Fauna for Your Fete
Children’s birthday parties have evolved from simple, cake-centered affairs into entertainment extravaganzas. Virgil Stewart branched into show business from dog breeding and reptile sales with his first puppy party in 1993 and his first reptile party the following year. (Reptile events also include insects such as millipedes, tarantulas and giant Madagascar hissing cockroaches.) Last year, Puppies and Reptiles for Parties, the Torrance-based company Stewart owns with his wife, Elaine, did hundreds of soirees.
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What’s more popular, puppies or reptiles?
Reptiles by a small margin. About 60-40 reptiles.
Do the puppies and reptiles ever go to parties together?
Very rarely. The personality of a puppy party versus a reptile party is totally different. At puppy parties, we get comments on how intense and quiet kids are. That’s an insult at a reptile party. Reptile parties are loud. Kids make a lot of noise. Reptile parties are rock and roll, whereas puppy parties are cute and cuddly.
Why are kids loud at reptile parties?
Bring out a tarantula and get it right up close to a kid, and it gets them going. There’s almost nothing like that little finger of the tarantula on your skin at the base of your throat.
Do parents ask you not to bring certain animals or to take something away?
Usually the cockroaches if that’s going to happen. It’s really a benign little creature. It’s not the cockroach you know that jumps out of your cupboards. I tell the mothers we almost never lose them at a party. That doesn’t seem to help too much.
Ever made a birthday boy or girl cry?
Yes, unfortunately, [when] parents put undue pressure on the kids. I get parents who say, “Hold this, hold this,” and I say they don’t have to. It can be on the pathetic side, when you have a dad trying to force the birthday boy to hold an animal he doesn’t want to. Parents have unreal expectations of their kids.
Do reptiles like to party?
Some of them really do. Others basically put up with it. I’m sure if the tarantulas were able to vocalize it, they wouldn’t say they enjoy it.
Have you ever been bitten?
Oh, God, yes. All the time. About three years ago I was bitten six times in one week. It’s mostly baby snakes.
Do any of the insects or reptiles do tricks?
No. The brainpower is not there.
