I posted this as a response to Jeff Clark, but felt it might be overlooked with all the new posts flowing in, so here is my report of the reptile expo in Hamburg,PA.
Well it was a very good show. There was a huge amount of vendors. As for the animals, this expo is famous for the venomous herps they sell and have on display. Two interesting herps I can recall were the baby male king cobra and an albino cottonmouth. As I mentioned before there were tons of rattlesnakes. I remember waving my hand over a cup with a western diamondback and making it rattle, being the first time I've ever seen a rattlesnake rattle. There was apparently an albino monocled cobra on display, but I didn't see it. I did see a regular monocled cobra on display. Other venomous snakes I recall seeing were rhinocerous vipers and southern copperheads. I did not see anybody purchasing any venomous snakes.
There were many non-venomous herps that were very interesting as well. They had caiman and American alligators being sold, but then again they have been at many expos I've been to. One python coming to mind that I thought was interesting was a pair of Sawu pythons, something I've only read about once ever in an old REPTILES magazine. There was even an interesting chelonian that I did not see but heard was being sold: side-necked turtles. As for an interesting lizard, a very tame crocodile monitor was on display, but not for sale.
There were even interesting non-herp animals being sold at this show as well! I saw two rather large pigeons for sale, but the more interesting animals were mammals. They had African soft-furred rats and spiny mice, two animals I have never heard of in my life!
I should mention that one thing that I found interesting(and rather irritating before I got Clubber) was that, besides the soft furred ones, there were no live rats being sold at any of the tables. The only exception was this one table(with the pigeons and spiny mice)had live rats that were pre-ordered an were supposed to be picked up at the show. Apparently the vendor heard of my irritation of trying to find a live rat(I was planning very long to buy a live rat at the show) and mentioned that she had some rats that weren't picked up and that she was willing to sell me one(I wish I could have gotten two, as you probably know, rats like the company of other rats). I delightfully accepted and came home with a cute little 4 week old hooded rat.
I went with a group of friends, and the total number of animals in the car was 6, not a single one being a reptile or amphibian.
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Scott
Reptiles
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1 Colombian Rainbow Boa (Rocky)
1.0 Ball Python (Sultan)
0.1 California Kingsnake (Leota)
1.0 Eastern Painted Turtle (Yugi)
0.1 Red/Gold Bearded Dragon* (Irwin, R.I.P.)
Other
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1.0 Betta Fish (Tyrone)
1.0 Hooded Rat (Clubber)
