Hsin-Yi Cohen While most people immediately think of reptiles, particularly snakes, when they think of skin-shedding, in actual fact, all animals shed their skin at regular intervals to maintain health. In fact, humans shed 1.5 million skin cells every hour! However, reptiles gain more attention for the process because they often do …
While reptiles can make rewarding pets they do require a high level of commitment and many people embarking on ownership without realising how expensive or difficult they can be to care for properly. Particularly when you are a beginner, the right choice of reptile can make a huge difference between …
One of the key differences about keeping reptiles as pets is that a great amount of thought must be given to their housing, as unlike many other types of pets, they will be spending their entire lives in their captive environment. In general, the closer their captive environment approximates their …
Bearded dragons are omnivores which means that their natural diet includes both “meat” (in their case, mostly insects) and plant material. Therefore, at least half the diet of a captive/pet Beaded Dragon should consist of insects such as crickets, grasshoppers and cockroaches, as well as mealworms and mealworm beetles as …
While healthy tortoises do not excrete a specific disease-causing substance, as such – like all reptiles, they do often carry the Salmonella bacterium which can cause Salmonellosis, a serious disease which can have potentially fatal consequences if untreated, especially in children. This bacterium is not easily destroyed through the normal …
The electronic mice repellers on the market are designed to specifically target rodents – this includes all members of the rodent family, such as rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, ferrets, rabbits, squirrels – and yes, gerbils. All reputable products come with clear warnings not to place the repeller in the same …
King snakes in the wild eat a variety of prey, from rodents to birds, amphibians to lizards and even, frequently, other snakes! In fact, they will eat each other if kept together so these snakes must be kept alone in their cages. Pre-killed mice or baby rats are usually the …
Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD) is probably one of the most common illnesses that reptile owners will have to deal with. In a sense it is really an umbrella term for a number of disorders such as osteoporosis, fibrous osteodystrophy, secondary nutritional hyperparathyroidism, osteomalacia and rickets. All of these relate to …
Poor reptile husbandry leads to a lot of problems and a lot of diseases that can be easily preventable. Cleaning your reptile’s enclosure regularly and maintaining it at the correct humidity levels is essential not only for general attractiveness and the reptile’s comfort but also to prevent horrible and potentially …
First of all prevention really is better than cure. So above all else, spend time making sure that your reptile enclosure is absolutely escape-proof. You’d be amazed at the size of gaps that some snakes or lizards can squeeze through or how strong some reptiles can be in pushing or …
