The recent spider thread got me curious...does anyone here keep reptiles and/or amphibians for pets? I used to be big into reptiles, and at one point, had an assortment of ~15 lizards and snakes, mostly monitors and boas/pythons. The electricity bill (this was during California's power crisis a few years back) eventually got way too high, and I ended up selling them all. But, I still have a great fondness for these animals.

Anyone else keep any herps? (insert STD joke here )

Here's a few of the reptiles I used to have and miss the most...

Argus Monitor
Peachthroat Monitor
Savannah Monitor
Blackthroat Monitor

Chinese Water Dragon
Australian Water Dragon
Bearded Dragons (various phases)

Argentinian Rainbow Boa
Brazillian Rainbow Boa
Ball Python
Colombian Red-Tail Boa
Emerald Tree Boa
Green Tree Python

There are others, but these were my favorites. I also used to breed hissing roaches and mice as feeders.

Anyone else?

 

I can't even count or remember for that matter the herps i've kept in my life.

Some of the more memorable ones:

Jackson Chameleon
Burmese Python
Ball Python
Common Tegu (this was a BEAST!)
Leopard Gecko
Savannah Monitor
California King Snake
California Gopher Snake
Western Fence Lizard
Several Horned Lizard species
Myriad of skinks and alligator lizards
etc etc



I've kept a wide range of indigenous species for both short term and long term. Most of which were later released to where they came from.

 

oops, i forgot about the amphibians....

All sorts of frogs, newts, and salamanders. I even had a Pacific Giant Salamander for a while before releasing it. These are a very rare endangered species these days, but were probably only mildly endangered when I was young. It met with no harm in my care however.

 

Haha...I had a lot of newts and salamanders when I was young, too. I grew up in Missouri, and there was a sinkhole nearby, so I used to go catch a lot of them there (eastern newts, leopard frogs, tiger salamanders), and also in the caves (some sort of skinny cave salamander that would cling to the walls). I've kept my fair share of wild box turtles also...

Hey, how big was your savannah monitor? Mine was one of my favorite pets, I used to walk it in my backyard, and all the cats would hiss at it from atop a fence, but none of them dared go near it! I absolutely adored that particular lizard.

 

i've kept some women around for a while, does that count?

 

Only if they viciously rip living mice apart with their teeth and walk on all fours...in which case, hook me up!

 

the monitor I had was pretty small. it was a situation where someone I knew had to get rid of it and rather than have them just give it to god-knows-who I took it and found a "good" home for it. with tail it was probably 2 feet. as you know, that is almost half tail. It was definitely a juvenile.

The Tegu though... holy shit. I swear to god that if it thought it could get away with it, it would have eaten everyone in my house one savage moment at a time. His MO for fine dining was to grab a chicken, anywhere it could get ahold of it, and shake the thing until a chunk came off. I have to admit to a certain delight in the chicken bleeding to death. Wild kingdom for the whole family. This would go on until the chicken or rat or whatever was handy (top sirloin) was gone. everytime i fed him I had to clean the cage to get rid of all the blood. absolutely montrous. beautiful though.

he was almost 4 ft with tail.

 

Hahahahaha, your tegu sounds a lot like my peachthroat monitor. My peachthroat used to rip living mice apart, and there'd be entrails and blood smeared everywhere...I never had to clean the cage, though, because it would eat the scraps up little by little after swallowing the torso.

Those tegus are pretty vicious though...a friend of mine had a black and white tegu, and its teeth were SHARP! The jaws and body aren't nearly as strong as most monitors, but they are less cautious, more skittish, and their teeth are sharper and more adept at slashing stuff up (at least the ones I've seen were).

 

my black cat would do that with animals it caught. leave a in mess. i'd pick him up and throw him down at his mess and not let him leave till every last drop of blood and every last chunk of skull, gut or whatever was eaten up. not as easy to do with a large lizard i imagine

 

Yeah, I used to have a lot of snakes, everything from a Amazon Tree boa to garter snakes. Although garter snakes are pretty common, I rescued two babies that couldn't have been more than a day or two old from a neighbor's yard (they were going to kill them of course). I raised them up and they ate from my hand, usually goldfish.

I also had a really gorgeous corn snake, he was really friendly...... and I had a beautiful scarlet king snake. They are supposed to do badly in captivity but mine did well for over 3 years....