Texas Rattlesnake Festival

And awaaaaaaaaaaaay we go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Ya'll come down!!!

Have you heard the news???!!!

Finally, there's gonna be a "rattlesnake festival" for the family, AND the rattlesnakes, to enjoy.  This is an EDUCATIONAL event, a REALLY educational event, not a blood-letting with total misinformation, and the needless destruction of hundreds, or even thousands of hapless animals. who were probably NOT collected legally, locally, logically, etc. 

 

Even if you're not a snake-lover (and who isn't???) this is your chance to be well-informed on the positive side of snakes and their place in nature and our lives.

 

Lets drop the word "round-up" from our vocabulary once and for all!!!

Blast fom the past...

Since the weather has been absolutely miserable, I've been cleaning out drawers, etc, and came across some old, OLD price lists.  This is not the oldest, but one of the more interesting for a variety of reasons.    In its "hey day" the Philadelphia Reptile Exchange was owned and operated by Hank Molt (name ring a bell to some of you?)!  He was one of the more infamous reptile dealers at the time. 

If you look at some of the prices, you almost wish you could go back to those days, but then again, your income was probably much less than it is today.  Captive breeding was in its infancy, so all those were probably imports and mortality could be very high. 

Many of these animals are not even available to the general public any more.  Prices have risen and fallen.  Color morphs were not anything people worried about, with the exception of yellow Eyelash Vipers (B. schlegeli.)  At that time the majority that arrived in the U.S. were green, (even though the price list has "yellow" indicated as being available) and we were happy with those!  Some of the scientific names have changed.  But remember, this was over 40 years ago. 

Guess that makes me one of the "old timers!"  But then I've been collecting price lists practically since my "infancy!"  Enjoy the read!

 

 

Translation Guide

I was cleaning out some of my files today (trying to turn over a new leaf for the New Year.  (Don't have to keep everything!)  I came across this list.  The "Translation Guide for Herp Price Lists."  Don't know where it came from originally, so I'm sorry for not giving credit, where credit is due.  Whether you get a price list through the mail (does anyone send them out any more?) on the internet, or even get this information in person, at a show, from the seller, a lot of it rings true.  

What the seller REALLY means:

butter yellow, lemon yellow, high yellow phase :   tan
cranberry red or bright orange phase :   brown
jet black or snow white :   gray
possible het :   everything is possibly het
albinistic :   has one scale that is lighter than the rest
hyper-hypo-amel-xanthic-anerythristic :   looks slightly different from normal
possibly gravid :   a male was kept two cages away
breeding pair : there are two animals
best we have ever seen :   since last week
so nice we almost kept them ourselves :   we have no idea how to breed them
we were the first to breed them :   we imported the first hatchlings
this species is hard to obtain :   until next month
we have CITES paperwork :   just don't expect a copy
zoo bred :   but you can't know what zoo
well started hatchlings available :   the eggs were just laid
large juveniles available :   the eggs just pipped
subadults available :   anything not large enough to breed is a subadult
pick of the litter :   the first one they pick up
hand-picked :   someone's hand touched them at some time or another
well-established import :    one week in the U.S.
long-term captive :   two weeks in the U.S.
very hardy species :   they take at least a month to drop dead
inquire about price :   they want to see what someone will offer them
dog tame :   only bites if you try to touch it
aggressive feeder :   flicked its tongue at a mouse
deparisitized : a jar of flagyl was waved in front of the cage
farm-raised :   think of the world as a giant farm
extra nice or immaculate :   has all its body parts
slight scar :   missing an eye
imperfect :   missing a limb or tail
large scar :   missing its head
proven breeder :   actually referring to the adults that produced the animal
sale-sale-sale :    no one wants these, and they're dying on us
investment quality :   please buy these so the dealer has some money to invest in something else
chance of a lifetime : buy these and have a possible lifetime of trouble with the authorities

And always remember to multiply any listed lengths by 2/3 and listed weights by 1/2.  EXAMPLE:  a 15 ft. 100 lb. Burmese Python is really 10 ft. and 50 lbs. 

As for the last comment, for many people, when describing an animal they saw some place (especially in the wild), the opposite rings true.   A 3 foot snake becomes a 6 footer, and was as big around as your bicep, (rather than your thumb!)
  
 

Field collecting absolutely everything???

Some of you may never have field collected.  Some of you may only field collect.  Some of you are doing this for new bloodlines.  Some of you are doing this to increase the variety of your collection.  BUT, some of you are doing it to increase the number of dollars in your wallet.

This post is directed towards those who are collecting every living animal just to make a dollar.  Perhaps your excuse is that you're just trying to recoup the cost of your trip.  But when you take animals that have little or no chance of survival outside their respective niche, then that is totally irresponsible, and you may be contributing to the loss of a species.

This rant comes from seeing some Horned Lizards being exhibited for sale at a recent reptile show that we attended.  Most people know that Horned Lizards (horny toads to most people) almost exclusively eat ants.  So...new owner...did the seller tell you that?  Do you know where to get ants?  And how many ants does it need to keep weight on and thrive? 

If you see this at a show, perhaps you should tell the show sponsor that this is not appropriate.  But the damage has already been done when the animal is removed from its habitat.  The person who took it is not going to drive back to return it.  They're probably not going to try to find those ants for its diet either.  They'll just try some other insects and let it languish and die while in their "care" if they can't find someone to buy it.

So, field collect if you want, but with integrity.

 

Crocs in winter...

See anything?  Nope, and they're NOT hiding under the snow!

We just got about 10 inches of snow.  Of course the crocodile which inhabits the larger enclosure has been shut inside since the middle of October.  The alligators, which inhabit the two smaller enclosures have been in since about the first of November. 

We would never leave these animals out year round, even when snow is not in the forecast.  Being in a latitude that does have variable weather, we have made accommodations for them inside a heated building.

This being said, we recently heard that there were some people in more temperate climates (think Arizona or Southern California for example) who are worried about their animals being outside since they too are experiencing a cold snap.  I can only say if it were me, I'd be bringing them inside, regardless of where they needed to be housed (e.g. tortoises in the bathtub?)  Even if they were all in cardboard boxes, at least they would be in a controlled environment. 

The time to worry about these things is not when it happens, but when you take ownership of the animal(s).  If you keep them inside, for the (usually) short duration of the inclement weather, your house may develop an "odor", but again, a cheap air freshener is still better than trying to replace your reptilian pals. If you elect to build heated enclosures outside, perhaps your electric bill would go up, but that would probably be far less than the replacement cost of your collection.

It's just common sense.

5,000 ball pythons later...

 

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...

 

Love knows no seasons...

Found these two on the pavement of the parking lot at the Nature Center, oblivious to cars, and almost everything else going on around them.  Mind you, it's October 10th.

Didn't most of us think that reptiles mated in the spring?  Maybe this was purely recreational?  The female doesn't seem all that interested.  Or perhaps she's just embarrassed to be exposed like this in the parking lot, and not a more intimate surrounding!

 

Notice the wet spot near the animals.  I'm not an amorous turtle expert but I do wonder if the male did that to mark his territory as if to say to any other male turtles in the area "Stay away, she's all mine."  Or perhaps the female was leaving her own mark with a "Come hither" attitude? 

 

I gently removed them to a leafy hillside close by so they could resume their activities.