Hiss and tell

PRETTY Boy is surprisingly pretty. Slim, velvet smooth to the touch and quiet as a mouse. Sound like the perfect man? Perhaps. But Pretty Boy is not a man, he's a snake; and he is not only quiet as a mouse, he likes to munch them too.

This four-year-old, four foot long red tail boa is one of two pet snakes owned by Lucy Faulkner, 23, of Fulford. His unnamed female counterpart - a common boa - is longer at 7ft, but apparently has a sweeter personality.

"Pretty Boy doesn't really like to be handled," said Lucy, who has just opened York's only specialist reptile shop, Leaping Lizards, in Fourth Avenue, Heworth. "But the female is more friendly."

Which is probably not such a bad thing when you consider that she will grow to about 12ft. Even now she is undoubtedly the Big Momma of the shop, with Pretty Boy and the rest of the reptilian stock looking small and relatively cuddly in comparison.

Her neighbours include hatchling (newborn) snakes, adult corn and king snakes, skinks, uromastyx (like a tortoise minus the shell), lizards, geckos, bearded lizards, tortoises (captive bred), terrapins, water dragons and all manner of spiders from the hairy to the downright scary.

Lucy might now spend her days surrounded by all that slithers and scuttles, but it was not always so. Until five years ago, she was scared stiff of snakes. "It wasn't until I actually started to handle them that I realised they weren't scary at all," she explained. "I met my boyfriend Andrew, who helps out in the shop when he can when I was 17. He had a snake, so I had to make friends with it.

"In the end I found that not only wasn't I scared of snakes any more, I actually quite liked them."

Since then she has grown fond of all manner of reptiles, but retains a particular soft spot for the velvety skin and beautiful colouring of snakes. For some reason though, she has never taken to spiders.

"I'm not scared of spiders, I just don't like them," she said. "I suppose they can look quite pretty, but I don't really see the attraction."

Lucy opened Leaping Lizards last month, with help from her friends and family - including her sister who is petrified of snakes - and with the support of her neighbours, a barber and a sandwich shop.

She is licensed by City of York Council to sell reptiles to anyone over 16, but she has her own criteria for making a sale.

"If I feel someone wants to buy a snake for the shock value, they will leave the shop empty-handed," she said. "I also don't let the bigger snakes go to just anyone. They have to convince me that they are serious and will look after them properly.

"I care too much about the animals to just sell them to anybody who walks in with the cash."

If the truth be known, Lucy becomes so attached to some of her charges that she tries to negotiate visiting rights when selling her favourites.

She obviously loves her work, but she is realistic about some of the more unsavoury aspects of rearing reptiles.

"I don't stock live mice, but I do sell packs of frozen mice," she said. "Personally, I'm a bit squeamish about using live mice as feed - I just don't think it's necessary.

"You have to come to terms with what your pet eats, though. If you have cats you get used to them presenting you with half chewed mice and birds; if you have snakes you get used to feeding them frozen mice."

Despite their stomach-churning eating habits, reptiles are becoming an increasingly popular choice of pet, particularly amongst women.

"I don't know why women find snakes so attractive," said Lucy, who gives talks and demonstrations at schools and clubs across the county. "People think they are a very macho pet, but they are more popular with women than men."

You would think after Eve's shenanigans in the Garden of Eden and Cleopatra's mishap with her asp, we would have learned by now. But it appears snakes are becoming more popular by the day.

"The truth is that they make really good pets because they don't need the emotional investment that cats and dogs do and they are easy to care for," said Lucy. "Traditional domestic pets need petting and communication - snakes just don't care.

"Freshen up their water every day, feed them once a week and they will be happy."

If you want to set yourself up with a snake, a hatchling starter kit will set you back about £70. This is what you might call a starter home for snakes, and will need an upgrade when your pet grows. Which brings us on to another slightly sticky snake subject.

"Reptiles grow," said Lucy. "I know it sounds stupid, but it's a fact that seems to take a lot of new owners by surprise.

"I don't stock the really big snakes (15ft plus) because they are basically too big for people to handle. But you have to remember that anything over about six foot will need something about the size of a conservatory to live in."

If the worst comes to the worst, Leaping Lizards has a buy-back policy and will happily take an animal back. Lucy would much rather customers return their snakes to her than dump them (and so say all of us).

As the new business on the block, Lucy's store is proving popular - particularly with younger members of the community.

"We are already being treated like the local zoo, but that's okay," she said, as yet another young boy pushed his way through the door and pressed his nose up against Pretty Boy's tank. "If people are interested, there is always someone here to talk them through our stock and let them handle an animal."

And if anyone gets bitten?

"If you get bitten by a hatchling, you probably won't even feel it," said Lucy. "And bites by bigger snakes are no worse than hamster bites."

Yeah, but when was the last time you saw a 12ft long hamster?

Leaping Lizards in Fourth Avenue, Heworth, is open from 10am to 6pm Monday to Saturday, and 10am to 4.30pm on Sunday. Phone 01904 422588 for more details.

Updated: 10:48 Tuesday, November 05, 2002