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Store Crawling With Critters

A local business has lots of exotic pets.

Tribune photo by ROBERT BURKE

Bobby Rex shows off Jabba, an African bullfrog, one of the critters for sale at Scales Exotic Pet store.

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By LAURA FRAZIER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 29, 2008

Updated: 10/29/2008 12:31 pm

BRANDON - Whatever it is about spiders and snakes that strikes fear into the hearts of men, there's not an ounce of it in this guy.

Barehanded and barely batting an eye, Thomas Robert Rex, who goes by "Bobby," scooped a tangle of writhing rat snakes from a terrarium at Scales Exotic Pets. "I'd be in the wrong business if this bothered me," Rex said.

The Dover man opened Scales 13 years ago in Kingsway Plaza, where store mascots Emerald and Steve — green iguanas — are frequently found sunning themselves outside the shop in their cages.

Inside, there are snakes, lizards and other exotics by the dozens. During a recent tour of the store, Rex handled all creatures great and small — and scaly and slimy — with care.

An iridescent African bullfrog the size of a cantaloupe snoozed in a soppy terrarium. Anticipating the great girth the frog would grow to, Rex named it Jabba when it was no bigger than a quarter.

Inside a dry, sandy tank, a clutch of baby bearded dragons huddled together on a driftwood log. Customer Nick Hahto bought a pair of the lizards a few months ago and now breeds and sells the critters. He came to Scales to pick up a weeks' worth of groceries for his pets — a lunch sack crawling with live crickets.

"My first clutch had 33 babies," Hahto said. "They're cool looking, the way they stare at you and move their heads to follow you."

Rex held a trio of African pygmy hedgehogs close to his chest, murmuring to them and stroking their noses. He said the popular, prickly pets are docile and require minimal care.

"They're very personable," he said. "They won't raise their quills once they get to know you and bond with you."

Later, he warned onlookers to back away from a Chilean rose-hair tarantula perched on his arm.
"Its main defense is to flick its hairs," he said. "They used to make itching powder out of tarantula hair."

Glen Nobles and his daughter Melissa shopped for a three-course meal for their 10-year-old Australian tree boa — three live white mice. Melissa wrinkled her nose when asked about the snake.

"It's more his than mine," she said, pointing to her father. "I don't really like it."

Truly a man of Rex's ilk, Glen Nobles said, "I handle it every day. I wash it and love on it."

Rex has a soft spot for his pet iguanas.

Emerald, 14, was a wedding gift to Rex and his wife, Lynda, from his father. When Emerald's longtime lizard friend Dobie died from cancer a few years ago, Rex brought Steve home to keep her company. It was love at first lick.

"They're my babies," he said, stroking the giant lizards' tails and chins. Both nuzzled back to his touch.

"Reptiles are trainable," he said. "They may not run to the door and greet you, but they respond to you."

Pets Feel Economic Pinch

Until the economy began to unravel about a year ago, Bobby Rex always hired help to feed critters and clean cages at Scales Exotic Pets.

"Believe me, I could use the help, but I can't afford to hire anyone," he said. "I have to make ends meet."

To breathe life into his bottom line, Rex slashed prices to compete with big-box stores, stopped selling expensive-to-license reptiles and began breeding his own crickets to use and sell for reptile food.

He sees signs of economic stress in his customers, too. Many snake owners who used to feed their pets once a week now purchase live mice only once a month.

"The snake will survive, but it's hungry," Rex said.

He is also dismayed by a growing number of customers who come to surrender pets previously purchased there because they can't afford to feed them.

"That's scary," he said.

What frightens him even more is a case of mistaken identity Rex said he has dealt with for more than a decade.

He said people commonly confuse him with another man who lives in the Dover area and sells exotic pets for a living, but that is where the similarities end. The other man is a convicted, registered sex offender.

"It's just horrible," he said. "I'm not this other guy, and I want people to know that."

SCALES EXOTIC PETS

WHERE: 1223 Kingsway Road, Brandon
HOURS: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Friday; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday; closed Sunday and Monday
INFO: (813) 661-7700 or www.scalesexoticpets.com.

Reporter Laura Frazier can be reached at (813) 657-4523.

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