Finally got back to the huge (and I do mean huge) reptile show in Hamburg, PA, that’s held a few times a year, but we prefer the October show. They are the biggest/oldest show to showcase venomous snakes, and that was the main attraction, for us anyway.
The venomous contingency has been getting smaller and smaller. Many reasons probably account for this, including Pennsylvania coming down a bit harder on laws protecting some of the species; older/experienced adults are getting out of it, as they (we?) retire, have children or grandchildren; or heaven forbid, lose interest?
This year was a bit of a surprise, and a disappointment as many of the vendors we expected to see just weren’t there. Perhaps they were at other shows? There does seem to be a growing trend of larger shows all across the US, with lots of name recognition (NARBC for example) that, we assume, draw bigger crowds with their profusion of advertising, corporate sponsorship, etc, etc. Although to clarify, NARBC does not allow venomous.
That being said, the other interesting factor we looked forward to at the Hamburg show, was the absolute variety of animals you could see in person as opposed to reading about on a price list, and ordering but with just faith in your fellow herper. ( We’ve all read the horror stories of the disgruntled buyer and/or the far less than honest seller.) Only this time it was all ball pythons…an absolute minimum of 5000! Just a few (maybe even as few as a couple) years ago it was corn snakes/leopard geckoes/bearded dragons. Now a sea of ball pythons.
Okay, I’m not knocking them. They’re wonderful, small pythons. The variety of color and patterns amazing. The prices too, can be amazing. Especially for some that appear to be colored quite normal, but they may have “XYZ” genes, so “If you breed them to…”, well, you get the picture.
We didn't leave empty handed. There were some animals we couldn't pass up! But we did not bring home any ball pythons...
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