{"id":60647,"date":"2026-01-04T19:16:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T00:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=60647"},"modified":"2026-01-04T19:16:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T00:16:30","slug":"repticon-brings-exotic-animals-and-education-to-lakeland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/01\/04\/repticon-brings-exotic-animals-and-education-to-lakeland\/","title":{"rendered":"Repticon brings exotic animals and education to Lakeland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you\u2019re into creepy, crawly animals, there\u2019s a convention in Lakeland for you.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Snakes, spiders, reptiles, oh my!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it slithers, crawls, and has a tendency to make people squirm, you name it, it\u2019s here at this weekend\u2019s Repticon in Lakeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I do have geckos and snakes, but my main priority is tarantulas. That is my specialty,” Andrew Tate, owner of Devil’s Pets, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have everything from ball pythons to leopard geckos, to chameleons, corn snakes, king snakes, and a white-lipped python,” Robert Sinico, owner of Rebellion Reptiles and Exotics, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aiming to connect with fellow reptile lovers and educate those who might be on the fence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They’re not as scary as people think they are, or they’re not slimy how people think they are. They look so shiny that they think they’re slimy, they’re actually very soft,” Alanis Rodriguez, representing Family Reptiles, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They (snakes) only eat once a week, so as long as they have their heat, water, and a decent size enclosure with things for them to explore, they don’t really need much,” Rodriguez said. “Tarantulas, I feel, are arguably one of the most misunderstood exotic animals on the planet. Most people don’t even know that tarantulas aren’t true spiders. They don’t know that, you know, you can keep a tarantula the same way you keep an exotic fish. It’s like an exotic fish but without water.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Repticon hopes to shed light on the uniqueness of each animal and that they may not be so scary after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You are not going to find a more diverse place to see every exotic, every snake possible. That’s a very welcoming community,” Sinico said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Repticon will be landing in Tampa next month, Feb. 21\u201322, at the Florida State Fairgrounds.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on Repticon, click here<\/a>.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re into creepy, crawly animals, there\u2019s a convention in Lakeland for you. Snakes, spiders, reptiles, oh my! If it slithers, crawls, and has a tendency to make people squirm, you name… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDFcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtMjAyNi0wMS0wNFQxODI5NDcuODE5LndlYnA_Zml0PTQ1MyUyQzMzOSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlJlcHRpY29uIGJyaW5ncyBleG90aWMgYW5pbWFscyBhbmQgZWR1Y2F0aW9uIHRvIExha2VsYW5kIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.EN0FqDg47B2xSi2Xyg1meLLE9kdHBolMbztYrDFyj-oMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":60649,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-04T182947.819.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[13092],"class_list":["post-60647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-repticon-brings-exotic-animals-and-education-to-lakeland"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60650,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60647\/revisions\/60650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}