I have to be honest and say that I am writing this story under the pressure of a lot of jealousy, as I was not able to be there personally. That being said, on September 17, 2011 the people of Toronto were host to the Canadian Reptile Breeders Expo which boasted what some in attendance said was 100 plus vendors total. One of the major points that I would have been attracted to was the Wall of Breeders that was created by Ricky’s Reptile Enclosures Inc., which in itself could have been a show on the ball python species. One person in attendance said the following
“Ricky did a good job of putting the wall together for all the top breeders to showcase their best ball pythons at the show. There were some beautiful morphs being displayed.”
Most people I spoke with said that the overall ambience was a positive one and that due to the larger space available the vendors were able to have bigger booths this time around as compared to previous shows in the past. Everyone also agreed that the purchases that were made throughout the weekend were an even split between animals and products such as substrates, enclosures, décor, etc.
One commented that as a store themselves they sold ‘mostly accessories and jewelry’. Something that surprised vendors and me was that the show seemed slightly busier on Saturday than on Sunday. Evidently, in Canada as it is here in the United States more people are expected on Sundays as this is the time when people return to haggle over prices knowing that breeders are more willing to make deals.
Outside of Ricky’s Reptile Enclosures Inc.’s Wall of Breeders display people seemed to enjoy the conservation efforts of several organizations in attendance. When it came to guest speakers one of my good friends Marc from Little Res Q made a big hit talking about turtles. Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre said that their personal conservation message was very well received. As is the case with any reptile show that I have ever attended, that is often commented on but completely out of control of the organizer is that of variety of reptile species offered for sale.
As for the overall take away about the show that was told to me via e-mails and phone calls was that, the show was a huge success for most if not all vendors and was well worth the cost of admission. Someone said to me that the CRBE is a great place for those who want to learn more about reptiles as there are many breeders ‘who are heavily involved in the industry that will talk to you for hours about why reptiles make great pets.’
So what is on the list for next year? I have no insider knowledge but one thing I can say with confidence is that I am definitely going to be there as I want to experience not only Ricky’s Reptile Enclosures Wall of Breeders but I also want to see how our friends in the North support the reptile species especially after hearing all the glowing reviews. Until then I look forward to hearing more reports from all of our Canadian reptile lovers about what is going on up there.
The Canadian Reptile Breeders and Exotic Pet Expo is a convention with vendors from across the USA, Canada and overseas venturing to the Canadian capital of herps for a weekend of events coming together to share the knowledge along with passion of working with reptiles. Check out https://canadianpetexpo.ca/ for tickets and information for the next Canadian Pet Expo.
John F Taylor is Editor-in-Chief at Reptile Apartment, a project that originally started as a book but found it’s way to an awesome website that attempts to document all of the species of reptile, insects/arachnids, and amphibians that could be kept safely in an apartment setting.
