Reptile Expo, Oakes PA

This weekend I traveled about an hour (near Philly) to attend my first reptile expo. It was madness. Hundreds of vendors selling snakes, lizards, spiders, turtles, tortoises, and lots of frozen mice, rats etc.

I got to see my first Aldabra (outside of a zoo), and tons of leopards, red foots, cherry heads, Russians, Greeks, pancakes, and sulcatas. All of these tortoises are banned for sale in my home state of NJ, so it was really cool to see all the species that I’ve only read about or seen in YouTube videos.

It was tough however seeing so many reptiles in cramped little plastic containers without space to move around … but I guess space is limited at these vendor tables. I did hear one vendor tell a dad and his young son that the sulcata tortoise for sale at his table “… wouldn’t get much bigger and it was already a few years old.” The tortoise was only about 8 inches or so, and I’m sure it still had at least another foot or so of growing to do.

I did see many hatchlings of different species. Among the leopards, a few had an irregular number of scutes. And some were hunched, in that the shell was not domed symmetrically, but steeper behind the base of the head.

Does anyone know what causes either of these two abnormalities?

I did purchase a nice piece of driftwood to put inside the new enclosure which I ordered recently.

Your lucky you could purchase from that show. Most, not all, but most vendors at those shows don't raise tortoises the right way not do they have the knowledge that like to think they have. A sulcata will get a lot bigger than the 8 inches you estimate it to be.

I only purchased a piece of driftwood, not a tortoise. I attached a picture.

And the sulcata that was about 8 inches long was easily going to grow another foot or two. But the vendor told the prospective customer that it was basically full-grown.

Nsav said:

I only purchased a piece of driftwood, not a tortoise. I attached a picture.

And the sulcata that was about 8 inches long was easily going to grow another foot or two. But the vendor told the prospective customer that it was basically full-grown.

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I'm sure he did. That's why so many Sulcatas are stuck in tiny aquariums. The bad breeders, like at most of the reptile shows and stores, tell people whatever they need to, too make a sale. 99.9% of what they say are lies.

It was a good experience for you to see what's available in the reptile world. Most of the shows I've been to were mostly snakes and lizards, and my interest is turtles and tortoises, so besides supplies, there's not much to interest me at reptile shows here on my section of the world.

I think the shell anomaly that you spoke of may be attributed to diet, but I'm not sure.

Thanks Yvonne. I was very excited to go and see the turtles and tortoises (my only interest too) but came back a little depressed.

Nsav said:

Thanks Yvonne. I was very excited to go and see the turtles and tortoises (my only interest too) but came back a little depressed.

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Its why I've never gone to one. I don't think I could handle it...

I'm pretty sure the sulcata has more than a foot or two left to grow. I got Mojo from an expo. Prior to really knowing anything about most reptiles, we actually won him as a door prize. I just wanted to go and see all the reptiles. I don't think I could go to another one, knowing what I know now. I would get kicked out for calling them out on their 🐂💩