When I got there the LIHS sign was already up and Rich M.
and Ann were already there setting up the papers. Rich H. was also there along
with John H (all board members with the exception of Ann and myself). Vin R.
the LIHS president had the next table over for his business, Cutting Edge Herp. The
animals he sells live up to the name, they are definitely ‘cutting edge’. He mostly
sells high end boas and ball pythons and his leucistic Ball Pythons are
exceptional!
The doors opened to the public at 9, or were supposed to
have opened then. I am pretty sure they opened a bit earlier than that and the
crowd started to make its way inside. Truthfully it was not all that crowded
once the doors opened, it actually about a half hour or so for it to achieve a
pretty full condition. Once it reached that stage, it did not begin to thin out
until about 2:30 in the afternoon, about a half hour before the doors were scheduled
to close. For most of the day the place was packed with buyers and gawkers.
While most of the people who come to herp (reptile amphibian) shows come to buy, there is always
a good amount of folks who come just to look at all the critters for sale.
There is almost always enough variety of scaled and slimy creatures to rival
the reptile house at any zoo. Today’s offering were no exception.
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| A Lot of Variety On One Table |
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| Crested Gecko (source Wikipedia) |
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| My Female Hermann's Tortoise from a few years back. |
Of course, there were the chelonians that rounded out the reptiles
at the show. Among them were tortoises such as: Hermann’s Tortoises (one I was
displaying and only one for sale and I waited too long; it was gone when I
checked on it with an idea of buying it if a male), Asian Box Turtles,
Hingeback Tortoises, Russian Tortoises, an Indian Star Tortoise, and Redfoot Tortoises.
There were also turtles including an Alligator Snapping. I have to say, I do not recall seeing many water turtles there today. There were a few but I think not any Red Eared Sliders which are usually at these shows in good number.
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| Blue Poison Dart Frogs (source Wikipedia) |
As far as amphibians
went, there were an awful lot of frogs such as the Blue Poison Dart Frog,
a large number of Red Eyed Tree Frogs ,
also a lot of Argentine Horned Frogs and quite a few others.
Too bad, I did not see even one salamander or newt. For some reason, they are
not all that common at herp shows in this area although they are interesting
animals and many are easy to keep for the herp enthusiast.
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| Ann and Rich M. at the LIHS table. |
I did mention, didn't I, that I could not go to a herp show without buying
something. I am pretty much well passed the stage of buying herps on impulse
and did not buy any today. I did see that Hermann’s Tortoise, I mentioned
above, in which I had an interest. Too bad I did not check to see if the dealer
would offer me a dealer price (one advantage of volunteering is having a vendor
badge to wear, the other is getting into the expo for free). I figured I would
ask at the end of the show if he still had it but it was gone about an hour
before then! I am not even sure I would have purchased it but when I arrived at
the show I was sure I wanted to buy a male Hermann’s Tortoise to replace the
one I had that disappeared from my yard this past June. While sitting at the
LIHS table, I became somewhat uncertain as to whether or not I wanted to buy a
male all that much. The Hermann’s Tortoise I had on display was always believed
by me to very probably be a female since the egg from which it hatched was
incubated at temperatures that should have virtually assured it to hatch out
female (sex can be determined in tortoises by egg incubation temperatures).
Well, while showing it off to folks at the LIHS table and allowing kids to pet
it under its chin while Ann or I held it out to the kids, it apparently peed a
few times. Normally tortoises do not pass much liquid urine, it is usually more
of a white chalky clump. Today though, the little booger squirted out liquid
about four or five times. Then it looked as if it was pooping. As I put it
down, I noticed that it was not poop sticking out of its cloaca (the single
opening shared for urination, emptying the bowels and for reproduction) but was
its tally-whacker (yes, as in male sexual organ). I guess it wasn’t urine!
I had just mentioned to Ann, a bit earlier, that this
tortoise seemed to have a pretty wide tail for one that thought would turn out a female. It is only
about 1 year and 4 months old and I would have thought it too young to be sexed
but there is no doubt after seeing it’s wiener, females just don’t have em. I
now have to wonder if the other one, incubated along with this one but from the
second clutch of eggs that my adult female laid, is also a male when I thought
for sure it would be a female. I will give a look at its tail. If as wide as
the now proven male, I will assume it is also a male. If its tail is much
narrower, there is a good chance it will be a female but it also still could be
a male that is maturing slower. Time will tell. While the little newly realized
male (only just over 4 inches long) will probably not be mature enough to breed
by next spring, there is a chance it will be able to do so by Spring 2014.
Missing a year of them breeding will not be a big deal for me. Thus I was not all
that anxious about checking on the Hermann’s Tortoise that was for sale at the
show.
As I said though, it being a herp show, I had to buy
something. I got a bag of Keeper's Choice red cypress substrate (used for substrate in the tortoise
enclosure) and some tortoise food pellets (used as a supplement for the Hermann’s
Tortoises’ vegetarian diet and for my sole Redfoot Tortoise’s omnivorous diet).
In addition I picked up a couple of Exo Terra, Solar Glo, mercury vapor bulbs which I use to assure
the tortoises get UVA and UVB radiation in their lighting (necessary for their well-being)
and enough heat in their enclosures. I also bought a piece of cork bark to add
to my Crested Gecko enclosure. This one basically forms a snug (for a crested
gecko) hollow tube and they will love using it as a hiding place during the
daylight hours; there are nocturnal. Oh, I actually did buy some animals but
not any herps. I picked up a box of 500 small crickets for the three crested
geckos and one small toad that I keep. I had best attend to them now and get a
tank set up for them. They should last me a month or more if care for them
right. The lizards will each eat several a day. The toad will eat them while
they stay fairly small and will gobble down as many or more, in a day, than
each lizard will eat. All in all I spent about $110. Had I sold the Hermann’s
Tortoise, and I had plenty of people asking if
would sell it, I would have wound up with a net profit of $15 to $40 for
the day dependent on a sale price. As it was, I figured I would keep him for
now and anyway, sales from the LIHS table are frowned upon, a bit, since it is
a society table and not really a vendor table. If I do decide to sell it, I
will offer it up at the LIHS show next month (that is if I can attend, right
now I am scheduled to work that day but I am looking to trade days with
someone).
Well, that was the Long Island Reptile Expo, October 2012,
in a tortoise shell.
