kingsnake.com Chat Month
February 1-March 1, 2008

For the last ten years, kingsnake.com has been presenting an annual online symposium about living with, keeping, raising, breeding, rescuing, and caring for herps. In celebration of this anniversary, together with the rest of the PetHobbyist.com family of websites, we've extended Chat Week into Chat Month. We're opening on the evening of Friday, February 1, with one of the strongest voices in the pet world today, Nathan Winograd, speaking about his controversial book "Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Movement in America," and closing with a very special guest on March 1.

With more guests and dates being added every day, our confirmed lineup currently includes:

Friday, February 1

Nathan Winograd
Author of "Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America"
Friday, February 1, at 9 PM Eastern, in the Audi torium
Nathan Winograd's 2007 book "Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America" set off a firestorm of controversy -- and inspired an army of animal lovers across the country, calling for serious reform of the American shelter system and an end to the use of killing as a tool of animal population control for all species. Winograd expressly includes reptiles, exotic, and farm animals in his movement for shelter reform. If you have an interest in how the myth of "pet overpopulation" is being used to fuel an anti-pet agenda, this chat is for you!
Get more information and sign up for a free email reminder here!

Sunday, February 3

Bill Love
Photography for Herps
Sunday, February 3, at 9 PM Eastern, in kingsnake.com's Chat Room
Bill has always enjoyed seeking herps in nature, and recording them on film in their natural haunts is one of his true passions, whether he's in Madagascar, Baja, or just near home in Florida's Everglades. Bill is known for his love of photography. He is passing that love on to others working with photo contests at the NARBC shows. Stop by to get a few tips of the trade from Bill.

Kathy Love
Cornsnakes
Sunday, February 3, at 10 PM Eastern, in kingsnake.com's Chat Room
With husband Bill Love, Kathy began breeding many colubrid snake species, and drifted towards specializing in selective breeding for attractive color and pattern morphs in her favorites, the corn snakes, Elaphe guttata. She co-authored "The Corn Snake Manual," which originally was published in 2000 and a new revised version released in 2005. Join us and the Corn Snake Queen to talk all things colubrid.

Friday, February 8

Blood Python Panel
Kara Glasgow, Ryan Norris, Rich Crowley
Friday, February 8, at 9 PM Eastern, in kingsnake.com's Chat Room
Blood Pythons are the new hot python. Still saddled with a history of aggression related to wild caught species, these strong willed snakes hook those who dare keep them. A big snake in a small package, Whether you keep Reds, Blacks or Borneos, we have someone here to answer your questions. Joining us this evening are Kara Glasgow of Bloodpythons.com; Ryan Norris of the Blood Cell; and Rich Crowley to talk short tails. Venture beyond the reputation of these snakes to learn the truth of the Blood Python!

Saturday, February 9

Chris Dieter
Croc Care
Saturday, February 9, at 9 PM Eastern, in kingsnake.com's Chat Room
Chris and Bernadette Dieter are the owners and operators of Crocodile Encounter an educational wildlife company in the Houston area. He is the author of "The Ultimate Guide to Crocodilians in Captivity" and is co-author of a forthcoming title from Kreiger publishing on the same topic. He has written over 40 herp related articles for various herpetological publications. He and his wife maintain the largest group of Nile crocodiles(Crocodylus niloticus) in the USA and these animals and their care are the primary herpetological interest. Chris has traveled the USA researching the various methods zoos and private keepers use to maintain crocodilians in captivity. You can learn more about crocodilian care by visiting the Crocodile Experience website.

Sunday, February 10

Danté Fenolio
The Declining Amphibians
Sunday, February 10, at 9 PM Eastern, in kingsnake.com's Chat Room
Danté Fenolio has always loved field work and particularly has enjoyed amphibians. A Ph.D. Candidate with the University of Miami, Department of Biology - Coral Gables, he holds degrees Environmental Studies, Biology, and Zoology. His studies have ranged from Ozark blind cave salamander ecology to the herpetofauna of termite mounds in Brazil to canopy dwelling amphibians of Madagascar's northeastern rainforests. His primary area of research involves the ecology of challenging microhabitats. Danté is also a known field photographer having traveled extensively through the Americas working in the field as well as taking some amazing shots. He has also worked in East Africa and Madagascar. Danté is joining us this evening to discuss amphibians in general, with emphasis on the upper Amazon Basin region.

Friday, February 15

Kevin McCurley
Large Pythons
Friday, February 15, at 9 PM Eastern, in kingsnake.com's Chat Room
NERD's Kevin McCurley first focused his breeding efforts on Pituophis and other large colubrids, and over the course of time the collection grew along with an interest in pythons, particularly retics and ball pythons. During the past ten years, that focus has brought myriad color morphs and combinations to the NERD collection, many of which were first bred at his facility.The EvilMorphGod joins us this even to talk Big Business. This time Kevin will be joining us to talk about the large constrictors. Golden Child fans come forth.

Saturday, February 16

Jim Harrison and Kristen Wiley of the Kentucky Reptile Zoo
Anti-venom Research
Saturday, February 16, at 8 PM Eastern, in kingsnake.com's Chat Room
The Kentucky Reptile Zoo is a non-profit organization featuring a zoo exhibit, venom extraction lab, and educational outreach programs. Founded in 1990 by director Jim Harrison, the zoo's goals of education, conservation, and venom research are at the foundation of everything KRZ represents. The zoo is less than an hour's drive east of Lexington, KY located near beautiful Natural Bridge State Resort Park in the town of Slade.

Frank Retes
Monitors
Saturday, February 16, at 9 PM Eastern, in kingsnake.com's Chat Room
One of the more common names associated with both field herping and captive monitor keeping is Frank Retes, of the Goanna Ranch. Frank is known for raising monitors in as naturalistic an environment as possible. Frank has also one of the leading breeders of monitor species. Often outspoken and occasionally controversial, Frank will join us this evening to share monitor husbandry and advice.

Sunday, February 17

Jeff Clark
Rainbow Boas
Sunday, February 17, at 10 PM Eastern, in kingsnake.com's Chat Room
Jeff Clark of Savannah, Georgia has been hunting and keeping and breeding snakes much of the time since his first pet snake had babies in 1964. He has kept many different species and has captive bred dozens of different ones. He has specialized in Rainbow Boas since 1989. He currently keeps 6 different subspecies of Rainbow Boas and has kept and captive bred one other Rainbow Boa subspecies.

Friday, February 22

Nigel Marvin
Topic to be announced
Friday, February 22, at 9 PM Eastern, in kingsnake.com's Chat Room
From sharks to alligators to anacondas, Nigel has proven he can hold his own in the animal kingdom! You may have seen him hosting Discovery’s "Shark Week," "Nigel’s Wild, Wild World," "Chased by Sea Monsters," or "Prehistoric Park" on Animal Planet. The host, film-maker and author will appear at the second annual North American Reptile Conference and Trade Show on Saturday and Sunday, February 22-23 at the Arlington Convention Center in Arlington Texas, but first he will stop by to chat with our members.

Jeff Ronne, Sr.
Boa constrictors
Friday, February 22, at 10 PM Eastern, in kingsnake.com's Chat Room
In Jeff Ronne's own words: "I have been breeding Boa Constrictors since long before Boas were cool. I have bred and produced babies every year since 1986. In fact in the late 80s and early 90s Boas were near the bottom of nearly all herpers' lists of animals that were cool to work with. Anyhow, I hung in there and NOW Boas are among the most popular of all herps kept today! I didn't get into this to get rich. I began breeding Boas because I have always been fascinated with them. I wanted to specialize in one thing and really loved the Boas. In case a visit to my site didn't make you realize it...I don't take myself too seriously. I do take my animals seriously though. I love these kids!"

Saturday, February 23

Tess Cook -- NOTE EARLY TIME!
Box Turtles
Saturday, February 23, at 4 PM Eastern, in kingsnake.com's Chat Room
Tess Cook has been involved with box turtles since 1991 and in 1996 launched an online box turtle care handbook and created a Terrapene discussion group. In 2002, she became a wildlife rehabilitator and has rehabilitated dozens of box turtles, as well as presented educational talks on these animals. She is author of a new book coming soon to a pet store near you, “Box Turtles: A Completed Guide to Terrapene and Cuora.”

Sunday, February 24

Charles "Botar" Black
Inverts
Sunday, February 24, at 10 PM Eastern, in kingsnake.com's Chat Room
Botar was born and raised in Springfield, MO. He attended the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT. He has kept a wide variety of animals and invertebrates since childhood, and began selling captive bred invertebrates in 2001. Botar has amassed one of the largest collections in the US, producing thousands of captive bred spiderlings per year. He will be joining us tonight, in a joint chat with InsectHobbyist.com, to discuss the care and keeping of invertebrates.

Friday, February 29

Colette Sutherland
Ball Pythons
Friday, February 29, at 9 PM Eastern, in kingsnake.com's Chat Room
TSK,Inc. or The Snake Keepers are the family of the Sutherlands: Dan, Colette and their four children, Joshua, Scott, Summer and Nicole. The love of snakes was in their lives long before Dan and Colette ever met. While kids they kept snakes that they would catch. Colette still has her childhood ball python Kashmire. She bought him when she was only 12 years old. He is a little slower now than he was years ago. Colette had completed her degree in Zoology just a year before she met Dan. When they were married Colette brought three snakes with her, Kashmire and a pair of adult albino corns. They began breeding kingsnakes and milksnakes and a few ball pythons. In 1989 The Snake Keeper was formed. Later in 1995 they sold off everything but the ball pythons and began concentrating only on those snakes. Colette joins us this evening to share her perspective on Ball Pythons.

Saturday, March 1

TBA
A very special guest!
Saturday, March 1, at 10 PM Eastern, in kingsnake.com's Chat Room
Watch this space for the announcement of a very special guest who'll be closing out our tenth annual chat event!

How to Attend

These events will be held in the chat room(s) linked from this page. To access the chats:

 http://www.kingsnake.com