For some people, it’s the fact that they are known to be incredibly dangerous animals. For some, it’s the fact that it’s so taboo to have a venomous pet. While for others, it’s the fact that they are incredible animals to study at a biological and behavioural level.
Love Reptiles?
Whatever your reason may be for wanting to have a reptile as a pet, if you want to become a reptile parent, or improve your parenting skills for a reptile, you need to understand what they need to live a happy and fulfilling life. Very few people who choose to adopt a reptile as a pet actually have experience in working with these cold-blooded beauties.
Generally, the choice of a reptile is out of passion or curiosity with little knowledge of just how much effort goes into giving a reptile a healthy home. While these are extremely resilient creatures out in the wild, in an artificial habitat where they can’t manipulate their surroundings to meet their needs, you will play the role of Mother Nature. It will be your job to give your pet everything that it needs, when it needs it, in the amount that it needs.
Age
One perspective that people don’t usually consider is that, unlike mammal pets, reptile pets stick around for quite a while. This is a lesser-known fact about reptiles, but some species can live to over a hundred years, even over two hundred years. This means that caring for these animals in the long term could be really long term.
The only way you can keep a reptile for its whole natural life is if you are incredibly dedicated or passionate to death about them, literally. Some reptiles that are considered to have a “short” life span still live for 3 to 4 decades. So keep that factor in mind before you decide to buy a cute little turtle.
Food
New pet parents are always super excited about their little friends. In the case of reptiles, they are usually in a contained area and since they naturally aren’t very social animals, the new pet parents don’t have much to look out for, which can be to their dismay. In order to get their pet’s attention, and just out of love, they tend to always have a snack for the reptile and try to entertain the animals with food and interactions.
Expert snake handlers at My Snake Pet go in-depth discussing how a snake eats and what their optimum feeding schedule should look like. Being animals with incredibly slow metabolisms, they are the exact opposite to dogs, rarely ever needing a snack or even frequent meals. They will eat things you offer them, but after a good meal, they don’t need anything for at least a few days. Being in captivity only reduces their activity levels and reduces their need for energy meaning they can stay even longer without food
Temperature
Generally, reptiles are found on nearly every continent of the planet except the North Pole. Reptiles inhabit nearly every kind of terrain and every possible climate in the world, but extreme cold is something that they aren’t too happy with. Being ectothermic animals, extreme heat is not something they prefer either, but if they have enough room where they can cool off, they will manage.
In captivity, they have very little control over how they can regulate temperature and it is up to you to provide them with the right amount of heat. However, you should also leave some shady areas away from the heat source so they can cool off if they need to. Similarly have an elevated surface that is closer to the heat source where they can warm up if they are cold. Temperature affects a lot of internal processes in reptiles so it’s important you get this right.
If you haven’t already considered this before purchasing your pet reptile, then you should be aware of the fact that some reptiles can grow to be extremely large, and extremely powerful. Particular species of turtles and tortoises can grow to weigh more than the average human. Before you get a pet reptile you should understand exactly how these animals grow so that you are sure that you can provide for these animals’ growing needs.
Conclusion
Moreover, be sure to check with local regulations to see which kinds of reptiles you are allowed to keep. In some areas, it is illegal to keep snakes or certain species of snake. Also on the illegal list are certain other reptiles. So be sure that you have a pet that is legal.
Also, try to buy your reptile pet locally so that you have a local support system. While importing a reptile may seem like a great idea it may be difficult to get the support services you will need later.