The unusual childhood pets of Amanda McNulty

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. My brother and I have had lots of unusual pets. As children we had corn snakes at home; Billy Mac and John Hughes Cooper had both venomous and non-venomous snakes at a place out in the country, all were native to South Carolina. Corn snakes are extremely good-natured, if that’s a correct way to describe a reptile. Although nonvenomous, king snakes will bite the tar out of you. One bit my brother and Billy had to hold his hand in a sink filled with water until the snake let go to get a breath of air. We never kept or would keep a cold tolerant non-native reptile, as they can become perilous to the environment if they escape. Burmese pythons in Florida are wreaking havoc with native wildlife there.