Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, my name is Tom. Retired cop due to wrestling with a van directing traffic. I had herps as a kid 1972-1980 or so. A LOT! as I worked at a shop in the Cleveland, Ohio area that mainly did herps. Forced into retirement I phased thru sports cards. And found myself bored.

I finally got back into my animals. 2 years ago. Well, way back when I use to build a lot of stuff, loved wood working and designed and even built a boat for fishing.

I have a lot of tools piled in my barn. This forum has inspired me to go get my table saw , laser mitre saw, band saw, , well you know how tools can be addictive. I hope to soon add a picture/s of a rack/s or cage/s, to see if I still have some design left in me.

Below was the last cage I personally built, it was designed for 1.1 adults and 1.1 sub adults. I designed it from scratch, the company redesigned it, then I had to correct their errors. SIGH.

I hope you don't mind if I tag a few posts in the future that might help from my experiences.

Thanks for listening me ramble.

tom

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Tom

www.herpzilla.com

>>I had herps as a kid 1972-1980 or so. A LOT! as I worked at a shop in the Cleveland, Ohio area that mainly did herps.

Tom, what shop?

I was also a kid in Cleveland during that time (Berea, to be specific) and visited the reptile specific shops as much as possible.

BTW, nice "cage". I don't think I have the guts to build my own one of those. Wife and I came close.

Parma Pets, I'm back helping a few days a week. LOOOOOOOONG drive to work at a shop from my home in Ashtabula county. But like I said, its family really. To much competition from Corp shops. I wish my back was better, so I could help more. But life goes on.. Thanks for the comments
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Tom

www.herpzilla.com

Used to shop there quite a bit. In fact I picked up my first snake book ever at that shop. Ironically, that led to an avid book collection hobby as well as my current interest in Gonyosoma oxycephala. I'll never forget seeing that beautiful green ratsnake on the back cover. I've been intrigued ever since.

What was that one guys name? He was fairly young but a regular employee there. I think it was Ed.
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Current snakes:

1.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

2.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

4.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

we did have several Ed's, i do not want to post last names.
Unfortunely herpzilla was taken in AOL's IM,

My first domain name was mett, acronym for my family, as I got into herps people called me mettzilla, I bought that for kicks, then decided if I want to do a small business at one time I needed something more herp related hence my evolution to herpzilla..

But my IM ID is mettzilla, I'm on a lot.

Feel free to pop up or anyone else for that matter, at times i let it on and am away. But I am there a lot.
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Tom

www.herpzilla.com

Well that cage puts any of my efforts to shame, lol!! Very nice, your animals will be very lucky if their cages are the same quality as your cage.

Tom,

Well, it's great to hear that our ramblings have inspired someone else to take up their tools in pursuit of herp caging. I'm sure we'll all look forward to seeing some new designs. One thing I enjoy is seeing how others have addressed the same design considerations that I regularly ponder how to overcome. I look forward to seeing more from you in the future.
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Matt Campbell
25 years herp keeping experience
Full-time zookeeper
Personal collection - 21 snakes (9 genera), 20 lizards (4 genera), 6 chelonians (2 genera)

np