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!

Tags: birthdays, kids parties, Lizards, Scales And Tails, Scales and Tails Utah, Shane Richins, Snakes, terrapin, Tortoise, turtle

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.

Tags: dinosaurs, dr. paul bybee, Lizards, paleontology, Reptiles, scales &, Scales & Tails, Scales and Tails Utah, Shane Richins, Snakes

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!

Tags: Bearded Dragon, Chuckwallas, Collard Lizards, dragon, Iguanas, Lizards, Scales And Tails, Scales and Tails Utah, Shane Richins, Uromastyx, Water Dragon, workshop

VENOM NIGHT 2010

Scales and Tails will be hosting the second annual Venom Night on Wednesday, April 21st at 7pm.  This workshop will be held at Wheeler Farm in the Barn building.  This workshop is open to the public. 

The focus of this workshop is to educate the public about the venomous animals that live right here in Utah in our backyards, mountains, and deserts.  Shane Provostgaard and a representative from the Utah Poison Control Center will be there to teach us about how to avoid these venomous animals and what to do if you do get bit.   Jim Dix with the Reptile Rescue and Jill Weeks with the Living Safari Pet Store will be there to exhibit some venomous animals many of which are local to Utah.

This is a great event for families and we invite all to come and learn about our local venomous animals.

Cost: $5/child, $7/adult (16 yrs and older)

REPTILE ROOKIE MEMBERS: FREE

Contact us at 801-577-7182 or info@scalesandtailsutah.com for more details.

Tags: Cobra, Jim Dix, Lizards, Rattlesnake, Reptile Rescue, Scales & Tails, Scales And Tails, Scorpions, Shane Richins, Snakes, Utah, Utah Poison Control, Venomous, Vine Snake, Wheeler Farm

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!

Tags: Black Widows, Brad Dahl, Jim Dix, Rattle Snakes, Scales & Tails Utah, Scales and Tails Utah, Scorpions, Shane Provstgaard, Shane Richins, Snakes, Venom, Venom Night, Wheeler Farm

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!

Tags: African Emperor Scorpion, Dealth Stalker, Scales and Tails Utah, Scorpions, Shane Richins

New Pictures by Weston Hall Photography

We had another photo shoot with Weston Hall Photography to have the rest of our animals photographed.  Weston does an amazing job!  There are new pictures in the “Our Stars”, “Snakes”, “Lizards”, and soon the “Tortoises” galleries.  Check them out and let us know what you think!  Also, check out the link to Weston’s website in our “Links” section on our website to see some of his other work. (Parents: Weston does have one gallery on his site (called S&T Gone Wild) that is not appropriate for children, please supervise them if they want to check it out.)

Tags: Lizards, New Pictures, Parties, Reptiles, Scales And Tails, Shane Richins, Shows, Snakes, Tortoises, Weston Photography