Even though it was a lifetime ago that I worked in a pet store, I have not forgotten many things from that time as that period was my introduction to the bigger world of reptiles that existed beyond the two creeks near my childhood home. A recent trip to a local chain store brought back a flood of memories from that time.
I saw a woman and her young son clinging to to the advice of the store employee as they gathered items needed to house and maintain their (I'll assume) very first ball python. Looking at what she had in her cart I tried to resist butting in but could not help myself. The store employee wasn't selling overpriced stuff to this new snake owner (anymore than crap is overpriced in general up here in Alaska), she just had a few items not quite ideal for a snake.
This all reminded me of how irritated my then boss would get at me when I would sell stuff that was necessary for new purchases vs the fancy new stuff he wanted sold or when I would talk someone out of a pet because I knew they probably weren't capable of keeping it alive for more than a week. He would get so mad when I sent potential customers to hardware stores for supplies instead of buying the same item in our store for 3-4x the cost.
While I did not understand it back then as the owner of the store, his irritation was justified since it was above all, a business. Something I did manage to sell a lot of back then were books. Even if a live animal did not leave the store I was sure to sell a customer a book as that is a great starting point when deciding to buy any pet, especially if you're in it for the long haul as the case is for most reptiles; compared to a dog, cat, or hamster they can be quite long-lived.
Long before spending 8 years in the swamps of NW Florida, well before exploring the sagebrush country of N Texas, and eons before traveling the Amazon River I grew up in an urban environment where there weren't many green areas to get first hand experience. I could easily list in a line or two all of the reptile & amphibian species I was likely to come in contact with in the Philadelphia area. Prior to the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and the internet I bought books, as many as I could afford. I absorbed their character strewn pages and visualized myself interacting with all the exotic animals that filled the photo pages. In my collection of over 200 (mostly reptile) books, I still have three or four from the RIF program back in elementary school.
My complete wildlife library. Close-ups of each shelf are below.
In the early-90s a periodical came out that was right up my alley, "Reptiles Magazine." As soon as I had the money, I subscribed and could not wait to receive each full-color issue each month. Between my actual on & off subscriptions over the years and seeking out back issues via eBay & Amazon, I now have every issue (minus maybe a dozen) since the first issue which premiered back in October of 1993. Even though printed magazines are going out of style, being replaced by e-readers, "Reptiles" still puts out magazines on a bi-monthly schedule, and yes I am still a subscriber, and yes I get just as excited when each issue arrives.
Separated by yearly dividers, housed in comic-book sleeves, more than two decades of "Reptiles Magazines" live in those environment-resistant plastic cases.
The point of this blog post I guess is to say that when real-world/practical experience isn't immediately available, nothing beats a good book, magazine, or in the modern world, forums to augment your knowledge base. To become as knowledgeable as I have, its taken years reading about critters, listening to friends & acquaintances, and a whole lot of learning from trial/error/trial/success/error/success/etc. Again, it all starts with a single word on the first page of your newest book.
