Have Reptile, Will Travel
Written by Tara Leonard
SANTA CRUZ (July 2009) - It’s a typical 5-year-old’s birthday party. Balloons bob along the ceiling. A pile of brightly wrapped gifts teeter on the sofa. A three-foot-long lizard lumbers among the captivated guests. Well, it’s typical if the animals from Lick Your Eyeballs have been invited!
“Gentle touches,” Audra Barrios instructs as little hands reach out to stroke Esqueleto, a 3- foot long Argentine black & white tegu. Esqueleto scuttles across the deck on short, stocky legs to the delight of the fearless children while several parents, who are trying hard to be good sports, recoil at the sight of his long, forked tongue. “Remember our rule about not touching an animal’s face,” Barrios adds, deftly steering the lizard back into the circle of children.
Lick Your Eyeballs is a Santa Cruz company that offers hands-on reptile presentations to children of all ages. Co-owners Audra Barrios and Nik Johnson met while working at East Bay Vivarium in Berkeley, one of the largest reptile pet stores in the country. Their shared love for herpetology, the study of amphibians and reptiles, motivated them to go into business together.
"I used to be a preschool science teacher," Barrios explains. "Occasionally I would bring animals to class and the kids would love it. One day a parent asked if I would do a birthday party and that's what started it."
Johnson brings out Gormy, a bumpy, brown Malaysian toad, which after a few timid hops suddenly leaps into the lap of a little girl. While a few adjacent children shriek, the girl doesn’t even flinch, smiling stoically while the toad explores his new environment.
“The majority of the kids are really into it,” Barrios says.“There are always a couple that don’t want to touch, but they want to look at everything. Then there are always a few who won’t leave you alone!”
“A lot of adults are scared of the animals,” Johnson adds. “We go to birthday parties where the parents cower behind the couch while the kids touch everything. I want kids to have respect for animals and not be afraid of them. A lot of people have irrational fears, which come from inexperience.”
To combat those fears, Barrios and Johnson are conscientious about including information on each animal’s habitat, diet and natural history. For instance, the company name, Lick Your Eyeballs, comes from the fact that geckos don’t have eyelids. In order to keep their eyes moist and clean, they lick them on a regular basis – a behavior that Buddha the crested gecko quickly demonstrates.
Geckos don't need eyedrops, just long tongues.
When they bring out a leaf frog, all pointy and fierce, Barrios talks about camouflage and how the animal blends in with the leafy forest floor. Along with Delilah, the leucistic Texas rat snake, comes information about how and why snakes shed their skin. (They shed to allow for growth, and to remove parasites along with their old skin. Snakes initiate shedding by brushing up against something rough, like a rock, to create a rip.) Even Monster the pink-toed tarantula fails to elicit fear in the children, although several parents quietly scoot back, drawing their legs up beneath them.
“They were very knowledgeable and friendly with the little animals. Oh, and they were great with the reptiles too!” jokes Khristi Kehr of
Scotts
Valley , who invited Lick Your Eyeballs to her daughter’s 8th birthday party. “When they brought the spiders out the boys were hiding under the kitchen table, but the girls were passing them around. I’m really trying to teach my daughter to be fearless and open minded, so it was great to see that. I really enjoyed it as an adult.”
“We essentially do this to keep the animals,” Barrios explains, adding that they currently have about 60 animals in their menagerie, including snakes, frogs, lizards and arachnids. Maintaining them is both time consuming and expensive. They buy rodents (aka snake food) in bulk and a couple thousand crickets at a time. To help defray costs, Lick Your Eyeballs (www.lickyoureyeballs.com) charges $150 an hour for appearances at birthday parties, schools or childcare centers in the
Santa Cruz area.
Back at the party, a few children watch while Barrios and Johnson load their animals into carrying cases for the ride home.
“Mommy, can I get one?” a little boy asks, pointing to Esqueleto. The startled mother mumbles something about already having a dog, but the boy remains fixated on the gentle lizard. And another herpetologist is born.
“They were very knowledgeable and friendly with the little
animals. Oh, and they were great with the reptiles too!” jokes Khristi Kehr of
Scotts
Valley ,
who invited Lick Your Eyeballs to her daughter’s 8th birthday party.
“When they brought the spiders out the boys were hiding under the kitchen
table, but the girls were passing them around. I’m trying to teach my daughter
to be fearless and open minded, so it was great to see that. I really enjoyed
it as an adult.”
“We essentially do this to keep the animals,” Barrios explains. With about 60 snakes, frogs, lizards and spiders in their menagerie, maintenance is both time consuming and expensive. They buy rodents (a.k.a. snake food) in bulk and a couple thousand crickets at a time. To help defray costs, Lick Your Eyeballs charges $150 an hour for appearances at birthday parties, schools or childcare centers in the Santa Cruz area. Johnson also works at a local pet store while Barrios attends UCSC, studying marine biology.
Back at the party, a few children watch while Barrios and Johnson load their animals into carrying cases for the short ride home.
“Mommy, can I get one?” a little boy asks, pointing to Gedge, a white-throated monitor lizard. The startled mother mumbles something about already having a dog, but the child remains fixated on the gentle lizard. Another herpetologist is born.