Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I have been keeping and breeding geckos for 18 years. I have recently returned from a four year break (from active breeding/sales). Through all the years I have been involved in the herp trade I have seen a few lulls in the hobby/trade, but never a low like I see now. What seems to be the cause? These forums used to be bursting at the seams! Anyone else remember 1999? It's the same at many shows and pet/herp stores, which are almost totally absent today. The diversity of animals are all but gone. Ball pythons are still going strong..any ideas on the reasons and what it's saying about herpetoculture?

After a few year break for me as well, I would echo the same thoughts. It's scary how much things have died down almost all across the board in the industry. I've seen lulls but NOT like this.

Since starting my planning to get back into the industry, I've got in touch with many of my old contacts including breeders, owners, suppliers overseas, and other hobbyists.

The owners have all told me the same thing when I ask how business has been overall since last we spoke. "Terrible. Just terrible." Most of them think it has something to do with kids these days. Back in my days, kids used to play outside a lot. Kids used to grow up developing interest in animals. Nowdays, most kids aren't outside playing - they're inside playing. There are less wildlife educational magazines in distribution and less wildlife education shows on the television.

Maybe the economy has hit the reptile community hard as well.

What else could it be?

I remember being able to spend hours reading and responding to forum posts here on KS and even sites like Yahoo Groups. There was a lot of good content. Nowadays, I hate to say Facebook has killed the forums, but in a way it really has. I think it's a great vehicle for sales, but as far as education goes, nothing compares to a forum format in my opinion.

I also agree with the above; kids not playing outside enough. We (society) are trying to distract our children more than mesmerize them.

Terry

I agree. The hobby is in a death rattle. Unfortunately some of it is self inflicted. The BIG snake keepers and illegal hot (venomous) herp keepers really put our hobby in an extremely negative light. It probably seems unthinkable to us but a large percentage of people see reptiles and especially snakes as repulsive. So you throw in retic & burm pythons and a few cobras and other hot reptiles and people really saw our hobby as being way out of the main stream. I saw it coming back in 2007- 2008 and sold off most of my collection. I keep some box turtles, a couple of lizards and a handful of kingsnakes for my own pleasure. I really enjoyed these forums for a long time and tried to warn folks about the coming storm but I was shouted down.

In addition the Obama economy has literally left folks with no extra $$ for spending on anything but the necessities. Its not just our hobby that been hurt its everything. I hate saying this but I feel we (USA) are on the verge of a financial and political collapse.

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Vichris
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane"- Marcus Aurelius