What would you like in a show?

I know what you mean about nasty kids, fortunately ours are really well behaved, we're pretty "strict" parents, so our take heed before they get out of line. Anyhow, I like the those amounts for tickets, we'd even pay a few bucks more if required. Last show we went to was $10 for adults and I think $5 for kids, which was a little steep, but not too bad.

As far as our kids being future owners, I fully agree, ours kids love ours so much I can't imagine them not having them when their older.

Hey Steve. The St. Louis zoo is just fantastic. They have an enormous reptile collection including a large venomous collection. I was fortunate enough to be friends with a former keeper that gave me a behind the scenes tour a few years back. They have tuataras, many very rare European vipers, komodo dragons, a giant asian softshell the size of a small car and much more. Lots of great rattlesnakes and they had a leucistic alligator on loan when I visited. They were also breeding croc monitors and lots of hot stuff behind the scenes in the keepers areas. Beautiful grounds and best of all, something we have no comprehension for in this part of the country, it is a free admission zoo. You do have to pay for parking though.

Also very nice is the Toledo Zoo's reptile collection which includes some really impressive king cobras, fiji iguanas, lots of tortoises, etc.

In the black hills of South Dakota, not far from Mt. Rushmore, I went to a private reptile museum a few years back named "Reptile Gardens". They have an incredible venomous collection including some mutations. Large groups of adult aldabra and galapogos torts, and a large selection of every other kind of herp. I think they had the largest collection of hot stuff I have ever seen in a zoo/museum. They also had about the largest and nicest gift shop I have ever seen, a big rainforest room and bird sanctuary. If you are ever out there check it out. Evan Stahl

I totally understand the bratty kid syndrome. I usually do not take littler ones with me only older for that reason. Not that my kids are bad, just that I want to take the time to look and learn and possibly (always) buy. I can't do that with little ones so I leave them at home. This summer I am going to Daytona, are the little ones going? NO! They go to Nana's house. Do they help out at home with the herps? YES. And I will take them somewhere else, like a zoo.
Periodically I may take the little ones, but they know to be on their best. I am also strict. There are just sometimes I want my own time, and a big herp show, sometimes, is one of them.
By the way, great snake Evan.

We usually bring the whole troop, but they are well attached, strapped, and contained (hee, hee) If I think it's gonna be nuts, I'll just go and Daddy stays with the kiddies...

When I was around 10 years old we went on a family vacation to the Dakotas. We did the Mt Rushmore thing, wall drug, the corn palace and all that. And we were planning on hitting "reptile gardens" we got there, parked at the end of the lot, walked all the way to the door, saw the price of admission (I can't recall what it was about 25 years ago) but my dad said "thats crazy I'm not spending that much to se a bunch of damned snakes" so we went back to the car. I really wasn't into reptiles so I don't know if I really made a fuss or not (I'm sure my mom was happy) But thats my experience with reptile gardens. To top it off though, by the time we got back to my dads 2 week old new car someone had already slapped a reptile gardens bumper sticker on it. If I remember correctly I learned a few new words that day.

Steve Schindler

Yeah, I think it was $10 or $12 to get in to Reptile Gardens. I guess it has been there for like 60 or 70 years now. I found that pretty impressive. They have pics on the walls of the place being buil and early pics of the first stuff there.

The suckiest thing was that Bob Ashley and I paid to get in and then once we did, the manager heard who we were and why we were out there and offered to let us in for free. Once he heard we had already paid though, he never offered a refund. Oh well. It was a really cool place and I am glad that I went. We even found a good spot in the shade since we had a van full of herps.

They call their venomous collection, "Death Row" and have most of the top twenty most lethal hots. The whole herp area is a big two level circle so you go around and up or down and you are on to the next thing. Neat stuff. Evan

Hey Evan,

I am just curious. I have been to several shows and have never seen anyone who actually cheap styrofoam containers in varying sizes. I know that I always bring containers to carry my animals home in but have already purchased more than planned and had to make a quick trip to the local store to get a cheap cooler and a few more heat packs. Have you ever seen them offered as a sale item?

Hey George, I had that same thought. I brought some to my show as it is in November in Michigan and gets pretty cool out. The only other time that I saw anyone do it was at the old Orlando expo, Ves from Superior Enterprises would bring deli cups, bags, styros, heat and cold packs, etc. He is a good guy to deal with for all of that stuff. I order a giant pile of delis from him every year and he sells great little styros for shipping. Evan

This is something I've also wondered about - especially after the very cool day my friend and I had at the VA show on the 22nd. I saw no one selling any type of bags or shipping supplies though all the vendors did have containers for you to take the animals home in. For myself, I make cloth snake bags for the animals my friend & I are selling - small bags for small boas, big bags for large boas. They 'seem' to help insulate the animals a bit more than the deli cups, and I find it easier to carry multiple animals in one box this way. Do you think it would be worthwhile to make extra bags for sale at the shows we attend? For the most part, I see people bringing their own rubbermaid style containers or cardboard boxes but I could also try to find a source for inexpensive styro boxes for cold weather shows, if this is something that others think would be useful. Any comments on this idea?

Dianne

Hey Dianne, bags are always a good thing to have extra on hand. I feed pretty heavy so invariably some of the animals defacate in the new bags and I need extras on hand to re pack them. Keep in mind if you are making them though, that they can be purchased for $1 ea for pillow case sized ones. That may save you some time for not much money, unless you don't mind. Evan