Reptile gardens bouncing back after fire

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This article was published 28/04/2022 (1326 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DOUGLAS — Following a devastating fire last spring that consumed portions of their facility and property, Candi Shelvey and her husband Dave haven’t missed a day since to ensure their reptiles have a welcome home in Westman.

On the night of April 23, 2021, the owners of Westman Reptile Gardens scrambled to save as many rodents as they could from the warehouse where they breed their own feed.

“Out of about 700 cages in there, we managed to save 33,” Candi Shelvey said.

“We lost the rest. It took a few months to try and breed to get up to where we’d be able to have a good stock again.”

The warehouse that burnt down was a secondary structure originally built to store mice and rats. Her husband is currently rebuilding the horse barn that was lost in the fire.

She said they were fortunate enough to not receive any structural or fire damage to the main zoo enclosure, but was disheartened to lose their walk-in freezer full of frozen feed that had been replenished year after year.

“Tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of frozen feed gone,” Shelvey said.

“Our initial supply went to zero, that was the huge hit there. It was trying to find enough supply from our networks that was hard.”

After closing for a week to clean up, the reptile gardens were able to reopen the following May. She said several people reached out to donate feed, which allowed the husband and wife to replenish their stock quickly over the summer.

“It was a little touch and go the month after the fire to get to a comfortable place.”

The night of the fire, Shelvey’s daughter Erika started a campaign on GoFundMe, a digital fundraising platform, that became a huge financial relief for the family. She said they have been extremely grateful to receive many donations since last year.

“It’s not the top of your mind when you’re standing there, watching things burn down around you,” she said.

“We managed to raise $10,000 and that was absolutely crucial to keep things going. We needed immediate money to get what we needed right away. Insurance takes forever.”

Now more than 18 years at their location, the family is looking forward to moving past a time when pandemic restrictions hampered their business.

Despite being able to stay open during a portion of the pandemic by selling frozen mice and other pet food, there were often times when the reptile gardens fell silent. Over the past month, the family has been reminded of why they love to do what they do.

“With the omicron variant, nobody wanted to do anything touristy. We puttered along and went with the flow day to day.

“[Since] restrictions lifted, it has been much better. Spring break was absolutely insane in here, it was fantastic. I missed the people so much and it was so nice to have them non-stop coming through the door.”

Starting out as a national breeder and wholesaler of turtles, snakes, bearded dragons and frozen feed for pet stores, the husband and wife have now been in the reptile business for over 35 years.

“My husband has been interested in this stuff and collecting since he was six. He was well ahead of me. I knew nothing when I met him.”

Her husband first took a significant interest in the study of reptiles while attending George Fitton grade school in Brandon. Shelvey is reminded of their progress when she looks upon the wall of celebrities she and her husband have served over the years.

Shortly before the pandemic, her husband supplied an albino Burmese snake to a CWE Wrestling show featuring special guest Jake (The Snake) Roberts, who made an appearance on the card in Brandon.

Over the years, the husband and wife have worked with the likes of Robert Wagner, Paul Walker, Alice Cooper and Sebastian Spence.

“Initially, a friend of ours worked primarily with warm-blooded animals out of Winnipeg and she had connections with different production companies that would potentially be filming in the Winnipeg and Western Ontario area.”

The connection got their foot in the door with several production companies and directors. As she takes the individual feed out to each critter enclosure, Shelvey is joined by her personal favourite snake, Jose, a 10-year-old albino Sinaloan milk snake from Sinaloa, Mexico.

“He is from the same neighbourhood as El Chapo,” she said as she laughed.

As she admires all of the entries jotted down by visitors, she told the Sun the reptile gardens is now on its fourth guest book marked with the signatures of people from across the world. Entries include visitors from Japan, Bolivia, Brazil, and parts of the United States and Canada.

“My favourite thing … is the people, when they come in, and the kids and grown-ups are ‘oohing and aahing,’ as they are going through. I love the people.”

» jbernacki@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @JosephBernacki