my area. Some 12-13 year old kids found a young garder snake along the shoreline and were planning to kill it. I took care of the situation with the kids and returned the little fella to a patch of woods adjacent to the beach. I guess you could say I'm a hero :)

When I brought my first snake home a couple of days ago my 4 year old nephew fell in love with it.
 
As I was growing up my parents were always warning me about snakes. We often would go places with a lot of snakes so I was always on the look out for them. They never tried to scare me just told me that if I saw a snake to walk away from it and tell one of them. They told me about head shapes and colors so I thought I knew everything (ha). Well I can remember seeing my first snake, it was HUGE and such a shinny black color. I'm not sure what it was but as I was standing there watching it slowly move across the feild a group of men came running after it. Holy cow that thing could move. It jetted across the feild and swam right into the lake. That snake was the start of my wanting to know more. I have always loved dogs, horses, and snakes.

The second time I was setting on a pile of rocks in the water. I was just sitting there enjoying the peace when I felt something move across my hand. I had a flipping heartattack and when I looked down there was this bright colored snake just sitting there looking up at me. I jumped of those rocks and ran to our camper. I did not tell my parents though but I'm still rather careful to this day of that pile of rocks because I don't remember the color pattern but bright colors.

The third time I was with a friend and we were walking a dog through the woods. We were failing to watch our step so thank god the dog noticed the damn snake and stopped moving. Of course we were still clueless and trying to get the dog to go forward until I heard what I thought was rattling. I stopped dead. Turned out it was a copperhead using the leaves to warn us.


Now, when my love fully took off was when I was able to hold my first snake. A BP. Lazy thing but I did not care. I think the snake was dieing, I had him out of the cage for about an hour just playing with him.

And then Jenn showed me her corn and well... *points* I have one now.
 
This is one of my earliest memories.

I remember walking through the edge of a field in a thicket of sumac trees with my dad, brother and dog. Sumac trees aren't very tall, so there was a low canopy over our heads. Like a cieling. We found the hood of an old truck on the ground and my dad flipped it over. Two huge blue racers came out and went up the trees. We were chasing the snakes from underneath as they cruised through the branches. Somehow my dad caught one and I remember him holding its head up to his chin and the tail still touched the ground. I thought it was the coolest thing ever.:dancer:
 
When I was little my best friends dad kept and bred all kinds of reptiles in his basement and we would always go down there and help - not too exciting!
 
I first met a snake when I started work at an exotic pet store a few years back. I was already comfortable with slithery critters, though, as I'd grown up with slowworms (snake-like lizards) in my garden and was always picking them up and carrying them around.
 
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