Reptile expo super show experience

[Reptilelady]

Hello everyone,

Yesterday and today there is a reptile super show event in LA,CA. I was not really pleased and did not really enjoy myself at this expo. They pretty much had a lot of pets for sale. I was specifically looking for decor and cages. One vendor had branches/log for sale but they were too skinny. Great for baby/small beardies but i am looking for bigger thicker branches which they did not have. They also had some Melamine cages there but was a little pricey so i decided to wait on everything. Needless to say i left there with only some dubias from dubideli (80 for $5) so i figured why not right? Least get something from there to take home :lol: Disappointing for me and will know in the future is great for if your going to buy an animal but other than that, best to save your money

 

[Reptilelady]

Oh and also other benefit of going is to look at the cute beardies and other reptiles they had but i wanted to buy them all :lol:

 

[EllenD]

I'm sorry to hear that about the Los Angeles show, I thought that was one of the bigger shows in the country...I know that I've heard good things about the Pomona show, I'm assuming that's the one you went to? What a bummer, as I actually watched a video of a fairly large and well-known breeder going to the Pomona show a few years ago and if was massive at that point, with tons of anything and everything you could ever want to look at. Enclosures galore, everything from custom built to EXO Terras, lighting, decor, supplements and all types of food, any live feeders you could want in bulk, and then tons and tons of live reptiles and amphibians. But as I said, that video was from a few years ago, and actually the breeder in the video said that it had gotten smaller at that point, and that there were a lot more corporate booths there than usual, in the video I saw booths from ZooMed, EXO Terra, Zilla, Repcal, etc...

I went to a few shows this past year, there are a few big ones in the Pittsburgh area, Philadelphia area, Baltimore, Washington DC, and Cleveland. And I too noticed that they had a ton of baby beardies for sale at every single booth, along with so many live snakes for sale I couldn't believe it. I've never seen so many snakes for sale in my life...But I remember asking myself "How many normal baby bearded dragons do you need to have for sale at one show?" There were some breeder booths with 20 rearing tanks that each had 10+ baby beardies in them, all normal, no different morphs or colors, no leatherbacks or silkies, just normal baby beardies, hundreds if not thousands between 20 booths. And each booth seemed to be cheaper than the next, the least expensive I saw were normal baby beardies with tail/toe nips for $10 each, or 2 for $15... They're just flooding the market and making it impossible for the really responsible, reputable breeders that breed multiple morphs and colors to stay in business.

 

[Reptilelady]

Yeah.. it wasnt that bad.. im sure it is great for those who are new and looking to start fresh. There was good deals on tanks, beardies, other accessories... guess i was looking for a needle in a haystack so to speak, really specific stuff. Yeah and there was tons of snakes and geckos. I saw this one beardie booth that had these big guys in and they wanted 3,000 dollars. Are you serious!? I was like do they lay golden eggs too!? :lol:

Either way it was good to get out and spend an afternoon looking at reptiles

 

[Vh621]

I've only gone to the one in Whiteplains New York it's pretty awesome, always tons of animals and inverts. I've had a lot of fun there. I just got into tarantula's so when I go back in November I'm going to be getting two more lol.

 

[Reptilelady]

Nice! Glad that your into tarantula's... surprisingly im not into them its kind of ironic so when i went i saw a bunch I'm like nope... find the cute beardies sections :lol: