What got you hooked on reptiles?

[eric]

There might all ready be a thread started on this but i couldn't find it. What hooked you guys? mine was our first leopard gecko..Domino she's eight years old now..yeah!! i received the tank setup from a fellow vet tech and the rest was history.so what got you!!
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[malt_geckos]

One word...."Daytona".

 

[lucia]

My father got his degree in zoology, so I was exposed to a lot of different animals. But my fondness of reptiles began with turtles. I had various turtles as a kid (several box turtles, a snapping turtle, and my father kept red-eared sliders for several years). I also kept garter snakes and later when I moved to Florida, anoles. When I was in high school, I got my first iguana. Of course I was not prepared to keep a 6 foot reptile, so it had to get a new home when it got to be close about 2 1/2 feet long. Now of course, I'm loving my leo! I really would love to get a BTS or a beardie though.

 

[vctkiller]

My step brother had gotten and bearded dragon. I fell in love with it and I wanted something different from it with its own qualities.

 

[BettaDragon]

I rescued an anole that hitched a ride on my grandma's plant from Florida.

 

[Bodon]

In first grade my uncle caught a turtle in the woods. We had it as a pet for a while but it eventually escaped and returned to its free life. Then in third grade we read a story about a boy who wanted a chameleon more than anything. He worked hard and saved money up and even built it its own cage and then he went and bought it and ended up being disappointed with it, for some reason. That really made me want one and i remember thinking that kid from the story was stupid. Then in 4th grade, being lizzard crazy my dad told me about a "newt" he found on our farm. i found it and caught it, turns out it was a red eft. i loved that little guy and i couldnt bare to see it die so i let it go after a long time. Those things years ago were probably why i got into reptiles. i love animals in general and have a ton of pets though.

 

[eric]

this is great stuff guys

 

[T&KBrouse]

Steve Irwin.

 

[eric]

I would agree with that!

 

[Ccrashca069]

As a little kid, we lived next to a big open field with rattlesnakes, jack rabbits, western fence lizards and mice. I used to always catch the western fence lizards, play with them and let them go.

 

[rubym]

When I was little, I used to catch salamanders with my dad and we had a tank all set up for them. I would keep them for a few days then decide that they had to miss their families and let them go. I think we did that about every spring. Then my sister brought me anoles from Florida. We had a pair for about 5 years. I moved up to an iguana then. Next came my beardie then we caught the "gecko fever" and once you catch that there doesn't seem to be any turning back, LOL.

 

[eric]

thanks for sharing guys! great stuff!

 

[mynewturtle]

My brother (older) at 15 made a reptile rescue for local reptiles. We got to about 45 reptiles and then it closed down, we gave the reptiles to another rescue I still own 4. I really got attached to some and I just wanted to breed, have fun with them not be depressed when I seen some of there conditions.

 

[MonteQ's]

My Mom teaches Life Science. As a kid I was always in her classroom looking through the preserved animals etc. When I got a little older, they let me keep a few toads I caught. The rest is history.

 

[GeckoJunkie]

I think my love for reptiles started in the fourth grade. I had a teacher (Mrs.Rivers) that kept a couple of pets (reptiles) as pets in our class. I was the one that year that was choose to take care of them. From there own I think I had a love for them. My parents did not allow me to keep them indoors when I lived at home, so I was stuck catching snakes and lizards and keeping them outdoors and then releasing them before it got cold. Every year that I can remember I did this. Once I moved out and got married,(stable) I have had reptiles in some form or fashion. I picked up a trio of leopard geckos in a trade and kept them. Because of those three, I now have 100+ leopards. It not just a passion, its an obsession!!!
Think I will add that to my signature!

 

[cheeseball705]

i went to college with snared99 and was over at his place with all his leos. decided to breed them and gave me one of the first hatchlings. so once bitten by the bug well u guys know the rest of the story.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

As kids growing up on the Marine Corps Bases in 29 Palms and Camp Pendelton in Southrn California back in the '50's and 60's, we loved catching 'horny toads' and watching them eat ants, keeping snakes, collecting buckets of tiny frogs from a cow pond, and we even had a pet desert tortoise named Homer (w-a-y before the Simpsons)!

It wasn't until about 14 years ago I got my first leopard geckos after seeing one a co-worker brought in, that I became a hopeless gecko addict. I now work with 6 terrestrial gecko species!!!

 

[Stevie]

As a kid I was a huge dinosaur fan (long before the entire Jurassic Park hype!). As a big kid (moved out of the house because of university) I wanted a pet and discovered dinosaurs again. My first reptile was a leopardgecko (as with the most of us freaks) called Maggie. She is 6 years old now and she is still the most beautiful lizzard in my collection:

Greets,

Stevie

 

[david13]

theres a wood behind my house and i always used to find snakes so i looked reptiles up on the computer and saw a leopard gecko and thought they looked soooo cool so i did some research.. 6 months later i got a leo

 

[eric]

looks like we all had an outside influence give us a push!