Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am a member (secretary actually) of the WNY Herpetological Society. One of our goals is to help educate the public about Reptiles and Amphibians through our annual show, website, and public demonstrations. This morning some of the members gave a demo to approx 60 school kids (we did 3 separate demos with 20 kids each). The kids had a great time and really loved the animals. I wasn't going to bring Sunshine since she started off so shy, I thought it would be too much stress on her, but she's come so far in the past 6 days that I decided at the last minute to bring her along. So glad I did. She did great, didn't hide at all, let the kids scratch the top of her head and the kids got a kick out of hand feeding her. They just loved her and she was such the little ham! Here are some pics...

My setup for the public demos are these cute little pens. I lay down heat pads, then a sheet, then the pens. I was afraid she might try to push it (she easily could have) but she didn't fuss with it at all. I brought her lunch along in case she got hungry. Her next door neighbor is Scooter, one of my Leos. I had 3 snakes with me, but for obvious reasons I don't put them in pens. They stay in tubs or bags.

At some point during the 2nd demo (each was about 45 minutes long) I looked down and there was Sunshine munching away! Room full of kids obviously didn't stress her too much!

This is what it's all about

Sunshine made lots of friends!

She liked the boys too...

Here are the two boys who were hand feeding her for a bit...

Was unsuccessful in trying to sneak this little Sulcatta home with me. He is owned by a fellow member...

The kids got to play with another member's Iguana (after a discussion about the potential size they reach and general discouragement to running out and buying a baby one)

Scooter, my male Leopard Gecko, is always good with the ladies!

This was a debut for Mysty the Corn Snake who I adopted earlier this month. She's an old girl, has had several homes including living in a classroom for a while, so is used to children. She did great. Her tongue was flicking non stop so I had the kids hold out their hands and I walked around so they could feel her tongue. That was a huge hit. I couldn't let them hold my 7 foot Carpet Python, although I did let them pet him with me holding him, but they could hold Mysty...

One of the members has a large group of turtles and brought along a few. He set tanks up for them, this was their transporting bin.

It was a great time. Several of the children came in saying "Ewwwww" and looking squirmish, some of the girls screamed when they realized the moving bags contained snakes, but all of them left happy and even the squirmish ones got up the courage to pet and hold the animals once they saw their friends having so much fun. I had brought snake skins to pass around, that was a hit too. I was very happy that Sunshine did not seem to be stressed at all, and actually seemed to enjoy the extra attention. Hope you liked the pics, thanks for looking!

Me and Sunshine

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Lyns Lair
Frogwatch USA
WNY Herpetological Society

0.1 Cat (Mia)
4.2 Ferrets (Wolf, Shadow, Verdell, Sullivan, Boo, Peach)
1.0 Carpet Python (Bear)
1.0 Malagasy Blonde Hognose Snake (Wilbur)
1.0 Yellow / Everglades Rat Snake (Pumpkin)
1.0 Russian Sand Boa (Fang)
0.1 Normal Corn Snake (Mysty)
1.0 Banded Water Snake (Ripley) coming soon!
0.1 Golden Greek Tortoise (Sunshine)
1.0 Whites Tree Frog (Trevor)
2.0 Solomon Island Eyelash Frogs (Chompy & Gimli)
1.0 AFT Gecko (Cocoa)
5.6 Leopard Geckos (Trouble, Scooter, Simba, Firenze, Teddy, Nala, Mystique, Freckles, Dotty, Zipper, Twister)

oh...oh...watchout for that bug-bite...i can see it's turtle (and tortoises) all the way down! that's what happen to many many of us here in this forum and elsewhere and you could be the finest examples (which couldn't be so bad)...great pictures, great kidos... great show...keep up the Great TICKLES that TICKS!!!

(didn't like your friend's crampy turtle SardineBus one bit, it's too dangerous to mixed them like that)

The man with the Turtles lives for those Turtles. They are his passion, he is extremely knowledgable about Turtles and would never do anything to cause them harm. That container was just used for transport, they were separated into multiple enclosures for the demo. There was no signs of agression between any of them while I was watching them.

I doing good fighting the "bug" to get more Torts, I'm so taken with Sunshine right now, and she seems to be doing so much better in her own enclosure than she did at the store in a group, I think it's best not to get her any friends at this time. Maybe down the road I'll build a 2nd enclosure, but for now I'm content with just having the one.

I might, however, be adding two aquatic turtles to my collection. Cross fingers that this goes through, it's a friend of a friend thing so I'm on pins and needles waiting to hear from my friend whether or not her friend will give me his turtles. He has several and is going to College and can't take them with. I guess originally they were going to stay at home with his parents but now they are moving out of the country so that won't work out as planned.

If it works out, I will be getting an African Mud Turtle and a Red Eared Slider. My friend is getting some Musks (she already has a bunch of them, she just loves them) and I thought she mentioned another type she was getting, but now I've forgotten. I'll post pictures if I do get them.
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Lyns Lair
Frogwatch USA
WNY Herpetological Society

0.1 Cat (Mia)
4.2 Ferrets (Wolf, Shadow, Verdell, Sullivan, Boo, Peach)
1.0 Carpet Python (Bear)
1.0 Malagasy Blonde Hognose Snake (Wilbur)
1.0 Yellow / Everglades Rat Snake (Pumpkin)
1.0 Russian Sand Boa (Fang)
0.1 Normal Corn Snake (Mysty)
1.0 Banded Water Snake (Ripley) coming soon!
0.1 Golden Greek Tortoise (Sunshine)
1.0 Whites Tree Frog (Trevor)
2.0 Solomon Island Eyelash Frogs (Chompy & Gimli)
1.0 AFT Gecko (Cocoa)
5.6 Leopard Geckos (Trouble, Scooter, Simba, Firenze, Teddy, Nala, Mystique, Freckles, Dotty, Zipper, Twister)