MEET YOUR HOST: Exotic pet breeder hatches new community in SPACES

The list of pets in Cassandra Dinsmore’s home reads more like a roll call for Noah’s Ark. 

Her family’s roster of cold-blooded and warm-blooded animals includes three cats, two dogs, one leopard gecko, one African fat-tailed gecko, two gargoyle geckos, four hermit crabs, one corn snake and 12 crested geckos. 

And if she could convince her husband, their brood would likely include a few more species.    

“I guess I live in a zoo,” she says from her office at UA Local 800, where she works as an administrative assistant in her hometown of Sault Ste. Marie.  

Fittingly, Dinsmore is the Pets and animals host in SPACES, the new homegrown social network. 

SEE: SPACES is live! Welcome to Sault Ste. Marie’s very own social network

With her daughter, Callie, the animal kingdom expands by two "tiny house dragons" every few months, when they hatch more crested geckos. 

“For us, it's been 100 days, and then you have these adorable tiny lizards," she says. "And the little kid in me screams, knowing that I hatched a dinosaur."

Her interest in animals began while growing up on a farm in Echo Bay, where some of her earliest memories were caring for horses, chickens, dogs and cats.  

SEE: Sault newcomer excited to welcome others to a special space

“I was the kid that would run around and pick up snakes and frogs and wanted to show them to everybody,” she jokes, adding that for as long as she can remember, her life has always revolved around animals.

When she was in grade school, she used a school project as an excuse to get a gerbil; then co-oped at a local vet, volunteered at the Humane Society and later studied Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Sault College, where she learned about native species in the region.  

She also knows a thing or two about beekeeping. But it wasn’t until she had her daughter that she started researching the exotic pet industry — and was surprised at what she discovered.   

“Things in the ‘pet trade’ that are labelled as exotic aren't always wild animals,” she says. “Some of them have been captive, bred for decades or for even longer. So, upon realizing that it was kind of like an epiphany.”

SEE: Talented local carpenter helps us build the Sault’s new social network

When the mother-daughter duo began caring for hermit crabs, their quest for knowledge on proper pet care really took off.

“It's not that flyer that you pick up at the pet store to look at. There's so much more beyond that little pamphlet.” 

In SPACES, Dinsmore shares insights on how to prepare for an emergency with pets, what products are actually harmful to them, and some fun facts about bearded dragons and leopard geckos. 

SEE: 'A little society on your desk': Love of bugs inspires ant colony business

The more reptiles they brought home, the more ah-ha moments they had. For the crested geckos specifically, they were misled to think that keeping them required specialized equipment and food. 

“You keep them at room temperature," Dinsmore says. "You do need to bump up their humidity by misting but that's only a couple of times a week. Their food is a powdered diet. You just add water, you give it to them a couple of days a week."

Their thirst for knowledge eventually led her and Callie into breeding — which has been equal parts fascinating and rewarding. Throughout their house you’ll find beautiful terrariums, exotic enclosures that each function as their own micro ecosystem. 

“They are fully bioactive. That means that there's real dirt and real plants and they have what we call a cleanup crew — little bugs that are specifically in there to eat the waste and dead leaves from plants which then gives the nutrients back to the plants.” 

The hatchlings live in shoe boxes until they are adopted, where they can live for up to around 20 years. They are now one of the most popular among exotic pet owners but up until the 1990s were thought to be extinct.

“I think the story is that one fell on a researcher's clipboard in their home country of New Caledonia, and at the time they thought they were extinct. But they're just the coolest,” she says, rattling off some more fun facts: Soft skin, not scaly; millions of hairs on their toes which are what help them grip. Not to mention their prehensile tails that allow them to clasp objects while they scour for food. 

As a breeder, Dinsmore seeks out a wide range of colours and varieties of crested geckos. 

“Even reptiles can be a form of art,” Dinsmore says, hinting at her other passion, drawing. 

She moonlights as a flora and fauna artist when she’s not caring for pets. Always a doodler, she prefers drawing — you guessed it — animals. “I can't draw humans. It bothers me that I can't get everything right and if it doesn't look right, then I don't like it,” she says. 

For Dinsmore, art is a coping method, she says, recalling a time when she employed her talents to make everyone Christmas gifts one year that was particularly rough for the family. 

“Everybody loved them,” she said. “It felt awesome to see their faces light up when I gifted it to them.”

Her mission for the Pets and animals space is to debunk the stigmas that surround exotic pet ownership. “I want to show people that there's more than cats and dogs. As much as I love cats and dogs, there are some pretty crazy and amazing pets out there. And I want to be able to support everybody here that has those different pets.” 

Her other aim is to build a community of pet lovers who can help one another care for their pets, whether that’s helping them find a deal on pet food or sharing tips. To connect with Dinsmore’s community of pet lovers, join her in SPACES. Her animals and art collections can also be found on Instagram.