MN Reptile Show yesterday

http://mnreptileshow.vpweb.com/

Did anybody else go, and if so, what did you think of it? I was both pleased and disappointed. Pleased that it happened at all, as to my knowledge, we've never really had reptile shows in the twin cities before, and it'd be nice to see them happen more often. Disappointed in the size (one medium to large size conference room in the hotel it was in, not a ton of vendors). Those who were there mainly had BPs, with a few boas & retics thrown in, and plenty of leopard & crested geckos.

The one cage vendor had some nice big cages shown with animals in them (a green anaconda and an adult retic, which were both cool to see up close & personal).

I was hoping to see more rainbow boas & carpet pythons (6 baby rainbows & a single baby coastal looking carpet at the whole show as far as I saw), but it was certainly better than the nothing we've had before. I did have my mind changed about some BP morphs while there, though; my girlfriend pointed out the cinnamon and black pastel BPs that crestedgecko.com had on display, and I must say that pictures truly don't do them justice. I was very impressed with how "velvety" they looked.

Sadly, there didn't seem to be any Rhacodactylus leachianus at the show - we really wanted to see (and hopefully handle) one or more of them.

We successfully resisted the urge to buy more animals, but it was very cool to see some of the new leo & crestie morphs in person. I've always thought sunglow leos looked cool in pictures, and they didn't disappoint.

Anyway, if anyone else went, I'd be interested to hear your impressions (and of course see pics of any new animals you may have picked up).

Having been to NARBC, the Iowa reptile show, and WIRE in Wisconsin in the past 3 months, I have to say that the MN show was bigger than two of those (with NARBC being the biggest of course).

Don't be dissapointed in the size, most local shows are even smaller.

I was also disappointed at the rainbow boas and carpet pythons, but we DID walk away with one of the female rainbows, and was exactly the kind of rainbow my gf was looking for (nice bright red color).

I liked the show, and we can only expect future ones to be bigger.

As far as lacking carpet pythons, rainbow boas, and leachies, give me another 3 years and I'm going to be producing them all :P

Well I will chime in since I am from Minnesota too. However I was unable to make it to the show. I did not find out about it until the day of the show, had my niece here for the weekend and would not have had the gas to drive frorm St.Cloud anyways. But maybe I will be at the next one....assuming they come back.

They are going to be semiannual I believe.

I guess maybe my expectations were a bit off, size-wise, but I'm definitely glad to hear that it's going to be semiannual; maybe by the time the next one rolls around, I'll actually be in a position to make a purchase. (Right now space and funds are a bit limited, but I wanted to go just for the experience of going.)

I was there as a vendor and I was very happy with the turnout. I've been at the Des Moines show several years and this was a better turnout from the general public then I've seen in Des Moines. There weren't as many vendors but this is the first show. I was also happy to see the diversity, I saw frogs and salamanders and tortoises and kingsnakes along with the typical corns balls boas and leopard geckos that you see at every other table at most of the other shows I've been at. I've got some pictures up too in the herp events forum here's a link if you want to see them. ---> MN Reptile Show

Fellow Minnesotians ~ I missed it too sadly. I echo everyone's sentiments. I'm looking for a large adult animal, so I hope to find something next time around. I would like to adopt one.:gj:

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Originally Posted by Chocolate Muffin's

Fellow Minnesotians ~ I missed it too sadly. I echo everyone's sentiments. I'm looking for a large adult animal, so I hope to find something next time around. I would like to adopt one.:gj:

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If you truely wish to 'adopt' one rather then buy one, we often have adult ball pythons up for adoption through the MN herp society. http://www.bellmuseum.org/herpetology/

Thank you, I should have been more clear. A larger adult boa. I would love a Burm, but I think their size is out of my comfort zone. But an full size RTB, Argie or a Dumeril's would be nice, but I know large adults like these are harder to find.

am I right?

Thanks Mark!

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Originally Posted by MarkS

If you truely wish to 'adopt' one rather then buy one, we often have adult ball pythons up for adoption through the MN herp society. http://www.bellmuseum.org/herpetology/

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Hey, this is a great place to adopt. Thank you. a + rep for you. I am going to join. Looks like there are some larger ones available.

Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Chocolate Muffin's

Thank you, I should have been more clear. A larger adult boa. I would love a Burm, but I think their size is out of my comfort zone. But an full size RTB, Argie or a Dumeril's would be nice, but I know large adults like these are harder to find.

am I right?

Thanks Mark!

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Actually, large adult boas come in pretty often too. We do get more that are a medium size, but large adults do come in. I'm a member of the adoption committee so I get to see a lot of them before they become available to the membership at the meetings. I don't remember seeing any Arg's recently but there have been a few dumerils over the past couple of years. Just remember that these animals were either confiscated by animal control and turned over to us or surrendered to us directly by their former owners for adoption and while most are in pretty fair condition, some do need a little extra TLC and you should ALWAYS practice good quarantine.

I really wanted to attend the show (I have never been to one before), but it is about a 3 hour round trip drive, and we were just in the Twin Cities the day before for my niece's first birthday party. So, we decided we could only make one of the events, and of course the reptile show got trumped by the birthday party.

Funny thing -- I was looking on craigslist and someone supposedly bought a couple of boas at the show, and is already selling them because he got shot down by the wife. http://rmn.craigslist.org/pet/1711153532.html Sounds kind of dumb and fishy at the same time...

Hmmm...I just noticed the seller's e-mail address, and it makes it seem a little more odd. His wife won't let him have snakes, but yet his e-mail address is "rochesterreptiles.com"?

Is he buying at shows and then trying to turnaround and sell for a profit?

(I have no idea how much Dumeril Boas would sell for at a show)

All just seems kind of weird that a person would buy two boas and then get denied by the wife -- wouldn't you have the setup ready and have everything approved and lined up before making the purchase?

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Originally Posted by chapskis1

Hmmm...I just noticed the seller's e-mail address, and it makes it seem a little more odd. His wife won't let him have snakes, but yet his e-mail address is "rochesterreptiles.com"?

Is he buying at shows and then trying to turnaround and sell for a profit?

(I have no idea how much Dumeril Boas would sell for at a show)

All just seems kind of weird that a person would buy two boas and then get denied by the wife -- wouldn't you have the setup ready and have everything approved and lined up before making the purchase?

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I actually saw this guy buy them and his wife was with him..... Carried one of the snake bags...

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Originally Posted by chapskis1

Hmmm...I just noticed the seller's e-mail address, and it makes it seem a little more odd. His wife won't let him have snakes, but yet his e-mail address is "rochesterreptiles.com"?

Is he buying at shows and then trying to turnaround and sell for a profit?

(I have no idea how much Dumeril Boas would sell for at a show)

All just seems kind of weird that a person would buy two boas and then get denied by the wife -- wouldn't you have the setup ready and have everything approved and lined up before making the purchase?

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Hmmm. The guys name is Jesse? And he's from the southern part of the state? That Trips something in the back of my memory. There was a guy many years ago from that area named Jesse Underhill that has some bad BOI threads against him. I wonder if it's the same guy?

IIRC those dums were listed @ $300 for the pair @ the show, so it sounds like the guy is trying to make a quick $50. Seems almost silly, and realistically, they weren't so large that I'd think someone would be frightened of them as "large snakes in the house." It's not like we're talking about full grown female BCIs here...

Got a call from Jason Cruse (the guy who is putting on the show) and he says that the next scheduled MN show will be Sunday August 15th.