Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Since Foo, my Suri female, turned out not to be gravid this spring/summer, we started handling her more often (she was adopted last October but had been bred and showed signs of being gravid).

It turns out that she has an outstanding personality, so we decided to take her to a demo at a local nature preserve that our local Herp Society was attending.

Foo did a great job and was a big hit... here's a picture of her being pet by some kids. This was the first demonstration kind of event that my husband and I have attended and it was a lot of fun. Most people had a great attitude (only one lady yanked her grandchild away when she realized there were snakes present, and that was from 20 feet away... sigh) and many people were curious and asked a lot of questions.

It also helped that she had shed two days before, so looked great. We'll probably bring her to the WNY Herp Society show and sale this Sunday since we're volunteers at that as well, to demonstrate how large boas can get.

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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com | CageMakers
1.0 Ball Python, 1.0 Hog Island Boa, 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC

I'm glad you had such a positive experience. I applaud you for helping the general public to see that these animals are fascinating and not evil.

Looking at the wardrobe of the people in the pic, it seems like it was a bit cold outside for a Boa. How'd she do with the temps out there?

It was cool out (55 degrees), but we'd take the snakes out for a few minutes, then put them back into tubs with heat pads to let them warm back up. One of the comments was "wow, they're WARM!"

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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com | CageMakers
1.0 Ball Python, 1.0 Hog Island Boa, 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC

Forgot to mention - the lady who arranged for our club to go there made sure we had access to electrical, which was great. There was a building right behind the tent, so it worked out well. Otherwise, it would have been too cold for us to have attended that day.
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com | CageMakers
1.0 Ball Python, 1.0 Hog Island Boa, 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC

very cool!
I like to do that as well. So far I've only taken corn snakes and a rainbow boa once. I love the questions that the kids ask. I can't count how many times they asked "how does it poop?". Or the kids that don't want to get too close at first, then keep coming by the table, closer and closer til finally they touch it "it's not slimy".
Keep up the good work!
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'There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."' -Rainshadow