Snakes, dragons and lizards are stars of Reptiday at Camp Jordan

Summer Taylor looks at snakes for sale at the Repticon show at the Camp Jordan Arena on Saturday, July 4, 2015, in East Ridge, Tenn.
Summer Taylor looks at snakes for sale at the Repticon show at the Camp Jordan Arena on Saturday, July 4, 2015, in East Ridge, Tenn.

As the salesman cradled the pet, he explained why this particular animal belongs in your home.

Yes, yours, lucky customer.

Every home needs a pet, a little living being to feed and play with and call your own. So interesting. So fun. So cute.

While Aaron Ratcliff, who traveled from Christiansburg, Va., to Camp Jordan this weekend, held this pet in his arms, the Colombian red tail boa swiveled its head, uncurled its body and wiggled its black tongue, showing off for potential customers.

"He's tasting the air," said Ratcliff, of Revelation Reptiles. "It's like an extra sense to them."

Ratcliff and his business partner, Micah Ross, drove to East Ridge for Reptiday, a reptile convention on Saturday afternoon. The event gives vendors like Ratcliff and Ross a chance to show off a collection of snakes, iguanas and geckos, and to tell the roughly 400 potential customers who attended Saturday's event about how reptiles make great pets.

Like many of the other vendors at Reptiday, Ratcliff said he became interested in reptiles as a child. He studied them, learned how they moved, how they functioned without ears or legs. He loved how the pit organs, the small holes in a snake's face, helped the animals see heat.

And so he bought some reptiles. And then he bought some more.

"It's addicting," he said. "Kind of like smoking crack."

"It's a better addiction than that," added Ross, his business partner.

"I've always connected with reptiles," said Ratcliff. "Especially snakes. Big snakes."

Chaz Gravitt, the show manager for Saturday's event, said sellers came to Chattanooga from parts of Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. As far as reptiles conventions go, this one was on the smaller side.

But it still attracts the clientele Gravitt usually sees at such conventions, the men and women who aren't satisfied with the typical furballs that run through suburban neighborhoods.

"Everybody's got a cat; everybody's got a dog," he said. "We kind of like to stand out a little."

Reptile owners can face steep challenges, too. They must find an enclosure that is right for their particular pet: warm enough or cool enough, humid or dry enough.

And that can all change when the season does. That pet reptile might live one way during the summer, then need a change as winter approaches.

And then there is the diet. Unlike a can of cat food or a sackful of dog kibble, reptile owners often need to feed their pets fresh fruits and vegetables. And those diets are specific to each type of reptile.

Vendors filled the Camp Jordan arena with boxes holding calico boas, tree boas, green anacondas, citrus leatherback bearded dragons, Rankins dragons, woma pythons and reticulated pythons. Also frozen mice - the Dippin Dots of reptile fests.

Kathy Woodson, of Murfreesboro, brought a slightly different commodity: hedgehogs and marmoset monkeys. But like the other vendors, her career was a reflection of a childhood love.

As a girl, she wanted a monkey so badly that she asked her mother to exchange her baby brother for one. Then again, she concedes, that isn't necessarily an uncommon request from a sister.

On Saturday, she sat in the back right corner of the Camp Jordan arena. A marmoset sat on her left shoulder. Another one, wearing a red hat, sat on her head.

Woodson said one-day events like this one don't draw a big crowd, and without a big crowd she doesn't get big sales.

"But we do all right," she said. "It gives our critters some exposure."

Across the room, Sabrina Linton sat with her bearded dragons. She drove here from Baton Rouge, La. She also didn't see a lot of action. She sold some bracelets, but only one animal.

But the couple who bought her girl spent a long time with the dragon Saturday. They walked away from Linton's booth, came back, walked away and came back again. They told her they wanted to make sure this would be a good purchase.

"I know they'll be a good home," she said. "They really wanted her."

Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at tjett@ timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6476.

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