West Alabama Reptile Show

Spent Saturday at the new West Alabama Reptile Show http://www.dixiepythons.com/Home/westalabamareptileexpo at the Bessemer Civic Center. It went real well, a lot of familiar faces and a couple of new ones. We couldn't keep the anery's on the table and I found myself wandering around the show in the afternoon hoping to find one or two on other vendors tables to buy...lol.

We met Will and Angie who put on this new show and they seemed to be real nice folks. Will spent a lot of time walking around and promoting the vendors. He had a huge snake named 'Bill' (Bob some B name) which fit into a duffel bag but was about 20 feet long and took multiple people to hold it. I have only a couple rules in life, 1) don't eat yellow snow, 2) don't play with anything that COULD eat you, 3) if it is venomous it better be in a cage or it better be faster than my 12 gauge. Bill was taken out multiple times without incident and as far as I know, it didn't eat anything it was not suppose to. It is my understanding they are going to try and do the West Alabama Reptile Show again in September or October. There was also another group of people who came by and said they are going to do one in Cullman in October or November. We'll keep you posted when they nail down dates.

We purchased a small normal female and a early 2009 anery male from Mark (I can't remember the name of his company but he also does the Dixie Reptile Show http://www.dixiereptileshow.com/ ).

The Corn Pit http://thecornpit.com/ who is also a regular at the Dixie Reptile Show, selling not only snakes but bulk supplies like aspen shavings and rodent pellets (for killer deals, I buy all my shavings and mice feed from them) brought their photography set up which was really cool. He would take the picture and had all the equipment available to print it out and then put in on a mat with a mat frame. It was really a nice setup and all for $5.00. We have decided that we are going to discontinue our photography offerings after seeing his. While the photo cube and macro lens we use produces excellent pictures I think to compete we would have to purchase all the printing equiprment and then would have to compete against their excellent price!

There was a guy who had 'pet' crocodiles at the show and spent about 6 hours holding a 3' crocodile on his shoulder like you would hold a baby. And, yes, it had all of its teeth. It was crazy to say the least.

Jennifer Blackburn of Southern Farms SouthernFarms6@aol.com  was our vendor neighbor and we really enjoyed chatting with her and holding her boa constrictor. That was the first time Jenn (my wife) and I held a large snake for a long period of time. We couldn't have asked for a better behaved snake to break us in. I believe she is trying to sell her so if you are in the market for a 2 year old boa constrictor female that is super tame, give Jennifer a call. She specializes in live and frozen rodents and frequents many shows along with making deliveries all over the place.

We met J. Kobylka of J. Kobylka Reptiles http://www.jkobylkareptiles.com/ . He specializes in ball pythons and has what I am told is some rare ones, like his Dreamsickle and a Pumpkin (I think thats what he told me). J. spent some time at our table and we had the opportunity to 'educate' him on Kenyan Sand Boas, but I got the feeling he knew more than he was letting on. Either way, considering the number of people that came to the show solely to see his 'balls' he certainly made himself available to everyone and seemed to do more listening than talking. Jenn thought he had a 'Clark Kent' look about him so I may have to avoid the shows he's attending when Jenn is coming along!!! LOL.

 Jim at Vyper Tracking http://www.talkradiosoftware.com/direct/direct.html gave away a free TV at the show and was on hand to demo his reptile tracking software. I use the software and it is very good for keeping multiple types of reptiles and has more features and gadgets than anything else, I've seen on the market. Jim is also one email away for any support issues. He also travels a lot of shows in the US so he is a wealth of knowledge. The software is also really inexpensive and you can demo it for free for 30 days or so. Doesn't hurt to try it out for free.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by and spoke with us. We had a great time and really enjoyed meeting all the new faces and seeing the regulars. We'll see you on April 24th at the Dixie Reptile Show. Remember it is now at the Zamora Temple off of 459 a few minutes down the freeway from the old UAB site. Check http://www.dixiereptileshow.com/map.htm their site for directions and new dates.

Mark Huntley
Bottom Feeder

Finding the Ellusive Kenyan Sand Boa....

Where do I find Kenyan Sand Boas? That's the common question I get at shows, on the phone and by email. I like everyone else start at Kingsnake.com's classifieds. But, I think the most effective way is to participate in multiple forums specifically geared for sand boas. By being an active member you are exposed to all the subtilties of this species through others experience. You also have the opportunity to personally reach out to fellow KSBers and get to know the breeders and what projects they are working on. Through these contacts you will have a better chance of picking up morphs, sub adults and breeder aged KSBs.

Words of caution....The majority of Kingsnakes advertisers are commercial breeders and in the commercial snake world, Kenyan Sand Boas are not the big money makers. Consequently, you will regularly see misadvertised snakes, whether it is purposeful, I don't know. Some, I suspect, it is, others, I think they just don't know. Case in point, Glades Herps advertised flames about 6 months back and posted a picture of what appeared to be a Dodoma. Patternless face and significantly reduced pattern on their body. I called immediatley because as you all know finding Dodoma's is very difficult. I spoke to them for a bit and multiple times made it clear I only wanted them if they were like the picture on the website.....of course, after being assured that they were, they arrived, and they weren't. When I called them they were understanding but it was clear they really didn't understand what I was describing or talking about with the reduced pattern. This is common with the big commercial breeders when it comes to Kenyans. One other story on Glades Herps, at present they are advertising an 'Egyptian Sand Boa' for sale on Kingsnake. It is not an egyptian, it is a Saharan or West African Sand Boa, the cousin to Kenyan (Egyptian, East African, etc.) Sand Boas. The Saharan is a very difficult snake to keep in captivity, some do not assimilate well into captivity and will not eat. They also lack the great color of KSBs and you can easily identify the difference by looking at their heads which are bigger and are typically one color of brownish black, along with their tails being real pointy. However, I emailed Glade Herps about their misidentification of this snake a few weeks ago when they started advertising and they have yet to change it. So in regards to Glades Herps...fool me once, 'Shame on me'...fool me twice, 'Shame on you'. Be weary when buying anything on the internet, but just remember that snake breeding is a multi-billion dollar industry and KSBs are not the big money makers, so you will probably have more knowledge about the purchase then the person on the other end, use that knowledge and trust your gut...too good to be true, it probably is.

Breeder and Sub Adults For Sale!!!

I'm letting go two breeder 2007 males, the first one an EXTREMELY CLEAN Anery and the Second one is an Albino. Followed by two 2008 sub adult females, the first an EXTREMELY CLEAN anery and the second a normal het anery. Email me at Mark@LHALegal.com if you are interested.

2007 Adult Anery Male (Very Clean)

2007 Adult Albino Male

2008 Sub Adult Anery Female (Very Clean)

2008 Sub Adult Normal Het Anery Female

Looking for Kenyan Breeders

It's that time of year when we start taking or studs and matching them up with the 'ladies'.

Unfortunately, I only have a couple ladies that are ready to 'tango' right now but I have plenty of gentlemen suitors....yeah, it sounds like a junior high party....I'm thinking of changing the name of my snake room to 'The Sword Fight'. Feel free to add your favorites at the bottom of this blog.

If anyone has kenyan breeders they would be willing to sell, let me know. I really would love to get a hold of a male snow. Mine are still a half year a way, atleast. Incidently....I see a lot of questions about breeding age and weights for Kenyans. The general rule for males is 50 grams and 1 year but 75 to 100 grams would probably be more preferable. These guys will go off food once they get 'tangoing' on their mind so a little extra weight doesn't hurt. Females need to be at least 300 grams and three years old. If you breed them too young you can ruin their reproductive abilities for the rest of their life along with risk death. So be patient.

Email me at Mark@LHALegal.com or call me at 1-888-498-8952.

SPRING IS IN THE AIR!

Mark Huntley