Over recent years, reptile keeping has developed from something of a minority interest among a small number of dedicated fans to represent a large and growing part of the mainstream pet industry.Success with these animals goes hand-in-hand with a good understanding of their general biology and particular needs - which is where this site comes into its own.
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 …
France allows private individuals to import a maximum of 5 pet reptiles, per family – provided that they are not put up for sale or sold, under any circumstances and that they are accompanied by a health certificate which has the signature of an authorised veterinarian from the country of …
Although we don’t often like to dwell on the thought, most animals are prone to parasites of one sort or another and reptiles are obviously no exception. The growth of captive breeding has helped to reduce much of the prevalence of parasites; wild-caught specimens – especially tortoises and snakes – …
Reptilian reproduction forms one of the key turning points in evolution; when the first reptiles broke free from their amphibian ancestors’ dependence on water for breeding, their conquest of the land became complete – and ultimately allowed dinosaurs to rule the world for 120 million years. Today, modern reptiles follow …
Like other animals, snakes rely on their senses to know what’s going on around them, but much of the structure of their sense organs is quite different – and in some case, entirely unique. Although we can speculate about the evolution of snakes, exactly why they developed their particular approaches …
As every snake-keeper knows, once your friends and colleagues find out your choice of pets, it’s only a matter of time before someone turns the conversation around to poisonous snakes and the dangers of snake-bite. Despite the widely held – and entirely untrue – belief that all snakes can deal …
Of all of the unique species to be found on the Galapagos islands, the giant (Geochelone nigra) – the world’s largest tortoise – is probably the best known and certainly the most instantly recognised. Believed to have evolved from a single ancestral type of tortoise, before the arrival of humans …
Reaching a length of up to 10 feet (3m) and an average weight of 10 stones (64kg) or more, the world’s largest living lizard, the Komodo Dragon (Varanus komodoensis) bears more than a passing similarity to the fire-breathing reptile of legend. Native to the island of Komodo and the neighbouring …
About 25 miles south of the city of Chennai, nestling beside the Bay of Bengal, there lies a small patch of ground where you’ll find the highest number of crocodiles per square yard in India – and probably anywhere on the planet. You’d be forgiven for thinking that most of …
The work of the Cayman Islands’ Blue Iguana Recovery Programme (BIRP) in rescuing one of the world’s rarest and most threatened reptiles from the edge of extinction, ranks high amongst the greatest conservation success stories of modern years. Long thought to be simply a subspecies of the Cuban Iguana ( …
