Services
educational presentations
My Three Chambered Heart provides educational shows with an exciting hands-on component. Ambassador animals travel along with us and are able to be touched and interacted with. Presentations are tailored to the appropriate age group or academic level and are rich with scientific facts, interesting new research in the field of herpetology, and personal anecdotes. Our ability to travel for programs is dependent on our museum schedule, with most availability on Mondays and Tuesdays. This option is best for larger schools or those that are unable to travel to our location for a field trip.
field trips
Bring your class, co-op, or community group out to the museum for a unique, immersive experience! We schedule field trips at our location on Mondays and Tuesdays. Field trips are private events, and the entire museum is reserved for your group. Pricing is on a per-participant basis, with a flat fee for smaller groups. For most age ranges, field trips are scheduled in 3 hour blocks. We generally suggest groups of 15-30 for a more personalized experience. We can schedule individual classes or grade levels through out the day to accommodate larger numbers of students. Please contact us for details!
birthday parties or private events
My Three Chambered Heart has limited availability to offer private events such as birthday parties, but it is occasionally possible with creative scheduling. We currently do not have our private event space available (coming late 2025), so we host birthday parties and other private events in our museum space during days or hours we are closed to the public. This means a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or in the evening (starting as early as 5:30pm). During a private event, the entire museum is rented out for your group and we provide a private tour with demonstrations and activities. If your event timing is flexible, please reach out for more information.
F.A.Q.
We love questions! Reach out if you don’t see yours below!
No. There are actually very few poisonous snakes, and we do not own any.
Typically when people refer to ‘poisonous snakes’ they actually mean venomous snakes. Poisonous animals only release toxins when you eat them, while venomous animals inject toxins via a bite or sting. We do not currently have any significantly venomous species on exhibit, but there will be several highlighted in our expansion (phase 2 of the museum, likely opening late 2025).
Anything with a mouth COULD bite, including YOU. However, our ambassador animals are very well socialized and have each experienced no less than twenty educational shows and dozens of classes. We have had hundreds of people meet our animals over the years, and an animal has yet to bite a student or an audience member.
HOWEVER….. our reptiles are indeed ANIMALS and therefore cannot tell us with words when something is bothering them. We watch their body language very carefully, and teach our students and audience to do the same, but you can never be 100% sure. Bites CAN happen, but with proper respect and careful handling it is very unlikely. In Jake’s 30+ years of keeping snakes, he has been bitten less than 10 times. We only allow the friendliest animals to be touched, most animals stay inside their exhibit enclosures or are only handled by My Three Chambered Heart staff or volunteers. More fragile and sensitive species are also kept in enclosures to reduce the stress they might experience.
We tailor each presentation to the specific event to ensure the appropriate academic or entertainment goal is met, so the exact number of animals varies from show to show. The average age and size of the audience as well as the length of the show play a huge role in how many ambassador animals come along. However, at a typical My Three Chambered Heart event you can usually expect to see between six and fifteen different species of reptiles. At our museum, we have over 65 unique species of reptiles on exhibit.
As each audience is unique, we tailor our show to match the needs of the event. A presentation for a college level biology class would last longer and go into more detail than a birthday party for a five year old. That being said, we suggest private shows aimed at a younger age group (seven years old and younger) be kept around an hour long. For older children or academic groups, we recommend two hour long shows to really highlight the different species and allow plenty of time for audience interaction. We also suggest two hours for private events, to ensure enough time for animal interaction and photos. The shows range in price based on length, as well as distance we need to travel with the animals. However, we believe everyone should have access to quality educational experiences so we operate using a sliding scale for underprivileged groups and other nonprofits with similar visions. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or for a general pricing structure.
My Three Chambered Heart is a nonprofit organization that relies completely on donations and revenue from services to operate. The majority of our revenue goes towards museum operating expenses and reptile care. Any additional funds, when available, go towards events, new exhibits, and phase 2 of the museum (our exhibit space will double). We are currently run entirely by volunteers, but hope to be able to hire a staff at some point in the near future.