Viewing 1 - 6 out of 6 Blogs.

Once again we were invited to join the Nor. Cal. Herp Society at  UC Davis for Picnic Day. There was some tension in our building as the reptile people were sharing the same room with the rabbit rescue people (right in the middle to boot). I am sure the big albino burm at the other end would have enjoyed a free rabbit dinner.

Sam had arrived home at 3 AM Saturday morning after spending the last couple days on the road and I had been up until then trying to get animals packed. We both were exhausted. If it hadn't been for Xavier, Kat, Lalee and Zidari of PythonsRus we would have been very grumpy with the massive throng of people streaming through our booth all day. They kindly volunteered to help us with our booth and BOY! did we appreciate their presence.

Thank you PythonsRus! We couldn't have done it without you.

We had taken a some of our more unusual animals as we knew there would be the usual presence of lg snakes and monitors. Our tarantulas and scorpions were the most popular as we allowed people to pet and handle these animals. I think we consistantly had the most people at our booth.

We will be back next year. With RG present this time. I didn't think to invite Robert until about 2 Am Sat. morning. Then I called him when we were finished setting up but he already had plans. SORRY ROBERT! (And my apologies to Marcie too if I woke you up also)

Sam has been wanting a Cape File Snake (Mehelya capensis) for ever. He finally got one and guess what? He's on the road and I get to open the box!!!!! Yes there is a God. I had the pleasure of calling him and informing him of the arrival of MY snake. What an awesome animal. Rather primative with very unusual scalation.
Here is a pic. Check out others on our page.

Our baby mangrove is finally here. It was one of 2 eggs. The other died in the egg
And this beautiful little guy is a guy WHAAAAA! So I don't get to keep him. I was so hoping for a girl. He is one day old today.

 So what do you think? More clues to come if needed.

Our industry has long been aware of the risky investment asian imports can be. We at GBU Enterprises being aware of this issue have chosen our importer with great care. Through him we have learned of the unscrupulous way animals can be  treated overseas. Starting with the collectors, our collectors only collect during the season best suited for each species, ensuring better health and acclimation. Only juvenile or sub adults are accepted for this very reason. Animals are not collected by pouring poisonous liquids like gasoline down their holes.
There are two grades of animals available for sale, food grade and pet grade. Food grade animals are kept in very poor conditions as they are only meant for food or medicinal purposes. Food grade animals have been known to have had their gall bladders removed. They are also pumped full of liquid to make them appear "fat and sassy" which increases their weight there for increasing their value. These animals come in looking really good. They will even feed, but then a slow decline is noted or they  suddenly just die due to the trauma to their digestive system caused by the forced pumping of fluid into them.
We have chosen to spend more on pet trade animals. These animals come in very clean. Our last shipment was over 100 animals. We did not find a single mite. The animals might be a bit thinner, but this is because they have not been artificially pumped to look heavy. They are all young animals and when available captive bred overseas. They have been collected with care because the collectors understand the  value of these animals in their health not their weight.
So it is important to ask how these animals have been collected and what were they collected for.
We hope this information has been helpful to you as there are many wonderful asian animals out there that can greatly benefit by hobbyist taking greater interest in breeding them as habitat loss will continue and the "need" for food or so call medicine overseas will not stop, as much as we all wish it to end.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Eid, etc.... and to all that want to take the Christ out of Christmas..........Bah Humbug!!!!!!!!!
Here's to a better year for us all.
GBU Enterprises