Pics from Tuscon Reptile Show (including a shingleback)

[LittleFoot]

They had this cute shingleback for $3800...supposedly everything in there for sale was a captive-bred.


They had a nice blotched also, he wasn't as camera friendly, got a pic of him drinking


The tanny was $100, spent most of his time hidden under the paper towel


stack-o-northens


This little gecko was gorgeous, but not for that price tag


This guy was pretty tranqued up, he never budged even with dozens of flashes going in his face...not every day though that you see a gator in a hot pink harness


They had native AZ species on display, this is an albino diamondback....omg he is beautiful



This is what I purchased, an adult mali uromastyx, he will be a future boyfriend of my girls.

[SailleSkinklover]

WOW, a Stumpie! So what was the vendor like, that had him/her? Did you get as good or an Icky-vibe from them? I want one so badly, but I live in rain/humidland, which I guess isn't so good for them. But Ohhhh, they're so Pine-coney, and I love so very much!

[Brigget]

are shinglebacks and blotchies really that much???? i noticed the prices. scary

[AndrewSeike]

Hi Littlefoot!

THanks for sharing these great photos. Did you manage to take a closer picture of the notherns?

I'd like to see their purity.

Not too many people have seen babies from pure stock especially tons of them from different animals.

Best regards,

Andrew

[LittleFoot]

Saille, the vendor with the shingleback was very nice and answered all of my questions. Both were pretty nice when I held them, but he would only let adults hold them...a lot of the vedors let anybody hold them. There were other vendors that gave me a creepy feeling, including one that had an IJ in a tank with about 30 crickets jumping on it's head.

Andrew, I don't have any closer shots, he said those were pure northern...there were several vendors that have northen/eastern crosses. I didn't see any merukes or indos and only one IJ for sale...the were mostly northerns and easterns for sale or crosses.

[LittleFoot]

they also had this guy a yellow morph was what it is sold as

[SailleSkinklover]

Hey, thanks for the info, Pippi,
I'm glad the Shingleback people seemed nice. I wish I had 3800.00 to drop on one, they're soooo cool. I wonder how it would get along with Chuff Chuff?
I can't believe those people were asking 2500 for an orange leo. Ridiculous!
By the way, what questions did you ask about the ShingleStump?

[Zach]

Wow, tangerine tornado leo geckos huh....EXACTLY what we're trying to prevent from happening to BTS.

That yellow IJ is really cool! Thanks for sharing your pictures.

[Zbiz]

That gecko is beautiful Zach! I love leos. That shingle is awesome btw!

[aggiegirl]

I would have payed money to just touch the shingleback. Thank you so much for sharing those pictures!!!! It is good to know that there are some for sale here in the states. That way when I win the lotto, one will be mine....

[mewzic-7123]

Awsome shingle back! and i noticed in the yellow morphs tank theres a radio

[Kristin]

Awsome shingle back! and i noticed in the yellow morphs tank theres a radio

[NomadOfTheHills]

Wow, tangerine tornado leo geckos huh....EXACTLY what we're trying to prevent from happening to BTS.

Why don't you like morphs again?

[Fatal_S]

I think the dislike of morphs is the idea that people are using morphs to get more money for a slightly different colored animal by selling it as super-rare. If people get into breeding BTS for specific traits, they may not care about anything else, and we lost the distinct sub-species and the true beauty of the BTS. Breeding for specific coloring isn't the problem, it's the marketing of them that tends to cause a problem. The last problem is the total loss of the original, as we're seeing in many corns and leos right now. It's actually harder to find a normal leo half the time than to find a morph. I know for a fact my local pet stores carry several morphs but only 1 or 2 normals in both cornsnakes and leos.

[Lura]

Awww, this is the first year since the show started that I missed it. Some of my friends went and told me there was a shingleback, and I didn't believe them! Now I guess I have to tell them they were right after all.

Was James Fenn there? I purchased Scout from him at that show last year

[Funda]

That shingle is SO expensive, down here there between $100-$200 and that blotch is expensive aswell there also between $100-$200. Maybe the Gecko aswell, we normally sell Geckos for about $50 but leopard Geckos maybe... $300-$600 but not quite sure...

Anyways thanks for posting there beautiful reptiles!


f.C

[kris21]

Yeah that is a lot of money for the Shingleback, but we knew that was common to see in the US. I don't think we get Leopard Geckos here in Australia.....i wanted one but i thought i read we couldn't have em. I could be wrong though, cool photos anyway and that thing you brought was neat looking too

Kris

[NomadOfTheHills]

I think the dislike of morphs is the idea that people are using morphs to get more money for a slightly different colored animal by selling it as super-rare. If people get into breeding BTS for specific traits, they may not care about anything else, and we lost the distinct sub-species and the true beauty of the BTS. Breeding for specific coloring isn't the problem, it's the marketing of them that tends to cause a problem. The last problem is the total loss of the original, as we're seeing in many corns and leos right now. It's actually harder to find a normal leo half the time than to find a morph. I know for a fact my local pet stores carry several morphs but only 1 or 2 normals in both cornsnakes and leos.

See, the problem is that breeders charge more, because of the hard work put into making their line. I would pay more for an odd colored animal. For example, Andrew probably laid out a lot of money to get his caramel/sunset lines going. Should be charge more? Yes, he should. The amount of time and money spent making that expensive leopard gecko were immense.

The lines of blueys are already so messed up, that unless you go to a good breeder, you don't know what you are getting anyway. Yes, we can't import anymore, but if you want a pure eastern you go to Ray because you know what you are getting. People really into the hobby will get pure animals. If some 10 yr old kid has a hybrid that looks cool, who does it hurt?

I'm gonna disagree about the leos and corns though, there are thousands of thousands of normal corns and leos bred everyday.

[Zbiz]

To be honest... Line bred morphs are close to impossible to produce with BTS. Why? Well for one line breeding relys on repitition which means you need to continue to breed the trait over many generations to produce the morph you are looking for. With leos its simple, they mature in a year. Which means the offspring you produce one year will be ready to breed the following season. BTS require 2 years to mature which slows the process WAY down. BTS are also unsexable till mature which means you have to keep many of the slight trait difference to find a suitable breeder. And on top of that BTS color and pattern can drasticly change from when it was young to maturity. So in essence a breeder would have to keep whole litters of bts in order to find the slight trait difference and sex hes looking for. This is extremely costly and time consuming with little return in the means of finances. Honestly line breeding is not bad. Personally i think its the only way to get the eye stripe on easterns in the US back. Unless austrailia decides to change its laws... which is not gona happen.

[NomadOfTheHills]

I think its possible, it will just take some time.