Springville family turns passion into business, teachable moments
Story by Jackie Romine Walburn
Photos by Susan Wall
It’s hard to say exactly when 6th Day Creatures, an exotic animal education and entertainment venture headquartered in St. Clair County, really began for Jamie Hacker, his family and their collection of exotic pets.
The obvious start was when Jamie was asked to do a devotion at a children’s church event seven years ago, and he brought along a couple of small, friendly snakes and a black and white ferret with him “to illustrate how God created and loves all of us – even funny-looking animals and snakes.”
That impromptu devotion quickly morphed into more. “By Monday at school, our seven-year-old had volunteered us to do another program, and another.”
So officially began 6th Day Creatures, a business and mission that brings exotic animals and life lessons to children and adults at church, school and community events across Alabama and beyond.
The name 6th Day Creatures is based on when the Bible says God created all the creeping and crawling land creatures. As noted in Genesis 1:24. “And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creatures after his kind, cattle, and creeping things and the beast of the earth after his kind,’ and it was so.”
But, the true beginning for 6th Day Creatures can also be traced to Jamie and his wife’s family traditions of unusual pets and their family’s ongoing love, knowledge and care for exotic animals.
Both Jamie Hacker, who works as registered nurse at St. Vincent’s Hospital in downtown Birmingham, and his wife, Trussville native Leigh Fox Hacker, a nurse who works at St. Vincent’s East, grew up around unusual pets.
The couple’s passion for exotic pets was honed during their childhoods and passed on to their children, daughter Lauren, 18, now a freshman at Jacksonville State University, and son Brady, 14, who is a freshman in high school.
Jamie’s father raised show pigs, modern bantam chickens and cattle in Oklahoma, where Jamie stayed when not with his mom in Mississippi. Leigh’s grandparents bred and raised chinchillas, the rodent native to Peru and Chile that are prized for their dense, soft fur.
They both love animals and value exotic species, but it was Leigh who first bought the children their own exotic pets. For son Brady, she purchased one of the family’s first corn snakes, and daughter Lauren’s got a chinchilla named CeCe. Lauren also around this time adopted a rescue Maltese Yorkie (Morkie) named Sebastian, who became a family pet, too.
As the number and variety of exotic pets grew, the family sometimes raised exotic animals for the pet store market. “At one time, there were 100 snakes being raised in our son’s bedroom,” Jamie recalls. Their pet count got up to about 400 when they bred for pet stores. Now the pet count is about one-tenth of that. Also, they used to breed several kinds of cockroaches, mainly for food for pets. “We have bred Red Runner Cockroaches, Dubia Cockroaches and mealworms in the past.”
Now they have only Madagascar hissing cockroaches, one of the largest cockroach species that can reach two to three inches long. “We only have hissing cockroaches now just for fun since they are really big flightless roaches that gross people out,” Jamie says.
The pet lizards get live insects because they will only eat food if it is moving, he says. However, the Bearded Dragons sometimes get dried meal worms on their greens – “like you put croutons on a salad.”
Live food is never fed to the snakes or other carnivores. They do not feed any live rodents, he says, to keep the snakes from having the instinct to strike and be aggressive. Instead, they purchase frozen rodents, Jamie says, remembering how the UPS man commented “ya’ll must eat really good,” about delivering packages of what he assumed were frozen steaks or other expensive people food. Then they explained that the boxes were actually frozen rodents.
Through their days as pet owners, then breeders and now with an animal adventure business, their veterinarian has been Dr. Carl Grimmett of Grayson Valley Pet Clinic. Knowledgeable about exotic pet care, which is a shared interest, Dr. Grimmett usually makes house calls for the Hacker family pets.
The family business
Since 6th Day Creatures came to life, it’s been a family project, with Jamie up front as the animal adventure master of ceremonies and either Leigh, Lauren or Brady assisting.
“I love animals and kids,” says Jamie. His ease with both is plain to see as Jamie and Brady brought 6th Day Creature’s Animal Adventures to a Clearbranch United Methodist Church’s Wednesday night children’s service.
Like an exotic pet pied piper, children follow as Jamie walks around before the show, with Dewey the Bearded Dragon, an Australian lizard, clinging to his back or head or shoulder. “Put him on my head,” one child says. “Put him on my sister’s head,” another offers.
As Jamie introduces Dewey and then brings out Zelda, a colorful corn snake, he explains the 6th Day rules. If you don’t want to pet, see up close or interact with whatever creature Jamie offers, “just put your palm up, no thank you.” Even though you might make friends with 6th Day creatures, he tells the children, never touch a wild animal – like these or others – when you are outside in their territory. He also explains that audience members should consider it an “anointing” if a pet takes the opportunity to ‘relieve himself’ and reminds the kids that most of the exotic pets are not housetrained, so anything could happen.
After safety – 6th Day has never had an escape or incident with the exotic pets interacting with people – the main message this day is that God created us and all the creatures for a reason and that He loves us and all creatures of his creation.
“God has a reason for everything He does,” Jamie says, using the nonvenomous corn snake as an example. “The craziest thing is, without snakes, we wouldn’t survive,” he explains. Snakes eat rats and mice and keep the vermin’s population down and protect us from diseases they carry.
When Lucy the hedgehog makes an appearance, children see how God equipped hedgehogs to protect themselves – with their quill-covered skin and the ability to fold up into a ball.
When the so-ugly-it’s-cute hairless guinea pig is introduced, Jamie explains that the hybrid is called a skinny pig and reminds him of how God made us all different. “Some of us are tall, some small, some prettier than others,” he says. Telling a story about children teasing a boy in a wheelchair, Jamie encourages the young audience to appreciate the differences in all of us and never make fun of someone who is different. Instead, he urged, “use the way God made you special to do good and spread love.”
When Taco, the Chaco Golden Knee Tarantula, was introduced, the giant spider prompted squeals from the children, who could look but not touch. Ditto for the dwarf Caiman, an alligator relative from Central and South America whose jaws are taped shut for all outings. With 80 razor-sharp teeth, Caimans are generally more aggressive than their north American cousins who grow much bigger. Jamie points out its two sets of eyelids, so the amphibious carnivore appears to be asleep while he is actually watching for prey.
Up next is the African Spur Thigh Tortoise, slow and steady with temperature control built into its spurred feet. As a finale, 6th Day features its largest Burmese Python, named Sonnie, a male who is almost 11 feet long.
Big, little, scary or sweet, Jamie explains, God’s creatures are gifts and responsibilities and serve as testimony that God loves us all.
A growing family
Back at home, Jamie sits cuddling Pikachu, a Kinkajou that looks like a ferret-monkey mix. Pikachu is named for a Pokemon character. “We call him Pika because saying Pikachu the Kinkajou is a mouthful.”
Pika travels with 6th Day Creatures often. “He likes to snuggle and go hide in our shirts. A shy nocturnal animal like its cousin, the raccoon, the Kinkajou curls up inside his shirt as Jamie recites a list of animals that now live with the family in St. Clair County.
In addition to the family’s six dogs, the “regular” pets, the Hackers, and 6th Day currently have about 60 pets, including 25 snakes, all non-venomous, mostly colorful corn snakes and three Burmese Pythons, who often steal the show.
6th Day Creatures is a licensed and insured educational company. The business has an exotic animal exhibitor license with the USDA, which conducts annual inspections of the pets’ quarters in the Hacker’s home and yard in Springville.
Fees for the shows go to help feed and take care of the pets. The cost of a party or show varies according to how many miles the eight to 10 creatures need to be transported from the Hacker’s home in the 35146 zip code. The starting amount is $225, for up to 25 miles of travel, for an animal adventure of about an hour.
To count them down, 6th Day Creatures include the animals that starred in the show at Clearbranch plus: two pot belly pigs, two ferrets, several guinea pigs, two skinny pigs, more than 20 additional snakes, two more tortoises and several rabbits, including Rebunzal, the long-eared, 30-pound rabbit with 16-inch ears. They also have families of chinchilla which do not travel to shows because they cannot tolerate being hot or wet.
Seven years into 6th Day Creatures, with a daughter in college and son in high school, Jamie says they are working through a transition period with his key animal adventure helpers not available nearly as often as before. Feeding and caring for scores of unconventional pets is time consuming, especially after days of he and Leigh working 12-hour shifts as nurses.
But, the shows, the children and the chance to share his passion for animals while sharing beliefs in God’s love and wisdom prove to be worth the work.
Learn more about 6th Day Creatures – including how to book an animal adventure show – at www.6thdaycreatures.com.
