For Cole's party we had a visit from Nature's Critters. Nature's Critters is self-described as an educational live animal presentation. Cole requested a King Cobra party theme and Brandon and I felt that having live snakes would be a very entertaining prospect.
Additionally she's a biologist (not a for-profit who is uneducated). She gives her animals "vacations" from showing every so often and she lives with her pets. Her philosophy is introducing children while they're young to animals so that they can learn about them, how to interact with them, and to respect them.
Cole loves learning and that Nature's Critters was educationally based was a big selling point for me. Talking with Lisa was very comfortable, professional, and easy. She offered her phone, text, or e-mail as ways to communicate leading up to the party.
I let her know a little bit about Cole, the theme of the party, and looked for feedback. Lisa was able to recommend the "snakes" theme that she does.
I requested specifically that she bring her Mexican Black Kingsnake because it is a snake that eats other snakes, much like the king cobra.
Lisa ended up bringing five snakes (of four species), a tortoise, a legless lizard, and a bearded dragon.
The children were able to handle all of the animals with the exception of the tortoise (which they were allowed to throw lettuce to) and the bearded dragon (which they were allowed to pet).
Lisa was very good at redirecting behaviors that weren't necessarily kind to her animals. One of the younger children kept trying to push in too close or ignored instructions and she was fantastic about redirecting the child in a positive way, without any negative statements.
The children were thrilled (as were the adults) with her lesson. She gave a lot of factual information about the animals as she introduced them and while each child took turns holding them.
Lisa was cheaper than our local zoo for what she did. She also was very entertaining to listen to.
My favorite part of our show was when she was questioning the children about what one particular snake would eat. The children answered various things but she said "Mice" and pulled a mouse out of her fanny pack. She then proceeded to pop it in her mouth without hesitation and got everyone gasping.
It turned out to be a rubber mouse but it was a brilliant way to break the ice with the group and completely unexpected.
After the forty or so long presentation, Lisa hung around to talk with one child and her mother as they were particularly interested in sharing knowledge about a mutual pet species.
I felt that we more than got our money's worth out of Lisa. She was courteous, professional, in a positive mood, light-hearted, and fantastic with children. Our group was between the ages of 4-9 and we had adults present as well.
Everyone enjoyed her show.
And we got to take pictures of the children holding the animals during the show (and after). I would absolutely recommend Lisa to anyone interested.
You can find Nature's Critters website here.
Their facebook page is here.
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