Tortoises, snakes and blue-tongued skinks

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This article was published 04/10/2014 (4015 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Miguel Gomez already has a bearded dragon, so he thought he might add a blue-tongued skink to the family.

“I love reptiles,” said Miguel, 10, who got his bearded dragon, a female named Phoenix, during the summer. “And these ones are really cool.”

At the Manitoba Reptile Breeder’s Expo at the Victoria Inn on Wellington Avenue near the airport on Sunday, Miguel picked up a pamphlet about skinks and talked with Melanie Pratt of Mel’s Exotics about what blue-tongued skinks need for a habitat and what goes into caring for them.

“We’re thinking about it (getting a blue-tongued skink) but not right now. I wanted him to come here and find out more about them first,” said Linda, Miguel’s mom. “Reptiles are actually really good for kids. It teaches him responsibility and the importance of proper care for an animal, as well. And they (reptiles) don’t really react like a dog would. Dogs can look for an alpha owner while a lizard, he walks around with her on his shoulder, on his chest; they don’t take to one specific owner, and that’s what we wanted.”

Nearby at the Prairie Exotics display, Devin Bunney and his Argentine black-and-white tegu were attracting quite a following of children. The Argentine black-and-white tegu, the largest species of tegu, can grow to about a metre in length and is an omnivore — it eats both meat and vegetation.

“These are not for beginners, this is not a beginner’s pet. They need a lot of time, and you need to have a good income to be able to afford all the food that they eat because they eat almost as much as a human does,” Bunney said, noting his tegu eats raw meat and likes turkey. “If they’re brought up properly and have a lot of human interaction, they’re very calm and not really dangerous. These aren’t as common as iguanas, and I just liked their big tongue and puppy-dog personality.”

Another popular stop was the Pet Traders booth where Lance Rosolowich and Tripper Stollery, the husband-and-wife team of owners, had brought along their 16-year-old African spurred tortoise, Moses. Moses was surrendered to them at their store about 11 years ago after his owner said he didn’t realize the tortoise was going to grow so big.

“He didn’t know what he was getting into. It’s really important to research what you’re buying and what you are going to keep as a pet,” Rosolowich said, noting Moses weighs about 32 kilograms but could double in weight over his lifetime. This type of tortoise can live 50 to 150 years. “He’s simple to take care of, but they get so big. In theory, in the wild he can get to about three feet (one metre) long and weigh up to 150 pounds (60 kg). Some people can take care of them. If you live on a farm and you have a heated building and lots of proper lighting. We’re fortunate because we have the space.”

Rosolowich said he and his wife plan to find Moses a home in the southern U.S. someday when they are too old to look after him.

“In some of these places, people have them as garden tortoises,” Rosolowich said, noting Moses “grazes like a cow” on grass and can live outside here in the summer.

Anika Curtis, 9, and her sister Callie, 7, and brother Eli, 4, came over to check out Moses and all three of them patted the tortoise with Anika giving him a little chin-rub and feeding him some grass inside his pen. “I really like him,” Anika said.

There were plenty of snakes, spiders and geckos for sale and a wide variety of reptiles on display including an axolotl, an amphibian sometimes called the Mexican walking fish, which is extinct in the wild, and a cane toad, a toad from Texas and South America that is an invasive species in Australia.

The event, which ended Sunday, allows anyone to have hands-on access to many different types of reptiles to learn about them, and allows interested buyers to discuss a purchase with breeders.

“These snakes are very docile and the reason I chose the ball python is they don’t get very big, they’re very friendly,” said Jhun de Guzman, owner of about 40 adult ball pythons at Ballistic Pythons.

He got his start as a ball python owner/breeder about four years ago when he bought his first snake at this very show — a female that is now about 1.2 metres long. They eat rats and feed about once every five to seven days.

De Guzman said his three-year-old son is allowed to handle the snakes under supervision, but the snakes have their own room in his basement that is locked at all times.

“It’s a hobby first and anything I make usually goes back into the hobby. I’m very careful who I sell a snake to. If you can’t care for the animal, don’t buy it in the first place. I probably turn away as many people as I sell to because they’re just not ready for the responsibility.”

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca