With all the plans for this year's event we couldn't help but get a bit nostaglic about our suprise hit in 2011. At the beginning of the day as we were finishing up the last minute details we had no idea what to expect or if anyone was even coming, but come they did and in droves!

 

 

With over 300 costume clad guests you couldn't help but get in a festive mood. The special guests like Frank aka Kipling from Disney Channel's JESSIE, the Forever Wild team with an adorable baby Tiger and brand new exhibits from The Reptile Zoo including the official unveilling of Gator Island and our California Native Rattlesnake collection!

 

 

If that wasn't enough to keep guests entertained we also had LIVE exotic animal demonstrations with veteran TV and Film trainer Jules Sylvester and The Reptile Zoo founder Jay Brewer where guests enjoyed learning about various venomous species and even got a chance to watch a clutch of pythons be born and filmed for the popular YouTube channel www.YouTube.com/PrehistoricPetsTV

 

To satisfy their taste buds GarlicScapes was on hand with plenty of good eats sure to keep the lurking vampires away. Let's just say fun was had by all.

 

 

But enough reminiscing, this year we are going to blow last year out of the water with all the great things we have planned for what we expect to be a MASSIVE crowd! First of all we've doubled our food truck capacity by bringing the ever popular Kogi BBQ and Chunk-n-Chip trucks to delight both your dinner and dessert needs.

Next we've added jungle themed BOUNCE HOUSES from Orange County Jumpers!

 

Oh did we forget to mention benefit recipient Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary will be bringing a BLACK LEOPARD and baby Bobcats!!!

Are you totally jealous now? Can't make it? Don't worry we haven't left you out of all the fun. This week on The Reptile Zoo facebook page we've got some great online auction items for you to take home. Just check out these beautiful animals below.

 

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!

Get your costume ready, because you're invited to our second annual family friendly Spooky Reptilian Masquerade Sunday, October 28 from 5-10 PM at The Reptile Zoo in Fountain Valley, a hands-on educational experience with over 100 exotic reptile displays.

This year's benefit recipients The Reptile Zoo and Forever Wild are dedicated to educating the public and providing homes for exotic pets of all sizes. At the event you can meet the founders of these organizations as well enjoy special exotic animal exhibits including Zorro the Black Leopard, Thelma and Louise the two-headed snake, a cobra, and more!

Enjoy a night of fun for the whole family including games, raffles, and even a costume contest where you could win a lifetime membership to The Reptile Zoo! If that's not enough we will have food trucks, exotic reptile demonstrations, and live filming for You Tube. Mingle with special celebrity guests including Frank the 6 foot Asian Water Monitor best known for his role as Kipling on Disney Channel's hit show JESSIE as well as his trainer and veteran exotic animal handler Jules Sylvester.

With a guest list over 300 last year we are hoping to make this event even better and we hope to enjoy all the night has to offer with you and your family! The event will be free with regular admission to The Reptile Zoo ($10 for adults, $5 for children). Hope to see you there! Make sure to RSVP here and you could win our daily RSVP VIP giveaway all counting down to The Reptile Zoo Masquerade on October 28th from 5-10 PM!

The night's entertainment, prizes, and food provided by:

The Reptile Zoo www.TheReptileZoo.com

Forever Wild www.foreverwildexotics.org

Kogi BBQ Truck www.kogibbq.com

Chunk-n-Chip Gourmet Ice Cream Sandwhiches www.chunknchip.com

Prehistoric Pets www.PrehistoricPets.com

Jules Sylvester www.reptilerentals.com

I can't believe it either, but it has already been a month since our last day at the OC Fair! It seems like just yesterday we were enjoying the crowds and the smells of Juicy's right across the way.

We had such a blast this year sharing our reptiles with HUNDREDS THOUSANDS of happy families enjoying a day out together. Our team spent so much time together they became like family sharing the ups and downs of 12+ hours of fair time fun a day! As you can see from the photos at times we might have gone a little loopy, but every family has a crazy one or two right?

While you are at the Orange County Fair nothing says family bonding time like getting wrapped up by a HUGE burmese python! And this year we literaly THOUSANDS of families enjoy this hands-on fun. 

Thanks to the wonders of technology for the first time they even had the opportunity to share the squeal inducing photos with friends and family through our complimentary Facebook download service! Each night we added every photo an album on The Reptile Zoo Facebook then it was the guests turn to tag, comment, like, and download their shots.

Hopefully all of our brave visitors have gotten a chance to like, share, and tag their photos with our lovely burmese pythons. Because on Monday to make room for even more great hands-on photos in the future we will be removing many of the photos. 

To keep your photo from being removed make sure to stop by our photo albums to like, tag and download and we will be sure to keep you as a permanent part of The Reptile Zoo memories from 2012! Otherwise unclaimed photos will be removed to make room for the great events we have planned next!

It's been a long time coming, but we are happy to say our decked out Jurassic Party vehicles are making a comeback in a huge way decked out in our custom designed reptile theme! Complete with The Reptile Zoo's stars like TWINKIE the World's Largest Snake, Frank star of Disney Channel's JESSIE, Darthgator the American Alligator, Rattlesnakes and Thelma & Louise the two-headed snake, plus plenty of photos of the unique hands-on reptile interaction available at every Jurassic Party. 

For now we can only show you the sneak peek of the design comps, but you can see the finished product this weekend at our HUGE booth in the Anaheim Convention Center for the annual National Reptile Breeders Conference (NARBC). After that you will see us buzzing around town to and from The Reptile Zoo visiting schools and private residences all around Southern California providing educational and entertaining Jurassic Parties!

So keep an eye out for our lime green party mobiles, even honk if you see us! Then follow us back to The Reptile Zoo where you can see all your pictured favorites live and in-person, along with over 100 of their reptile friends!

 

 

The Orange County Fair is in full swing and The Reptile Zoo is going to be there for every minute of it. If you haven't been by our display in the Kid Zone you are definitely missing out! We've got 20 great exhibits that include some of the most exotic reptiles we've ever displayed... but you'll just have to stop by to find out who those are!

 

 

As always we have the memory making opportunity for hands-on fun with an 8ft Burmese Python. Visitors response to Bob or Sunshine the Burmese Pythons can vary from extreme excitement to shear terror, but if they take the opportunity to get up close and personal it's always a picture worthy moment! Just check out a few of our favorites so far... (which is no easy task seeing as we have over 5,000 photos to choose from!)

 

 

 

 

To make sure everyone has the opportunity for this seemingly once in a lifetime opportunity we've put together several special packages to save you money and maximize the fun! As we always say the price is the same for as many people as we can SQUEEZE into the photo! So bring the whole family, grab your friends and stop by The Reptile Zoo booth in the Kid Zone at this year's Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa.

 

 

If these deals are not enough we are offering a complimentary download of every photo! Just head over to Facebook.com/TheReptileZoo to find your photo, tag it, share it, and download for your own at home prints! While you're there make sure to like our page to keep up to date with all of the latest happenings here at The Reptile Zoo.

 

 

 

We've been working for weeks to prep, but the day is finally here. Founder, Jay Brewer, is headed to South Africa for a THREE WEEK adventure full of reptiles and of course great safari adventures. 

 

 

This year's team includes of course Jay who will be up close and personal with all of the great finds. The lead videographer will be Sean, who has plenty of experience helping our team over the years, and has just started to manage all of our video and web content. Ron will be the back-up videographer and photographer, and also happens to be part of the family.

 

 

He visited first in 2010, but this year he is taking a whole team to make sure everyone at home can share in the African adventures through photos on our Facebook page and YouTube videos. Just check out how much luggage these guys are taking! They crammed just about all of their clothes into the carry-ons then used the other suitcases for filming and safari supplies.

 

 

We'll be posting more details about their trip, including how you can meet them if you happen to be in South Africa on the blog tomorrow. Until then hopefully this footage from Prehistoric's last trip will hold you over!

 

Our locals, and CA visitors get the awesome chance to see our crazy collection of creatures...but for those of you who can't make it out to our zoo, how can we interact with you??

By playing the name game of course!! In this blog we have THREE cool, but nameless reptiles. That is just sad, right? So give us a hand from whereever you are on the planet, and help us name them!


First up, we have the absolutely gorgeous, MALE, Meller's Chameleon. Just look at those bright colors! He needs a good name to go with his unique look.



Next, there is a very handsome, MALE, Australian Water Dragon. He runs really funny, but we love his personality.



Last, but deeeeeeefinitely not least, is our BIG, beautiful, MALE, Western Diamondback Rattlesnake. His buddy Lucifer, is the super-cool Albino Diamondback...but this guy needs a name too!



So, give it a good think...and send your reptile name ideas to:

thalia@jurassicparties.com

We will pick the best ones, and the new name tags will be made, along with a tag: "named by..."
So, make sure to include your OWN name (and hometown) as well so everyone will know where these boys got their awesome names!


Let the game begin!!


<3.....................Thalia

Hello Herpers!
It's a big exciting week here at The Reptile Zoo with a quadruplet of new born Snabies! Thats right, Snake Babies, but not just any babies.... RATTLESNAKE babies!! To be more specific, they are Western Diamondback babies, this species ranges throughout the southwestern United States (Arizona, California, Oklahoma and Texas)and northern half of Mexico. These lil guys wont grow much more than 5-6 feet in length and guess what else?! Even though they're tiny babies, these ity bity Rattlers have the SAME degree of venom in their bite as mature adults, but just a lesser amount of it!! Of the 4 beautiful baby Rattlers born just a few days ago, we managed to snap a few shots of two of the little additions! Stop by the shop and check out these little guys, we could use some cool names for them! :)

^O^......Priscilla

BORN JULY 28, 2011!!!

Rattle Snake Babies!!! What to name them??!

Can you see them BOTH? Whereee's WALDO!

Everything is happening here at the Reptile Zoo. More animals for sale out front at Prehistoric Pets and lots of work being done to get ready for the opening of the Rattlesnake exhibit tomorrow. Everyone's really excited to show off the animals. Make sure to come on down and see some really cool animals.

 

Hey guys...it's about time that you meet Mike McConnell. 

Mike makes sure that our vast collection of snakes stays well-fed and healthy.  He also takes great care of the FOOD....our rats, that we breed in-store, making sure they have food and fresh water, and that the babies are doing well. 

He has a big interest in all inverts...especially Ornamental Tarantulas, which he breeds at his home.  On average he probably has around 30 tarantulas.  Mike also has great appreciation for venomous snakes, as well as local species of snakes.  His favorite "would probably have to be the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake".  It is enjoyment for him to work with or near venomous...except when a Sidewinder Rattlesnake decides to snag him in the finger (at a friend's home, not in-store)....he lost his left middle finger last January.

Other than being one finger down, Mike is a great employee...very knowledgable and hard-working.  So come in and say hi...you will probably learn some cool facts that you didn't know before!

 

(Shedding a Sand Boa)

 

(Showing....."the Incident")