Hi Keith,
Thanks for the input.
>There have been a few studies, and in the general herpetocultural
>world the number is fairly representative. I am not speaking about
>people like the gexlisters, or the people on ADCHAM and such. I
>cannot locate the figures at the moment but there have been
>litterally millions of iguanas imported in recent years. Where are
>they?
Where are they? Often with people phoning myself and any other herper
who they think
might give their Ig a good home. Iguanas are a real problem, top of
the list for impulse
buys, poor husbandry, etc.
>Nah - you guys are doing well, but you are a very special subset of
>herp owners. The average Joe can still kill and iguana/RES/asian
>turtle/ball python/"insert herp here" with relative ease.
I do find it paints a poor picture if herps are all lumped together
in statistics.
I'd like to know how many cb leopard gex and corn snakes survive the
first year, I suspect
a bit more than 10%.
> >According to the statistics cited, each pet reptile has a 1%
>chance >of giving
>>Salmonella to someone. Anyone know similar stats for chicken?
>
>Properly prepared far lower on a per exposure rate. But this is
>apples and oranges. Chicken provides nutrition. Herps are for fun.
Maybe it is an unfair comparison, but I've had food poisoning more
than once, but haven't
picked up anything from the herps I work with 3 hours a day. If
proper hygiene is used I expect
the risk of Salmonella is very, very small (unless you have a Komodo
in your basement).
>The reality is though that the average cat in the average family
>lives more closely to a normal life span than the average herp in
>the average family. Feeding herps: complex nutritional
>manipulations of feeder insects and store bought vegetation, and
>after all that there are still veterinarians making a good living
>treating nutritional disease in reptiles. Cats: Open bag/can feed.
Not really relevant and I won't go into detail, but we've had quite
an odyssey regarding diet and our poor cat's health : (
>Case in point - how many people are on this list? Now how many
>people in the general population have geckos. This list is a
>vanishingly small percentage of the overall gecko owning public.
>The "cream of the cream" so to speak. For every lister I ahve dealt
>with 50 people sho simply have no clue. Ever wonder why most herp
>vets have 45+ minute appointments? Cause in the vast majority of
>instances they ahve to try to start over at square one. I have
>friends in private practice that are still telling people that
>lettuce and dog foods are not good for iggs.
I do agree, the list represents a knowlegeable bunch of herpers, but
I have noticed a definite
improvement in public awareness of herp care over the last 10 years
or so since I started dealing
with the public. As a herp soc representative, I get referrals from
vets, museums, pet stores, etc.
and regularly answer questions at public events. I get the problems,
but increasingly run into
folks who do their homework. Vets mostly see animals only when
somebody has screwed up,
but it's not all bad.
Sorry for the ramble,
Neil
--
Neil Meister
Promotions Secretary
Global Gecko Association
http://www.gekkota.com
President
Nova Scotia Herpetoculture Society
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