Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just curious, as I had to do an educational event and couldn't get to the show. Hamburg is NOT my favorite place, as there are so many wild-caught animals, sick and dead animals, too many hatchling sulcata. I've even seen two vendors with lizards with red mites on one Saturday.

But, there are also some really good snake breeders and chameleon breeders at that show, and I was wondering how everyone faired.

Katrina

>>Just curious, as I had to do an educational event and couldn't get to the show. Hamburg is NOT my favorite place, as there are so many wild-caught animals, sick and dead animals, too many hatchling sulcata. I've even seen two vendors with lizards with red mites on one Saturday.

Place seemed a little too crowded for the number of vendors and people there (hardly any aisle space except for the center row) and the lack of any a/c or proper ventiliation caused a couple of people to go into heat exhaustion/stroke.

My primary gripe about the show was not the condition of the reptiles but that of the mammals and the vendors dealing them... the lack of air condition and ventiliation in that building had many of the mammals noticably suffering. I'm surprised the chinchillas were even alive at all as they can easily die in the conditions found in that building. I saw rabbit cages and guinea pig cages stacked several high upon each other thereby cutting down even further the amount of ventiliation to those with the bad luck to be on the bottom of the stack. No fans on the mammals either. It was appalling.

Reptile wise, animals looked fine for the most part though a few seemed to be overly crowded in the cages (re: iguana hatchlings). The only chelonia I saw at the show was a single sulcata tortoise and it was by no means a 'hatchling'. I didn't see any 'dead' animals or anything that appeared overtly 'sick'....if any of them (reptiles) were sick they seemed to be hiding it very well from what I could see.

DP

Wholy crap, no turtles or tortoises? Something must have really been up at this show. In the past I've seen bin after bin of baby sliders and cooters, bins of wild-caught Russian and Greek tortoises, and Central American wood turtles. One vendor had a large bin of wild-caught, huge cooters and redbellies. Last time I went, which was last year, there were a few vendors selling baby alligator snapping turtles. That was also when several vendors had gravid horned toeds for sale.

How many vendors where there?

Katrina

>>Wholy crap, no turtles or tortoises? Something must have really been up at this show. In the past I've seen bin after bin of baby sliders and cooters, bins of wild-caught Russian and Greek tortoises, and Central American wood turtles. One vendor had a large bin of wild-caught, huge cooters and redbellies. Last time I went, which was last year, there were a few vendors selling baby alligator snapping turtles. That was also when several vendors had gravid horned toeds for sale.
>>
>>How many vendors where there?
>>
>>Katrina

I was at the show too (my first time there). My impression was that it reminded me of the All MD Show only on a much larger scale...say x3 (rough estimate).

At the admission counter before they let you pay they stated up front that no turtles would be sold at the show (I'm assuming so that people with the intent to buy turtles could have the chance to back out before paying to get in). I believe there has been some discussion on the law/cites forum about PA banning the sale of all turtles fairly recently which would account for the lack of chelonia at the show. I was actually surprised to see the one sulcata in a bin (for $200) after having been told at the front entrance no turtles would be sold.

I do not recall seeing any horned lizards/toads. Actually I do not recall seeing much of anything that would appear to be blantantly obvious on a quick glance as 'wild caught' specimens (there was one venomous snake, boomslang I believe, with a badly rubbed nose/mouth). I do agree that the situation the mammals were in was not professional let alone healthy for them. At the very minimum even if the vendors did not know before hand that there would be no a/c in the building they should at least have had fans on them to keep up with the air flow and circulation. The only mammals that appeared to be enjoying themselves were the duprassi..everything else basically looked miserable.

_____

Wyvern

Actually, I think someone might have started enfourcing a health code regulation that required salmonella checks on turtles entering PA rather than banning turtle sales. The effect is the same, either way.

If health certificates were required for animals entering the state this time around, then there might have been many wild-caught animals that didn't "make the cut". I've seen some nice-looking mountain horned dragons and cone-headed lizards at Hamburg in the past, but knowing that they are wild-caught and how easily they stress, knew they'd likely be dead a few months after purchase.

An interesting note: I was visiting Falls Road Animal Hospital in Baltimore on Thursday, and the receptionist said earlier in the week a breeder brought in 60 snakes to get health certificates on them. Wonder if he was going to Hamburg?

Katrina