Went to the "Reptile & Frog Show" on the weekend. Not too sure why they had to exclude "frogs" from reptiles, but nonetheless, here we are, getting acquainted with some of the Australia’s natives.

Bearded lizard, a friendly little thing that just exchanged hands all day long and didn’t seem to mind at all.

Thorny lizard, would make a really cool looking pet. Unfortunately they are illegal in NSW and were brought into Sydney from Queensland especially for this show.

Nothing beats holding a crocodile in your hand. You can go to a pet-shop and hold a lizard. You can go to the zoo and hold a turtle or a frog. You can go to an aquarium and touch a fish. It is not often that you get to hold a whole, alive, partly restricted crocodile (this one was 2 years old), that grows to about 8m in length. I’ve inquired, unfortunately they cannot be kept us pets (even while still small). Apparently it’s not legal unless you own a zoo-keepers license, which involves many years of training and about 20 years experience.

This can be somewhat compared to holding a shark in your hand, which I’m yet to do.

Now we have entered the ‘markets’ part of the show. These here are tiny frogs, sitting quietly on an aquarium wall, costing around $40 each. Anyone can buy one and keep it at home as a pet. When I say anyone, that person must have a Reptile Keepers Licence (1 form & $50 later you got one), that’s about all.

Years ago, when I wanted to buy a python I had quite a bit of difficulty finding a good breeder. I had to go to numerous pet-shops, talk to random people who own or owned a python, make many calls, write many emails, eventually finding a breeder who could help me out. This place — was a massive shock. There were hundreds of baby snakes in boxes sold. People walked around the place with snakes, lizards, frogs and turtles in their hands or in clear boxes. It all seemed legit, there were kids everywhere and it felt more like they were selling toys, then real animals. Wish it was this easy a few years back.

Outside, kids were shown what their little pet could eventually look like.

And that’s my little dude, Apollo. He is smiling, swallowing the last bit of his meal. He is now 4 years old and about 1m70cm in length.