How did you get started?

[Jayyoung]

I'll start off.

I have a three y/o girl named Lilliana, she is wonderful! One day while at the pet store we were looking at the reptiles and she showed interest in them. I asked her if she would like to have a lizard in the house. She wanted a snake (she calls them "nakes" I am not "experienced enough" (They freak me out) to handle/care for a snake. Then I saw the Leopard Gecko. Now I am started!

We really enjoy watching Echo, Lilli asks questions and helps feed Echo and clean the vivarium. My daughter and I are very close, Reptiles are another thing we can do together. Had she not been interested in them I might never had found out I enjoyed them so much.

In the future I hope to be able to breed them, but for now I am learning the basics and loving every minute of it!

(just a side note about the "nakes" I went to get herptivite yesterday and Lilli wanted to go with. She of course wanted to look at the snakes. I asked a staff member if he would hold the snake and let Lilli pet it. He was willing but Lilli is shy and would not get near him. I could tell she wanted to so badly and I had to do it! I held the snake, it was a red tailed Boa. about 2.5 feet long. She got to pet it and hold it look at it's eyes and tongue flicking about. Her eyes lit up! I didn't think about it until I was at work. When I was holding that snake and talking to Lilli watching her interact with this creature, I wasn't freaked out at all!)

 

[Scott&Nikki]

We had a post on this about a month ago. I'm sure people could add to this though. About a year ago I watched a family friend's AFT. I fell in love. At the time I had no idea what species it was. I moved into my apartment at school and planned on getting a dog. While moving in, we found out that no pets were allowed. Nikki and I had both had pets our whole lives, so it almost felt empty without a dog running around, or a bird chirping all the time. We decided we needed to get some kinda pet, but it had to be one that didn't make noise or have to go outside. So I convinced Nikki to get a lizard, went to Petco, saw a leo and thought it was the same kind that my family friends have. We fell in love with one of them and decided to get her. Now I am hooked and I am sure that once we get out of these apartments I will be adding more. (Plus some dogs lol)

 

[moosassah]

My husband hates cats. I used to have 2 great danes--that's what happens when you say no to a nice little cat. After they passed I was done with pets for a while. Eventually I brought some fish home. Nice, but you can't hold them. Then I used my 4 year old as an excuse to get a gecko. I'm not fooling my husband at all though he knows it's MINE. I don't think I'll ever breed them though. May get more, but I'll settle for buying them...eventually.

 

[Jayyoung]

Yeah, the breeding thing might just be fascination. Thats a bunch of skill and time. Plus what if i can't do it right and can't care for the babies properly?!? We have Pug's and a Border Collie/Springer Span. mix also. I have a 55 gal. community tank with angels and such.

 

[BluGnat]

Started with an AFT here, too. I lived in Maryland for four years, and worked for a year as an assistant manager for Petco. We had an AFT that had been there forever by the time I started working there. No one wanted to buy him. A few months later, I wound up buying him and taking him home, and purchased another one at a reptile show (Maryland has some great shows!). Anything I read on AFTs had info about Leos in it as well, and while on a visit back home in Colorado I found myself purchasing a juvenile high yellow from Pro Exotics (then in Boulder). I had to smuggle him home with me in my coat pocket on a plane. A year later, he made the move back to Colorado in the moving van with us. Jake will be 13 this year.

 

[BalloonzForU]

Funny how kids and animals draw us into these types of things. My son's first pet was a hamster named Pretty, well after 2.5 years Pretty passed away and we got another hamsters, well this guy didn't live too long as my son had taken him out one night and tried to get the hamster to sleep with him. My son woke up to a dead hamster in his bed. Well I decided to get something a little bigger, so we got a guinea pig, then another one for me. After a few years my son's piggy died. Later we went to the store to get some stuff for the rest of the animals in the house, dog, cats, turtles, parrot, etc. and I see this cute little lizard. (I had determined I was allergic to the piggies and/or bedding so another one was out of the question.) At this point I had been told many times by my husband "No reptiles!!!!" ummmm we had two turtles at the time what does he think those are? LOL Any ways the lady at the store was really helpful getting us everything we needed for the little lizard, which was a leopard gecko we named Diego. We bring Diego home and my husband kind of freaked out when my son said "Hay dad I got a gecko!" Well until he looked at Diego and said, "Wow, he's pretty!" Well it didn't quite end there...... I started to spend day and night reading up on these amazing creatures, and decided I wanted to have more. My reasoning for wanting more is that Diego was lonely...LOL...ok that's what I told my husband. I got a female tremper, and guess what she did the day after she got here from the breeders? She laid a clutch!!! Well not planning on breeding at this point, I had no incubator, so I made do with what I had. The eggs were fertile, but didn't make it. I quickly found out that she could produce another clutch within a couple of weeks, so I ordered my first incubator, and was ready and waiting for the next clutch. In the mean time I had contacted the breeder that I got her from to find out who/what she was bred with. To their knowledge the only male she had every been with was her clutchmate (normal het tremper). Ok, so I get the next clutch and then another. My first clutch hatched out two screeching little albinos, I was so thrilled and I was hooked!!! That's my potato chip story.

 

[KiKi]

lets a friend of my sons had achinese water dragon he couldnt keep ,make a long story short a week later hes dead. husband says he can get another if he does research. my son decides he dosent want a water dragon wants aleopard gecko and thats how we ended up with gogo,then kiki,alexandria,jeanne

 

[curiousKathy]

Well...my fascination for reptiles began before I got married to my current hubbie...I bought him an iguana for Christmas while we were dating. I found out I realy liked reptiles and got myself a chameleon. The we added a pair of soloman island skinks. Mr Magoo was malformed with a crooked spine, and ended having to put him to sleep...he was in too much pain. The male skink, ended up biting me in self defense when I reached up to my shoulder to lift him off. Boy those guys have a vice-like bite! And I was lucky because he let go...I guess they aren't always so cooperative! After that I was a little leary of him and we sold the pair to some fellow herpers. Sonya, his mate, was very easy to handle. Gamma the iguana grew to 4 ft long when my husband decided with the new human baby coming that he didn't want any reptiles in the house. I cried when we took Gamma to the reptile store. Good news was that they loved him and said that they would have no problems finding him a home...he was a very sweet boy.

Well about two months ago, my nine yr old daughter got to meet a leo that belonged to a friend and she was hooked. We went to check them out and did some research as to how much it would cost for a set-up etc. For an early Christmas present, Stephanie got her leo, Jackie. Now I am hooked and getting my own leo when the weather permits <grin> and my 6yr old son wants a leo of his own. It's really difficult to not buy several...they are so cute!

Neat thread...thanks for starting it!

curiousKathy