hey guys , I’m looking for ideas on animals to get for a reptile party/street zoo business idea i have for this summer and as many summers as i can. my idea is to setup a tent with a bunch of mini temporary enclosures to show off inverts, reptiles and amphibians, and certain animals could be requested to be held. I’m also planning on bringing animals to partys and events. anyway i need some ideas on a few animals to get for this, first a lizard that is about bearded dragon size and will climb on you and can live in an enclosure that is 4-5 feet long and 4 feet or shorter, also something a slightly intermediate keeper could keep. second a snake of some sort that is smaller than eight feet long (preferably a lot shorter), cool, and safe for ten year olds and older to hold, (for this I’ve already got a ball python and a few boas, and think of anything that fits this range of possibilities). last all sorts of inverts that young people but not incredibly young can hold.
also just so you know i will not consider anything unless i know i would actually love it as a pet and try not to suggest something incredibly common like a bearded dragon or BP. thank you.
Before even considering animals for this venture, I would look into the legal aspects.
For one… You most likely will need someone over the age of 18 for this to even be considered. You need to consider all aspects of things. Even something as simple as transportation. Will you have someone to help you setup your booth? How are they being paid for services?
Another issue is the insurance you would need in case anything were to happen to any of the patrons. A bite or an accidental trip that breaks an enclosure and causes injury. Even just a pony ride business needs insurance in case a child falls or a pony kicks or bites.
Then lastly is the issue of having the animals checked through local animal control. You’ll need to make sure that all of the animals you choose are permitted in your location. They may ask you to verify that the animals don’t remain in the temporary enclosures off hours or that they look healthy or have seen a vet.
I don’t mean to be a total downer. It’s just there are some things that get missed in the excitement of the idea. I used to work with a party pony ride business when I was younger and we had to keep up on a lot of stuff outside of just the animal upkeep and ride part.
You might consider getting involved with your nearest herp society. They often have well thought out outreach programs that are a little like what you’re suggesting, and you may be able to get involved with their events.
Doing something like this in anything other than an extremely well planned and supported manner would be very detrimental to the herp hobby. This sort of business would take a serious amount of time even to plan the outlines of, a lot of financial input and a lot of keeping experience with the species and the specific animals involved, and would take a small group of reliable people to operate once it is underway.
The herp species choice is probably the least important aspect of planning – at least, once all the other things are in place, the species choices would pretty much make themselves.
Definitely agree that there are some logistical and legal things that need to be sorted out. I love @socraticmonologue’s suggestion of looking into volunteering with a local herp society, or any other group near you that does educational outreach with reptiles. My local exotics vet actually has a couple days a year when they have clinic staff and friends/family bring in all their exotic pets and members of the public can come interact with them. (Point being, if you don’t have a herp society nearby, there still may be other outfits you could work with for educational outreach type stuff.) That would be a great way to learn about the nuts and bolts of actually putting on an educational program like you want to do.
I’d recommend against this, honestly. Inverts are just so delicate, there are so many ways an invert could get injured, lost, or killed in this situation. My advice would be to have inverts primarily be “look but don’t touch” animals where the general public is involved.
@fnek If I am not mistaken you are still fairly young? What you want to do is a project I would consider for someone a few years older with more experience with life in general. By then you will hopefully understand this project involves way more than just choosing desirable animals and setting up tents and habitats.
The advice and suggestions given above are sound. I don’t know where you are located but if there is a zoo nearby you could volunteer there. You won’t get paid but you will get a lot of experience and probably have a lot of fun.
Btw weren’t you planning on breeding some boas? I know you already have quite a few animals.
I know that there is a lot more than picking animals, its just the part of it i am thinking about at this very moment, also, yes i am working on a boa breeding project but i have to wait a little while to start the actual project as its not the recommend breeding time.
I will add that as someone who does reptile education and brings my animals to events/programs/parties, you definitely need to have the logistical stuff figured out. How are you transporting these animals? How are their enclosures set up? Under what circumstances can people request to hold or touch them? Do you have insurance for when someone accidentally injures your animal (god forbid) or your animal accidentally injures a person? What services do you offer, and what safety precautions are in place to protect the animals, you, and your customers? What are your rules of handling and how strictly will you enforce them? People have a way of taking advantage and it’s important to be prepared for that. For instance, if anyone even begins to take a step toward someone else with one of my snakes to scare them, that person no longer has possession of my animal. If they touch the snakes on the head, they get one warning, and then they no longer get to touch the animal. Not because I’m worried about my snakes biting them, I really trust the animals I use in education, but because it’s my responsibility to set boundaries that keep my animals as safe and comfortable as possible.
I personally use my peruvian long-tailed boa, ball pythons, my corn snake, my hognose snakes, and my king snake in programs. It’s because these animals are ones I have worked with for years and are absolutely bombproof. They’ve been handled so much, so often, for so many years, that it’s second nature to them and nothing startles then. These animals you’re working with are going to need to be the same. You need to know them intimately, their personalities, their triggers, how they seek comfort and how they defend themselves. There are unfortunately a lot of bad misconceptions out there about reptiles, and by god I am not going to contribute to any of them. I think it would be a good idea for you to have had your animals for multiple years or at least multiple months before you ever let the general public touch them. I have animals I would love to use in programs but I won’t even consider it until they’ve had much more time with me.
Also, biosecurity - how are you keeping disease risk down? What if someone has reptiles at home and could pass a disease to yours? How long are you quarantining animals after events? Will the animals come in contact with each other, even just in terms of someone holding one of them and then holding another one without washing their hands? All things that should be considered in this. For instance, my educational animals are all disease tested, all kept and maintained away from the rest of the collection and are all basically in perpetual quarantine.
As for species, the more passionate YOU are about a species, the more interest and knowledge you will be able to pass on to other people. I use ball pythons not because they’re common/popular but for their temperament and because I absolutely adore them and I can talk about them for hours. You want to have a similar level of passion for the species you are working with.
As a side note, being you want to work with both lizards and snakes, keep in mind that some snakes eat lizards in the wild in addition to rodents, and handling one of those snakes after a lizard could bring upon a feed response. You may wash your hands in-between, but the lizard scent will likely be on your arms, too, for example.