RCReptiles.com

[reptilehunter]

Reptiles rule once again
Story by Nick Baker



Sadly, the 9th Annual Sacramento Reptile Show, an event attended this past weekend by thousands of enthusiastic fans and lovers of all things herpetological, was preceded by last week's death of the quintessential reptile fan, Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter.

As a way for visitors to express their sentiments to the Irwin family, the event promoter, Upscale Reptiles, made large banners available to autograph.

In the end, according to promoter Jeremy Epstein, 12 full rolls containing signatures, messages and kid's drawings were filled and would be sent to the Australian Zoo, the Irwin family's home.

Yet despite the solemn reminder of the beloved animal spokesmen's death, enthusiasts and hobbyists excitedly packed shoulder to shoulder to view, photograph, touch and talk

Held at the Sacramento Convention Center, 52 vendors sold everything needed to house and maintain one's own reptile and in some cases amphibian or arachnid. Many attendees left well supplied with newly purchased setups including terrariums, substrate, vitamin supplements, heating pads, resource books and even live crickets and mealworms.

Although arriving late to the last day of the expo, Sacramento resident Daniel Bruen toted away an abundant supply of terrarium supplies in the back of his baby's stroller.

With the intention of housing anoles and tree frogs, Bruen said the family was "just starting to make a science corner for the kids." He was also planning to create a habitat to house a chameleon for his wife.

Scott Waters with www.snakeguys.com has attended other reptile shows around the country where he observed they were more of a "buyer's show" with other breeders trading and buying with each other while at the Sacramento show there has always been a lot of families who come to look and touch.

The up-close family experience included the opportunity, through Wild Things, Inc., to pet and be photographed with a 7-foot American alligator. The Weimar, Calif. based nonprofit organization provides homes for displaced wild animals that can no longer be released into the wild.

The group then uses the animals, like its alligator, to perform outreach and education to the public.

Acknowledging the popularity of reptiles as pets, another nonprofit group, the Northern California Herpetological Society, staffed a booth to share their message of conservation, education and propagation of reptiles and amphibians.

President Linda Boyko said her group comes to educate at the show every year. She noted the society gets a lot of calls after the show concerning first-time animal owners that did not realize how big their pet could grow.

Boyko hopes potential pet owners will come to them first to learn what the most suitable animal to own may be.

"Please get educated before you buy" she said.

The reptile show featured an abundance of informational guest lecturers intended to assist enthusiasts with the healthy keeping of their cold-blooded pets.

Steve Sykes (www.geckosetc.com) spoke both days, giving tips on housing and feeding leopard geckos.

During his Sunday afternoon talk, Sykes informed the crowd not to feed their geckos too many wax worms.

"They are the crack of the gecko world" he said with a grin.

Sykes warned to use them only as a treat because dietetically, a constant regimen of wax worms "would be like a continuous diet of Mountain Dew and Cheetos to a human."

The animals, of course, were the highlight of the expo. The hearty and popular leopard gecko was well represented with a multitude of captive-bred animals displaying an exotic variety of colors and patterns.

Equally colorful were the names of many of the event's sellers, including Ed's Fly Meat, InFrogNeato, Geckotopia and Krazy 8's Invertebrates.

Tables topped with varying ages and sizes of coiled boas and pythons rested neatly in individual containers adjacent to tables featuring corn snakes, poison dart frogs, giant day geckos and arboreal Jackson's chameleons.

With a crowd of just under 10,000 passing through the doors of the convention center last weekend, the Sacramento Reptile Show fulfilled it's billing as "Northern California's Premier Reptile Event," and although the date is not yet fixed, herp fans can anticipate the exposition returning again next year.

[slitheringin]

This is soooo why I miss living in Northern CA. I would have been at that show