Did more education at Petco

[Skyrivers]

I advertised on FB this time and had a steady flow of people from 12 to 8 come out to see all the snakes. So much fun. Everyone gave permission for photos to be shared.

Sent from my N9560 using Tapatalk

[KevinK]

Sounds like a great time, good on you!

Honest question...because Ive been asked to do this from Petco for some sort of reptile meet and greet day.....did you notice any changes from your retic in the store? As in, from the amount of rats and rabbits they sell? That would be one of my concerns while having the general public holding the animal but I guess if a retic was okay I shouldn't have any worries lol.

[Skyrivers]

Sounds like a great time, good on you!

Honest question...because Ive been asked to do this from Petco for some sort of reptile meet and greet day.....did you notice any changes from your retic in the store? As in, from the amount of rats and rabbits they sell? That would be one of my concerns while having the general public holding the animal but I guess if a retic was okay I shouldn't have any worries lol.

I have no clue about their sales. Don't work for them. Rainbow was chill the entire time with no issues at all. We were close to the rat section and she would sit in her box with lid off and then would take her out an hold some and go back no issues. She is well fed and she is an exceptional animal as far as personality goes. She did pee on one guy though. LOL. He was good about it. Is part of life. I have noticed that they are having a hard time keeping BPs and other reptiles in stock as of late. Not sure if that is because of me or not though. Jus spreading the love.

Take your retic in the store a few times just to visit and see how he/she does. She will communicate with you any issues before you start handing her around. Rainbow is socialized a lot.

[Bogertophis]

Sounds like a great time, good on you!

Honest question...because Ive been asked to do this from Petco for some sort of reptile meet and greet day.....did you notice any changes from your retic in the store? As in, from the amount of rats and rabbits they sell? That would be one of my concerns while having the general public holding the animal but I guess if a retic was okay I shouldn't have any worries lol.

I've taken a snake to my local Petco's Reptile Rally "meet & greet" in the past several times (not a retic, but a large BCI & a 7' Florida rat snake, etc), they don't seem
to notice the scents of any potential prey in the store, they've always behaved perfectly, meeting strangers of all ages. Don't recall seeing a retic there, but someone
had a burm & various other snakes too. I've worried some about the chance of picking up mites from doing this though, so I don't always attend.

[Jnksnakes]

I don't know exactly how the smell issues works. My burms, retics, boas, balls, everything are SIDE by SIDE with my rat racks. I mean literally: Burms Cage - 2" gap - Rat racks - 2" gap - Rack Systems. My retics especially tend to end up on top of the wire mesh of a rat cage while i'm trying to hold them and clean sometimes and they come right out when I pull them away and are always just exploring, never trying to eat the rats. Now, Wednesdays when I have a bucket of frozen rats thawing in front of their rack for a few hours..... You better open the tub with a hook or get a gnarly bite to the face LOL

[Jnksnakes]

I advertised on FB this time and had a steady flow of people from 12 to 8 come out to see all the snakes. So much fun. Everyone gave permission for photos to be shared.

Sent from my N9560 using Tapatalk

How do you go about this when you do it? Me and my wife are considering doing some local educational things with our array of animals, but I don't have a clue where to start or how to deliver this idea to local businesses\advertising myself. Do you just strictly talk about the facts of the animals when you have them out our are their other things worth talking about?

[Skyrivers]

How do you go about this when you do it? Me and my wife are considering doing some local educational things with our array of animals, but I don't have a clue where to start or how to deliver this idea to local businesses\advertising myself. Do you just strictly talk about the facts of the animals when you have them out our are their other things worth talking about?

For starting out I took Rainbow in the PetSmart near my house. PetSmart has stick rules about not allowing people to do this so I had an entire chain of stores close the door in my face right off the bat. Then I drove about 45 min to PetCo. They all were going nuts over Rainbow and so I asked about bringing them out to do education on the weekends. This was after I had already had several conversations with their herps workers about husbandry issues and saw the improvement they worked to make. Was told that I was welcome anytime I want to come. So I checked out the store then got to know the staff and they loved my animals already. Door open.

When I am showing off the snakes, it varies the level of information I provide. I try to throw education out there as much as I can. I get a lot of kids coming out so some are just so excited and nervous in the beginning that proper handling is all the info they get for starters. Adults ask about care and first time snake species to get as pets. This is my opportunity to work with people to help with proper husbandry information. I even had questions about lizards and spiders. I know very little about spiders as I don't keep them. I never act like I know more than I do and if I don't know I try to look it up and get people to do research before acquiring any animal.

I have grown so much the past year with my animals and want to share my love with others.

ALWAYS..... let me repeat.... ALWAYS keep a close eye on the animals as much as the people handling them. If you notice your animal getting stressed or moving around more than normal, don't feel bad about boxing it up and not letting anyone handle them the rest of the day. I work hard to make sure no one had a bad experience. Be ready to take a bite, more so than any other time. Better I get bit than one of the kids that has their hands on one of my animals.

Some of my animals don't like certain people. There is this one guy that keeps coming by and asking to hold Rainbow. Rainbow doesn't like him. IDK why? Last time I diverted him to holding another animal. She always tries to get away from him and if she cant get away she pees and poops on him to prove her point. When I took her from him the last time I allowed him to hold her she crawled around my body and was breathing heavily for a few minuets and could visibly see she was stressed. After being on my shoulders and arms a few minuets after he left she relaxed again. He didn't do anything I could see to her. She just doesn't like him almost to the point of panic. She saw me as safe and gave him the stink eye until he left. This was the only time I was worried she might actually bite someone. Happy she didn't though. It was interesting to have a 10 Ft snake grab you and crawl to you quickly for safety like a small child. She was fast and visibly nervous. She would not go into her box which should have been another safe place for her. She is strong and makes me appreciate how difficult it would be to argue with her when she is full grown.

So much to think about cant mention it all. ALWAYS put the animals safety high as public safety.

Will be happy to talk more about this anytime.

[CALM Pythons]

I don't know exactly how the smell issues works. My burms, retics, boas, balls, everything are SIDE by SIDE with my rat racks. I mean literally: Burms Cage - 2" gap - Rat racks - 2" gap - Rack Systems. My retics especially tend to end up on top of the wire mesh of a rat cage while i'm trying to hold them and clean sometimes and they come right out when I pull them away and are always just exploring, never trying to eat the rats. Now, Wednesdays when I have a bucket of frozen rats thawing in front of their rack for a few hours..... You better open the tub with a hook or get a gnarly bite to the face LOL

Thats interesting, and Strange. Only because I dont understand of course. You commented on my post a while back about this subject so I’ve had the Burm 10ft from the Rats now for a couple weeks and so far so good.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jnksnakes]

Neat! Yeah the main thing I would be worried about with doing this is the stress on the animals. I have a local petco 5 mins from my house. I might talk to them about trying something like this

[Skyrivers]

Neat! Yeah the main thing I would be worried about with doing this is the stress on the animals. I have a local petco 5 mins from my house. I might talk to them about trying something like this

I worked them up to this. I socialized them slowly at first. Then over time they would start crawling to another person once they offered their hand. Saturday morning no one is hiding. They are all out and looking to see if I am going to take them out. Even the BPs are ready. I don't think they look forward to it but they expect the routine. If one shows signs of stress I respect that and either don't take them or if stress developed while in the store I put it away and not let anyone handle them. Sunday and Monday I handle the least. That way they can rest up and decompress after a busy day being passed around. The only 2 who have ever missed a meal is Bob and Shiva the 2 BPs who went off food 3 weeks ago. Both of them at the same time. They are both healthy and were looking a little chunky so is not surprising they are thinking about breeding over eating.

I am happy to answer any questions you might have.