Scales And Tails Utah | Blog

Chelonians and the Hare

This month we are focusing on Chelonians!!  For those of you who are new to the reptile world, Chelonians are Turtles, Tortoises, and Terrapins.  These are truly amazing creatures and we are going to take a closer look at where they live, what they eat and whether or not they can really come out of their shells!  Also, for the first time in 3 years, we’ve finally been able to hatch a couple Redfoot Tortoises of our own! You will be some of the first people to get to see the babies up close and personal!  Oh!!  And don’t forget the race!!  Our annual Tortoise & the Hare race will be up for grabs.  The first year the Tortoise won, then last year the Hare won.  Who do you think will win this year for the tie breaker???  You will have to come to find out!

**Please note that this will be our last Reptile Rookie night in our current shop.  Next month we will be moved into our new location.**

SLC

When: Wednesday, August 17th @ 6:30pm
Where: Scales and Tails Showroom, 152 W. Burton Ave., Ste. F, SLC, UT
Cost: $5/child (parents free with paid child admission)
Reptile Rookies: FREE

UTAH COUNTY

When: Wednesday, August 24th @ 7:00pm
Where: PGCC – 547 S. Locust Ave.,Pleasant Grove, UT
Cost: $5/child (parents free with paid child admission)
Reptile Rookies: FREE

Please RSVP to: info@scalesandtailsutah.com or on our FACEBOOK page.

Want to be come a Reptile Rookie?  We sell memberships at each of our Workshops.  Find out more about the Reptile Rookie program by visiting our FAQ page on our website!

March is Dinosaur Month!!

Boy do we have a workshop for March!!  We are going to dive into ancient reptiles this month and focus on Dinosaurs!!  We have a special guest speaker who is a real live paleontologist, Dr. Paul Bybee! Among other degrees, Dr. Bybee has a Ph.D. in Zoology with specializations in Vertebrate Paleobiology and Evolutionary Biology from Brigham Young University, emphases in statistics and mathematics. Dr. Bybee’s interests are basically Dinosaurian in nature. The aspects of how evolution has shaped the life on earth is of prime importance to Dr. Bybee’s research. Dr. Bybee works with some of the best scientists in the field of dinosaur paleontology. Many of the projects include: work on bone histology and evolution in conjunction with Dr. John Horner, who is the main advisor to the “Jurassic Park” movies. Dr. Bybee is also a consultant to the BBC’s “Walking with Dinosaurs” and has appeared in some of the episodes.

After Dr. Bybee’s presentation we will get a chance to dig for dinosaur bones!!  This is going to be so cool you won’t want to miss it!

We hope to see you there!

Where: Scales & Tails Showroom: 152 W. Burton Ave., Suite F, SLC, UT
When: March 16th
Time: 6;30pm
Cost: $5/child (adults free with paid child admission)
Reptile Rookies: FREE

Please RSVP to riindy@scalesandtailsutah.com
For more information on our Reptile Rookie program contact Rindy at e-mail above.

Fire Breathing Dragons?

November is Agamids and Iguanids month!

Now most of you are asking yourself…what are Agamids and Iguanids??  Well you are going to find out!  Our public workshop for November is about some of our favorite “pet” lizards.  Most of you have heard of Iguanas, Chuckwallas, Collard Lizards and Marine Iguanas… they fall under the family of Iguanids.  The Bearded Dragon, Frill Dragon, Water Dragon, Uromastyx, and many other lizards fall under the Agamid family.   These two families of lizards are so COOL because these are the ones that are typically very nice, not likely to bite and are usually very hardy.  So come on our to Agamid and Iguanid Night and get ready for fun!  Last year we had a fire breathing dragon show up to visit.  Do you think he will return this year??

This is a public workshop and we invite anyone who wants to come!

WHEN: Wednesday, November 17th

TIME: 6:30pm

WHERE: SCERA Center for the Arts, 745 South State Street, Orem, UT 84058

COST: $5/child (adults free with paid child admission or $5/pp with out children)

REPTILE ROOKIES: FREE

(One Year Reptile Rookie Membership for an individual is $25/1 child family, $45/2-4 children, $60/5-6 kids)

RSVP if you can. Thanks!

Halloween Parties…Even Better with Snakes & Spiders!

Are you looking for something cool and different than the average Halloween Party?

Bring Scales & Tails to your Halloween Party!  What could be better than Snakes and Lizards and Spiders for Halloween??  Save $20 off your Halloween Party when you book today.  Just mention the blog!

(Discount can not be combined with any other coupon or discount)

We climbed like Tarantula’s!

This past Scales and Tails workshop was all about Tarantula’s!  We held our workshop at Momentum Climbing Gym.  (Thanks guys!)  First off we learned about a variety of tarantula’s, focusing mainly on the three that S&T has in-house.  The Rose Hair, the Pink Toe, and the Chaco Golden Tarantulas.  We looked at their fangs, their hairs and their sticky feet!  We even got to use a magnifying glass on a molt of a tarantula!  Everyone then got a chance to hold one of the creepy crawers.  It was a little scary for some but at the same time…really really cool!  Then Shane pulled out the BIG SURPRISE!  We got an up close and personal view of a Goliath Bird Eating tarantula!!!  It was HUGE!  We got to feed all the spider crickets and the we became spiders ourselves!  Momentum Climbing Gym allowed us to pretend to be tarantula’s by climbing the walls!  S&T had a team of belayers (people who tied us in the harnesses and made sure we were safe as we used the ropes to climb) and we were able to scramble up and down rock walls. It was SO much FUN!!  We can’t wait for next month!

Thank you to all that attended Venom Night!

All of us at Scales and Tails Utah want to thank those of you who attended our “VENOM NIGHT” last week at Wheeler Farm.  It was a huge success!  We had almost 200 people in attendance. 

This was a very informative workshop, which is a just a little bit different than our normal monthly workshop.  We were able to have Shane Provstgaard, a local serpentologist, come and present information on what type of venomous animals we typically find right here in Utah. We also learned what to do if we come upon one.  The best practice is to turn around and walk away.  Leave it alone! 

We took a short break after his presentation so that everyone would have a chance to visit the VENOM booth. Jim Dix of the Utah Reptile Rescue brought in several rattle snakes, poisionous spiders, and scorpions for display.  It was really cool to see things like a rattle snake and a black widow up close and personal!!  We even got out the magnifiying glasses so we could get an even closer look.  It also gave everyone a change to try out a scorpion sucker!  Did you know you can eat scopions and it WON’T hurt you!?!

The second half of the night was presented by Brad Dahl of the Utah Poison Control Center.  He gave us a very detailed description of what happens and what do do if you do become invenomated.  We learned that the majority of rattlesnakes bites were typically obtained by young men in their late teens to early twenties….and who were usually inebriated.  Funny that…   

Brad and Shane both gave great presentations and we are very greatful that they agreed to come.  Thank you guys!  We also want to thank Jim Dix for bringing out his collection of venomous animals.  He has a special permit to keep them that we do not have so we were very thankful that he could come as well.  

Thanks again to everyone in attendance.  We hope you had a great time and that you learned something helpful about living in proximity to venomous animals!  See you next month!

All about the Scorpions

Scorpions are so cool!  We were so excited for the large turnout we had for our scorpion night.  To all those that came, Thank You!!  For those of you who were not able to come, here is what you missed. 

We started out our night learning about different types of scorpions from S&T owner, Shane Richins.  We first learned about the least deadly of the scorpions, the African Emperor. Then we learned about the two most deadly scorpions, the Death Stalker and the Yellow Fat Tail.  And finally we learned about a few scoprions local to Utah like the Desert Hairy and the Bark Scorpions.

After the learning came the fun!  We turned off all the normal lights and turned on the black lights.  All true scorpions glow bright green or yellow under a black light.  Then we went on a scorpion hunt.  Little did we know that there were TONS of (fake) creepy crawlies hiding all around the shop!  The scopions glowed while the snakes and bugs didn’t and suprise!  Sometimes they jumped out at us!! 

We spent the rest of the night taking a closer look at all the scorpions and other critters in the Scales and Tails shop while we munched on Scorpion suckers, mmm, yum!

Danny Conner at the State Fair!

Danny is a great friend of ours from Texas.  He is the one that got Shane into doing reptile shows.  Danny will have crocodillians and alligator snapping turtles. These are animals that we are not allowed to own here in Utah without special permits.

 

   

This is a show and exhibit you don’t want to miss!!