Snake encounters at Summer events

Posted by on November 17, 2013

We were so very busy running Snake Encounters at Summer events that some of the pictures and videos never made it here until now. Sue has been going through the photographs and finding some that were left behind. We attended Wanstead Music in the Park in July, this is an event which we attend most years. Sue has loaded some videos up on you tube of this event, the videos show the reactions of people as the afternoon goes by, at the beginning people are apprehensive but by the end of the afternoon lots of people are having a great time finding out how therapeutic it is to snuggle a snake.

To see the videos click the you tube button at the top of the page, in the meantime here are some photos, there are two of Kyle who kindly came along wore a sanctuary shirt and helped out and one of Thomas, he’s great help caring for the snakes too.

Filed Under: Encounters, Fetes and Fun Days, Phobia Busting | Tagged:

Happy Customers

Posted by on October 18, 2013

Happy customers call us back every year to schools, fetes and fundays and sometimes we get calls from the same family wanting live snake encounters for each of their childrens birthdays.

We receive calls from people who have kept our number for five years or more!!

It’s so rewarding to take the snakes out to meet the public and see people of all age groups enjoy handling them, of  course the snakes enjoy getting out too, we try to  give them the best housing possible but it’s stimulating for them especially in the Summer months when they can enjoy some  outside air.

We would love to edutain customers closer to home too;  having lived and worked in the London area we are continually called back which is great but it would also be good to have more customers in North Essex it takes time for people to get to know a new face and begin to book someone new, after all we have happy customers going back to 1996 where we used to live.

We are making many new contacts and find North Essex a friendly place so we are looking forward to getting lots of interesting work here in the future.

Its also rewarding to be thanked, below are pictures of a thank you card which was sent to us from a kids holiday club this Summer.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Encounters, Fetes and Fun Days, Holiday Clubs, Sanctuary, School Visits, Snakes, Testimonials | Tagged:

Snakes for hire uk

Posted by on October 17, 2013

 

Snakes for Hire:  We take all type of bookings to run our educational presentations:

  • Childrens parties
  • Schools
  • Kids holiday clubs
  • Fun days and Fetes
  • Special rates for scouts clubs
  • Team Building
  • Society meetings – talk demonstrations

 

We have 65 snakes of varying sizes and breeds to take out for:

  • Photoshoots
  • Videos
  • TV shows
  • Club visits
  • Parties

A few of the snakes are suitable dancing partners for Snakey Sue and she has many beautiful costumes for snake dancing and meet and greet.

All payments for events are used to finance the running of the Sanctuary and the events help to keep the snakes socialised and stimulated.

Taking snakes out to meet the public has its challenges; snakes  cannot regulate their own temperatures and most people think that they like to be hot, but just like any animal or human no-one wants to be cooked  in the heat!!  Snakes need moderate warm temps to be in whilst working in fact a little cooler is better than hotter – heat kills more quickly than cold, between 20c and  27c is a reasonable  temperature.

When we handle the snakes we warm them with our body heat, in fact childrens hands are often very hot  and in the Summer months when we are at outside events we need to take water sprays and bath bowls to cool the snakes down and our best position to  be is under trees. When the outside temps are below 18c we need to be indoors as even the snakes that come from North America will attempt to hide under our clothes to keep warm, pockets, hoods, hats are all great places to warm up. In the Winter months  we put hot water bottles in their carry cases to keep them warm so often need a supply of warm water to top them up when we arrive and/or leave the venue.

It’s a shame we don’t get booked for more adult parties as snakes go down so well at them when we do, people just love chatting and chilling at parties with a friendly snake  wrapped around them 🙂

Below are some photos of people having fun with snakes at an adults birthday party.

 

 

Filed Under: Children's Parties, Cubs and Brownies, Dancing, Encounters, Fetes and Fun Days, Holiday Clubs, Phobia Busting, School Visits | Tagged:

Volunteers are brilliant for snake encounters

Posted by on October 9, 2013

Volunteers are brilliant for snake encounters – below are some photos of volunteers who come to help care for the snakes in the sanctuary and also helping at large events where there are often 6/8 volunteers and 20/30 snakes.

One of the reasons we take so many snakes is that over time I found that some snakes, in particular Corn snakes and other types of rat-snake can get over handled and hot so we give them turns and change them around, they can usually manage up to an hour; larger snakes such as Boas and Pythons can usually cope with longer times 2 to 3hrs, because they are larger their whole  bodies are not being handled and they will usually happily sit on someones shoulders for quite some time. In the past we have sometimes charged people a fee to hold a snake to raise funds for the sanctuary but this is a rather stressful way for  the snakes and myself to create funding, much better if we are paid a fee for our appearance whereupon people will be able to handle the snakes with no restrictions, if our appearance is advertised well people will come along to the event to see them because they are fascinating and a big draw to any event. The sanctuary just could not run without our passionate volunteers.

7 volunteers hold Ra a Burmese Python

Stacey started to help when she was 12 and I first began taking the snakes out to schools etc.

Filed Under: Fetes and Fun Days, Sanctuary | Tagged:

Summer Fair at Grazebrook Primary School

Posted by on July 12, 2013

We had a lovely time running our snake encounters at the Summer Fair at Grazebrook Primary School London N16, we were well received and they allotted us a few extra volunteers which was great; we were positioned in a lovely fenced off space under trees (these keep the area cool for the snakes) and they gave out tickets for half hour time slots so that we weren’t too inundated with children asking to hold snakes. We often have too many children wishing to hold the snakes all at once even though we often take 20 or more snakes to these events.

We have to be so careful in the hot weather as the snakes cannot regulate their own temperatures and anything over 27c for the ratsnakes and 29c for the boas and pythons is too hot, people have the misconception that the snakes like heat but too hot can kill them just the same as any animal, our temperature is 10c higher than the snakes need to be and children often have particularly hot hands – it’s such a pleasure not to have to worry about the snakes overheating even in the hottest weather the shade of trees keep the snakes cool. We also take boxes and water so that we can place them in there if they feel to hot. Gazebos are fine but having been an experienced camper in the past tents are not cool and a gazebo is just a tent with no sides.

Here are some photos of our volunteers and children snuggling snakes, the last one is of Sophie helping to collect all the snakes up at the end of the day.

 

 

Filed Under: Fetes and Fun Days | Tagged:

Snake Encounters for all age groups

Posted by on November 28, 2012

In the Spring I noticed that the “Sparks Will Fly” event was happening over the road in Cliff Park, I had no idea this was on otherwise I would’ve asked to put up my gazebo, anyway I decided to take Sunny the Florida Kingsnake to the park for snake encounters for all age groups and here is the result.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s such a shame that many adults, especially women are afraid of snakes. Because of this fear it’s difficult for us to get work at schools etc. We get no other funding than the educational work that we do and if fearful people won’t open their minds and hearts to this misunderstood and maligned creature it makes one wonder where the human race is headed. At least these children have had there minds open to the wonder and enjoyment of interacting with the wonderfully friendly and accepting  “Sunny” the King Snake.

Filed Under: Encounters, Fetes and Fun Days | Tagged:

Snake Encounters at the Hoody Festival, The Park Pavillion, Harwich, Essex

Posted by on November 8, 2012

At this Snake Encounters event we took 27 snakes and worked from 11am to 5pm without a break, we did need to swap the snakes around throughout the day in an attempt to give them a break. But some of the Boas and Pythons worked most of the time and the little Sand Boas really worked the hardest as they are the snakes that help to break down peoples fears, they are so tiny and cute. We raised £95 again – but made a lot of new contacts – so it was great for local networking.

 

Filed Under: Encounters, Fetes and Fun Days | Tagged:

Snakes at Hoody Festival – Park Pavillion, Harwich, Essex – Snake Encounters

Posted by on October 17, 2012

We will be running our live snake encounters at the Hoody Festival on 3rd November. We will be bringing our usual approx. 20 friendly snakes and apparently ITV will be televising the event! We hope to be at the festival 11 to 12.30 and again 1.30 to 3pm if the snakes can stand the strain, we are stopping for an hour to give them a break, they get tired after being handled constantly for an hour and a half.

Even though we take between 20 and 25 snakes they still all manage to get handled by many people proving that there’s lots of people out there that love snakes and the snakes always manage to win people over and relieve them of their fears, especially the cute little Sand Boas.

Kenyan Sand Boa

One of my baby Sand Boas

Filed Under: Encounters, Fetes and Fun Days | Tagged:

Kids Love Snakes and at a fete are the best thing ever!

Posted by on October 5, 2012

Kids love snakes – A Testimonial from those who count!

Testimonial by those who count

Boys at Summer fete

Right-click or ctrl-click this link to download.

Filed Under: Fetes and Fun Days | Tagged:

Phew – 23 snakes not enough!!

Posted by on August 6, 2012

We had a local event to do at the Redoubt Fort – Military Festival, Harwich on Saturday 4th Aug. I guessed we would be busy so there were 8 volunteers and we took 23 snakes so that we could swap them around and put some away for a rest but we were so busy that it was difficult to get some of the snakes back in their basket for a rest! One small mistake we made was charging much less for children which meant that the adults were leaving their children with us as if it was a creche! Still we all had a great time as usual and many people overcame their fears once they realised how sweet, calm and even therapeutic the snakes are.

We were so busy that I forgot to take any photos at this event but here are a few which were taken by Maria Fowler

Harwich Redoubt Military Festival Harwich Redoubt Military Festival

Harwich Redoubt Military Festival Harwich Redoubt Military Festival
Filed Under: Encounters, Fetes and Fun Days | Tagged:
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