Working for Scale : Sellers of All Things Reptilian Gather in Buena Park

The sleek, slithering animals came from miles around Saturday.

There were tangerine Honduran milk snakes from south of the border. A bearded dragon lizard came from Australia. And Mexican red-eared sliders swam about in aquariums brought by their owner from Cerritos.

The scaly critters--an estimated 5,000 of them--converged at the Sequoia Conference Center for Orange County’s first All-California Reptile Swap Meet.

“This is the cutting edge,” said Dave Good, who organized the daylong event, which he plans to hold monthly. “Reptiles are becoming pretty hip. They make interesting and enjoyable pets.”

Indeed, pet industry analysts say, sales of reptiles and amphibians recently have spurted. From 1993 to 1994, according to Jack Sweet, editor of Pet Product News in Irvine, sales of the animals jumped 49%--from $51 million to $76 million.

What was once seen as an oddball hobby, he said, has become increasingly accepted.

“It’s one of the fastest-growing segments of the pet industry,” Sweet said. “Reptiles look cool, they don’t take up a lot of room and a lot of them are very hardy.”

Analysts attribute the reptilian boom to several factors. The popularity of the movie “Jurassic Park,” they say, made people think about owning their own little “dinosaur.” The relatively low level of maintenance required by reptiles makes them the perfect pet for people with shrinking free time. And Southern California’s semi-arid climate is well-suited to the desert-dwelling variety of these creatures.

“When I was a kid and you wanted to see snakes there was always some lunatic on the block who was the snake man,” Good said. “Now, estimates are that one in 30 people keeps a reptile; it’s no longer a nerdy or creepy thing to do.”

That certainly seemed to be the sense of the gathering at the swap meet, where about 40 exhibitors paid $25 apiece to sell or trade their wares--from a five-foot-long green tree python priced at $1,200 to baby feeder mice at 65 cents apiece. There were about 600 visitors.

“It really gets in your blood,” said Todd Dyer, 19, a Santa Ana plumber who, with his father, Jack, breeds snakes. At last count they owned about 200. “As far back as I can remember I’ve always had a snake in my hand.”

Sandy Veverka of Cerritos said that her favorite reptiles are lizards. “They’re the most responsive,” she said. “They have the most personality--they watch you more than you watch them.”

And Judy Cross said that there’s a place in her family for all reptilian species.

“He’s the snake guy, I’m the lizard lady,” she said, referring to her husband, Red, with whom she maintains a special reptile room accommodating about 50 animals in their Cerritos home. “We have a snake and a lizard who like to go for rides with us in the car. It’s really fascinating.”