I need some help w/ idea's for...

I second anatess. I would make the first meeting a "get to know me and my herp" meeting with subsequent ones having a specific focus. That way you will have a better idea of which herps you have represented at your meeting and can better tailor your future discussions.

As for other ideas: 1) a professional vet and/or local small shop owner would be good to talk about general care/feeding and answer common ailment/product questions 2) enclosures 101 (size, type, growing with your pet, cleaning) 3) feeding 101 (live, f/t, availability of specialized food, how to keep the chirping insects from escaping) 4) herps and kids/family/crowds 5) breeding (vs pets, tips and tricks, pitfalls).

Good luck!

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Originally Posted by Maverick67

You should talk about both ends of the feeding live subject. if done properly there is very little risk involved. (i.e. being present during the feeding and making sure the rodent is fed and hydrated before placing it in with the snake)

I don't want this to become a live vs ft discussion its just a suggestion for part of your group.

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That is what I meant, heh, sorry. I wasn't very thourogh. Half my snakes eat live. But my female ball python was a rescue I adopted and she has some major bite marks on her from her old owner just leaving mice in with her for a few days...poor girl. I will cover both ends :)

Ok, for the first meeting, I do just plan to get to know everyone. I just wanted to 'discuss topics for future meeting' And was needing idea's to throw at them to see which ones they are going to want to talk about next.

Everyone that is coming already owns reptiles. So I am going to wait a bit on the enclosure husbandry talk.

I like getting a local herp vet involved as a later idea! I didn't even think of that!

I love all the replies. Again, I have snakes that only eat live and my meaning was 'what happens when feeding live unsupervised' as you have corrected :)

Thanks for all the idea's. Keep them coming as I am making a list of 'future topics' so I can get plans together!