It was a great show. I was expecting more vendors, but we had a fun couple hours there. Listened to Jerry Novak from PNW Turtleworks, "Common Sense Keeping of Turtles and Tortoises in the Pacific Northwest". He sure has a laid back approach to keeping torts. Didn't stick around for any of the other speakers. All the good torts got snatched up quickly. It was a two day show, but I doubt there was much of anything left today.
Highlight of the show for us was "Donatello", a 70 lb Sulcata! They had a photo booth set up where someone took your photo with him, expecting donations. So, no photo of him as I didn't feel like that was a good idea. They were feeding him strawberries with tongs so I hope new Sulcata owners didn't get the wrong idea that strawberries were a good choice. It was cool they had a conservation section where you could handle animals not for sale (I think they were all from the Pacific Northwest Herpetological Society). Many were rescues and their stories were told. Very cool. Strong use of hand sanitizer with individuals requiring you to use it upon entering and exiting the area--that makes me happy. Most of the vendors had it too. I hate when they don't have it at the shows.
It saddened us some very very torts were being sold. Especially one Russian I think that if I picked him up I would have seen his egg sack (they had them in deli containers too small for the hatchlings to turn around, with netting over it so you couldn't pick up the containers).
Didn't find the vendor with the organic flowers like I had seen in Puyallup--I still regret not asking for the contact info from that person as I don't have the means to grow that type of stuff. No T-Rex bulbs either--I ordered mine online when I got home. Didn't spend any money expect the $20 for the two of us to get in. Nicely run for a first-time show. The only things I think they could have done better were to get a larger venue (over-crowded as typical for these things), and to hand out a speaker schedule, as if I hadn't looked up the schedule online and took note of it, we wouldn't have known.
http://www.emeraldcityreptileexpo.com/
Highlight of the show for us was "Donatello", a 70 lb Sulcata! They had a photo booth set up where someone took your photo with him, expecting donations. So, no photo of him as I didn't feel like that was a good idea. They were feeding him strawberries with tongs so I hope new Sulcata owners didn't get the wrong idea that strawberries were a good choice. It was cool they had a conservation section where you could handle animals not for sale (I think they were all from the Pacific Northwest Herpetological Society). Many were rescues and their stories were told. Very cool. Strong use of hand sanitizer with individuals requiring you to use it upon entering and exiting the area--that makes me happy. Most of the vendors had it too. I hate when they don't have it at the shows.
It saddened us some very very torts were being sold. Especially one Russian I think that if I picked him up I would have seen his egg sack (they had them in deli containers too small for the hatchlings to turn around, with netting over it so you couldn't pick up the containers).
Didn't find the vendor with the organic flowers like I had seen in Puyallup--I still regret not asking for the contact info from that person as I don't have the means to grow that type of stuff. No T-Rex bulbs either--I ordered mine online when I got home. Didn't spend any money expect the $20 for the two of us to get in. Nicely run for a first-time show. The only things I think they could have done better were to get a larger venue (over-crowded as typical for these things), and to hand out a speaker schedule, as if I hadn't looked up the schedule online and took note of it, we wouldn't have known.
http://www.emeraldcityreptileexpo.com/
