Northwest Fishing Reports

Thought this might be a cool subject.
Does anyone else have any pets that are weird or unusual? Exotic pets?
I have snakes. I Absolutely Love 'em.
I have 4.
A 5ft Ball Python,
An 8ft Red Tail Boa
An 3 1/2 ft Milk Snake
And A 2ft Corn Snake.
What do you guys got?

Two little kids. That is about as weird as I can handle right now.

FishBaitThe2nd wrote:Thought this might be a cool subject.
Does anyone else have any pets that are weird or unusual? Exotic pets?
I have snakes. I Absolutely Love 'em.
I have 4.
A 5ft Ball Python,
An 8ft Red Tail Boa
An 3 1/2 ft Milk Snake
And A 2ft Corn Snake.
What do you guys got?

No weird pets. Wife would disagree and say ME!

I am curious if the corn or milk snake are poisonous?

I had a Painted Agama (Lizard) for 17 years. Very interesting critter. We also had a succession Garter Snakes as pets. The neighbors really give you strange looks when you're out in the yard hunting slugs for them.......

I've had a lot of interesting pets. I had a pet possum named cakesy, a weasel, ferrets, dog cat hamster... Growing up we had a conure, birds are awesome. Had a pigeon named pidge. I had a pet crow named sammy, he was awesome. He could talk, he'd hop around and eat your cereal in the morning. Fish. Lots of fish. Used to breed killifish. Had a coldwater reef tank when I lived on the sound with pipefish in it. And gobies and barnacles. Had rabbits too. Had wild one that we found as a baby too, neat little thing. Garter snakes, salamanders frogs...

Right now we have three cats and some mice and a rat. Rats are neat, smart little buggers. Get into everything and they love to steal tackle.

4 foot Ball Python, 9 inch Pacu, and a few other caged critters that aren't really weird. Bearded dragons, parakeet, ect. I'm thinking about starting a reef tank one of these days, I've been doing tropical tanks for 5+ years now. A cold water reef tank sounds awesome, natetreat. I could make my own mini Puget Sound. TCC has a tank like that. They filled it with surf perch and a ton of Puget Sound native anemones.

I want a monkey, wife says no

Rich McVey wrote:I want a monkey, wife says no

No more monkeys jumpin on the bed!..

Sorry been reading to my 2 year old too much maybe

Had quite a few interesting pets growing up (some I shouldn't have had as I got em without thinking it through 1st).

The usual domestic stuff: dogs, cats, horses, goats, hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, ducks, chickens, parakeets, fish
The unusual stuff: corn snake, iguana, sand turtle, a racoon I called "Rockey" that would eat out of my hand (though he lived in the creek bed behind my apartment).

True story: Had a feeder goldfish that outran the turtles for a week so I kept it in a little bowl. When I moved into my 1st apartment I put it in a big tank, fed it some crushed Weider Muscle Builder pills a buddy gave me to see what would happen (kids ). Thing grew to about 6" and would eat anything I offered right from my hand, Dorito's, raw hamburger, raman noodles. Lived for 5 or 6 years.

MotoBoat wrote:

FishBaitThe2nd wrote:Thought this might be a cool subject.
Does anyone else have any pets that are weird or unusual? Exotic pets?
I have snakes. I Absolutely Love 'em.
I have 4.
A 5ft Ball Python,
An 8ft Red Tail Boa
An 3 1/2 ft Milk Snake
And A 2ft Corn Snake.
What do you guys got?

No weird pets. Wife would disagree and say ME!

I am curious if the corn or milk snake are poisonous?

No, they aren't venomous.

I caught most of mine as a kid. I had a flying squirrel, a couple of box turtles and other turtles, including a couple of snappers, a hellbender (big aquatic salamander), a woodpecker and other incidental "pets" that "followed" me home.

nickbell wrote:4 foot Ball Python, 9 inch Pacu, and a few other caged critters that aren't really weird. Bearded dragons, parakeet, ect. I'm thinking about starting a reef tank one of these days, I've been doing tropical tanks for 5+ years now. A cold water reef tank sounds awesome, natetreat. I could make my own mini Puget Sound. TCC has a tank like that. They filled it with surf perch and a ton of Puget Sound native anemones.

Colwater reef tanks are REALLY cool. I had mine when I lived on the sound and collected all my specimens from the sound. Gravel, seaweed, barnacles etc. I had some gobies that were red and greenling too. The coolest fish I had were the pipefish, they change colors from dark red to bright green. They ate baby brine shrimp, which were so awesome to feed, because when you dumped them in, the pipefish would beg and dance as soon as you walked in the room, they were smart enough to know where their food came from. But as soon as you put the shrimp in, the rocks would come ALIVE. Every rock started to move like crazy from the barnacles. Other neat things I had were moon snails, giant green anenomes, purple tube worms, and market squid. The squid were AMAZING. Had to feed 'em live fish though. Fed the other animals crab meat from the sound. Just don't put shore crabs in your reef tank, they multiply like crazy, get really big fast and hunt in packs and take down even the largest fish. I had a striped perch that was at least six inches long that got taken down by those stupid crabs. Striped perch are super cool looking when you get the right light on them.

MotoBoat wrote:

FishBaitThe2nd wrote:Thought this might be a cool subject.
Does anyone else have any pets that are weird or unusual? Exotic pets?
I have snakes. I Absolutely Love 'em.
I have 4.
A 5ft Ball Python,
An 8ft Red Tail Boa
An 3 1/2 ft Milk Snake
And A 2ft Corn Snake.
What do you guys got?

No weird pets. Wife would disagree and say ME!

I am curious if the corn or milk snake are poisonous?

Nope, neither one are posionous.
Ive been bit twice by my boa, once in the head and the other in my arm. And i still love snakes , when I lived in Arizona my uncle taught me how to catch a rattlesnake. Ive caught a rattlesnake all by myself, adrenalin pumping for sure.

Im getting a California King Snake soon ! Thatll be pretty exciting.

venomous. venomous. venomous.

i have partial custody of my daughters chinese crested / shitz shu mix named maynard, aka ratman. he's mostly hairless and his skin does kinda feel like a rats. he's quite weird but a cool lil bugger tho, and loves to go fishing with me...

FishBaitThe2nd wrote: Nope, neither one are posionous.
Ive been bit twice by my boa, once in the head and the other in my arm. And i still love snakes , when I lived in Arizona my uncle taught me how to catch a rattlesnake. Ive caught a rattlesnake all by myself, adrenalin pumping for sure.

Im getting a California King Snake soon ! Thatll be pretty exciting.

I learned to catch snakes when I was about eight by watching some older kids catch garter snakes near my grandparents house. I thought it was so cool that I had to learn how to do that. I grew up in eastern Washington where there was plenty of variety; garter snakes, water snakes, blue racers, rubber boas, bull snakes, and rattle snakes. It didn't take long for me to graduate from the smaller less aggressive garter snakes to the larger bull snake (since they were cooler and there were more around my house). It wasn't unusual for me to bring one of these home and keep them for a couple weeks in an aquarium under the deck before letting them go. As you may already know, most wild snakes are pretty calm about being handled after the first 10 minutes if they're not feeling threatened. I think I was in high school when I decided that if I could catch bull snakes, then I could catch a rattle snake too. So I set out to try it. Yup, the methods worked the same. Much more exciting though and it really impressed the neighborhood kids. However, my mom was less than enthused. She tolerated the other snakes, but wasn't happy with my new found ability. As a kid I thought, "don't worry Mom, I know what I'm doing."....and I did, never have been bitten by a snake and I've caught my share. But, now that I'm a parent, I know what I was putting my mom through by putting myself in that situation. I've already shown my kids how to catch a snake and to treat it gently, but if they ever bring home a live rattle snake (fortunately, not many of those in western WA), then I'll probably have a few words to say. ....and then my wife will have a few words to say to me!

BentRod wrote:

FishBaitThe2nd wrote: Nope, neither one are posionous.
Ive been bit twice by my boa, once in the head and the other in my arm. And i still love snakes , when I lived in Arizona my uncle taught me how to catch a rattlesnake. Ive caught a rattlesnake all by myself, adrenalin pumping for sure.

Im getting a California King Snake soon ! Thatll be pretty exciting.

I learned to catch snakes when I was about eight by watching some older kids catch garter snakes near my grandparents house. I thought it was so cool that I had to learn how to do that. I grew up in eastern Washington where there was plenty of variety; garter snakes, water snakes, blue racers, rubber boas, bull snakes, and rattle snakes. It didn't take long for me to graduate from the smaller less aggressive garter snakes to the larger bull snake (since they were cooler and there were more around my house). It wasn't unusual for me to bring one of these home and keep them for a couple weeks in an aquarium under the deck before letting them go. As you may already know, most wild snakes are pretty calm about being handled after the first 10 minutes if they're not feeling threatened. I think I was in high school when I decided that if I could catch bull snakes, then I could catch a rattle snake too. So I set out to try it. Yup, the methods worked the same. Much more exciting though and it really impressed the neighborhood kids. However, my mom was less than enthused. She tolerated the other snakes, but wasn't happy with my new found ability. As a kid I thought, "don't worry Mom, I know what I'm doing."....and I did, never have been bitten by a snake and I've caught my share. But, now that I'm a parent, I know what I was putting my mom through by putting myself in that situation. I've already shown my kids how to catch a snake and to treat it gently, but if they ever bring home a live rattle snake (fortunately, not many of those in western WA), then I'll probably have a few words to say. ....and then my wife will have a few words to say to me!

Hey Bentrod, doesn't a Eastern Wa Bull snake look a lot like a E Wa. Rattler?

MotoBoat wrote: Hey Bentrod, doesn't a Eastern Wa Bull snake look a lot like a E Wa. Rattler?

Eastern Washington bull snakes are typically mistaken for rattle snakes. It doesn't help that a bull snake will mimic a rattlesnake when threatened by coiling like one, flatting it's head to resemble a diamond shape, and shaking it's rattle-less tail in an effort to ward of predators, but it's just a front. If you look at the color and pattern of the two snakes, you'll soon see that there are plenty of differences which get easy to see with experience. Still pays to be cautious though. Head and tail are the easiest markers (diamond shaped head and rattle on rattle snake)
Seemed like none of my childhood friends' parents could tell the difference between a garter snake and an anaconda. Therefore I was none too popular with many kids parents as I appeared to be a know-it-all when it came to the local reptiles and no grown up wants to hear a little bitty snake isn't the deadly venomous monster they're telling their kids about, especially from a kid Ok, I see a point to that now that I'm a parent - if you don't know what it is, assume it's poisonous and don't touch it.
I grew up in a rural area, so bull snakes, rattle snakes, and blue racers were a common sight around the house. My folks were from farming families and I was taught that the bull snakes and blue racers were a benefit to have around for mouse, gopher, and insect control as well as rattle snake control since bull snakes will actually kill rattle snakes. Therefore, rattle snakes got the shovel and the rest were free to roam (unless they became unwilling tenants in my aquarium hotel under the deck for a short duration).
I've attached a couple of pics (thanks to the internet) of each to illustrate.

A bull does look like a Rattler. Surprising that a on venomous snake could kill a venomous one! I remember golfing in a tournament at Alta Lake. One of the groups in front of us. Had killed a Rattle Snake, and coiled in around the stick on the 18th green. As it turns out, it was the Rattle Snake impersonator.............da Bull snake. Since the Bull Snake kills Rattle Snakes. The Bull should be called the Bully Snake!

BentRod wrote:

FishBaitThe2nd wrote: Nope, neither one are posionous.
Ive been bit twice by my boa, once in the head and the other in my arm. And i still love snakes , when I lived in Arizona my uncle taught me how to catch a rattlesnake. Ive caught a rattlesnake all by myself, adrenalin pumping for sure.

Im getting a California King Snake soon ! Thatll be pretty exciting.

I learned to catch snakes when I was about eight by watching some older kids catch garter snakes near my grandparents house. I thought it was so cool that I had to learn how to do that. I grew up in eastern Washington where there was plenty of variety; garter snakes, water snakes, blue racers, rubber boas, bull snakes, and rattle snakes. It didn't take long for me to graduate from the smaller less aggressive garter snakes to the larger bull snake (since they were cooler and there were more around my house). It wasn't unusual for me to bring one of these home and keep them for a couple weeks in an aquarium under the deck before letting them go. As you may already know, most wild snakes are pretty calm about being handled after the first 10 minutes if they're not feeling threatened. I think I was in high school when I decided that if I could catch bull snakes, then I could catch a rattle snake too. So I set out to try it. Yup, the methods worked the same. Much more exciting though and it really impressed the neighborhood kids. However, my mom was less than enthused. She tolerated the other snakes, but wasn't happy with my new found ability. As a kid I thought, "don't worry Mom, I know what I'm doing."....and I did, never have been bitten by a snake and I've caught my share. But, now that I'm a parent, I know what I was putting my mom through by putting myself in that situation. I've already shown my kids how to catch a snake and to treat it gently, but if they ever bring home a live rattle snake (fortunately, not many of those in western WA), then I'll probably have a few words to say. ....and then my wife will have a few words to say to me!

Ive caughten one rattler and that was it , moved up here a week later.
Both times I was bitten by my Red Tail Boa, was my fault. I was only 10 years old, I thought I was the coolest kid in the neighborhood walkin around with a 8ft snake on my shoulders. Man that sucker was heavy back then. The first time he bit me, there was a bunch of people around looking at it and I think he was startled and bit me right above my right ear. The second time, I was walking (again hes on my shoulders), and my mom slammed a door shut, he bit my arm. I learned not to have loud noises, stay quiet and calm the snake wont be a harm ! made me bleed both times.
Heres a funny story ;

The first night I ever had a snake, (4ft ball python), his cage was right next to my bed. Oh at about 3 in the morning, he got out and I woke up. I had a snake as long as me (i was 9 at the time), in bed with me . Scared the crap out of me, i forgot I had him. Lol, picked him up and made sure the cage was sealed shut this time.

Not sure about weird or unusual, but it is certainly not a cat or a dog.

I have a Bearded Dragon. Bought him originally for my 5yr old son, but don't think he is quite ready for the responsibility, so for now, he is mine. Seems to be a bit more mean than other Beardies I have seen, so I guess that makes it unusual....