Orlando Reptile Show

[oki-inu]

I went to the reptile show Saturday, it was small and not as crowded as they usually are. There was quite a selection of reptiles though. Some of the more interesting to me were the candoia boas - quite a few of them, collared lizards, horned lizards, and a lot of interesting turtles. There were some venomous snakes for sale for the first time I have seen in Florida and a few mammals, most notably a very cute skunk and an opossom.

I kept an eye out for garters, there were a few mixed in among the many containers. Some baby easterns for $10, a couple of checkereds for $20. There was one labeled Eastern Blue Garter - pic below - for $12. I came very close to buying it but my wife's words kept echoing in the back of my head - no new animals! I'm not so sure of the blue eastern label, I know there is a variety on the western coast of Florida and I have seen some called blue eastern that were not from there. I don't know how that works. If it was a Puget Sound I would have went for it. The 3rd time I passed the table it was gone. I think it was wild caught, it was among other wild caught snakes. There was a small rough green snake, a bunch of ribbon snakes and some baby black racers. The racers were $5 and as much as I would love to keep one I just don't have the space for one.

I'm still hoping to find a breeder who specializes in garters at one of these shows. Such an underrated snake.

All in all it was worth the time and I picked up some frozen mice and rats.



I keep wishing I had bought that one. Oh well, can't buy them all.

[mustang]

cool..shoulda gotten more pics

[tspuckler]

I agree, that does not look like a blue. Some Florida Easterns have a distinctive "look" and that snake seems to fall into that category. Here's a photo of a very old (and big) Florida Eastern that I used to have - I think that baby snake would look like this as an adult:

[ssssnakeluvr]

looks like a baby florida blue eastern to me....

[tspuckler]

looks like a baby florida blue eastern to me....

So are you saying it's a similis or a sirtalis?

[adamanteus]

T.s.sirtalis.

[drui9201]

"Florida Blue" is in regards to the sirtalis. "Florida Blue Striped" is in regards to similis. That is a "Florida blue" sirtalis. Both common names include the word "blue".

[oki-inu]

More pics?

[oki-inu]

[oki-inu]

The skunk was so cute.