Expert Advice on Caring For Reptiles

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.

The Top Five Destinations for Reptile Watching

Britain’s a great country, but it’s a little short on reptile watching opportunities. There aren’t many native species to begin with, and although conservation efforts are gradually turning the tide, habitat loss has taken its toll on populations over the last fifty years or so. It’s hardly surprising then, that …

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Understanding Thermoregulation

Leaving aside the debates about whether at least some of the dinosaurs were really warm-blooded, modern-day reptiles are certainly not, relying instead on their external environment to regulate their bodily temperature. That hardly comes as news to any reptile fan, but what we often forget is that there is more …

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The Dos and Don’ts of Diet

Few things cause so much anxiety and heartache amongst reptile keepers as a creature that staunchly refuses to eat. Getting the diet and feeding regime right depends on a lot of things, of course, and not least what kind of animal you’re dealing with, but many of the commonly encountered …

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Five Tips to Encourage Reluctant Breeders

You’ve done all the right things, selected the best possible animals to breed from, cared for them really well, fed them and generally prepared them for this moment – and now it seems, they’re just not interested in doing the ‘birds-and-the-bees’ thing! There are not many things more frustrating for …

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Five Tips to Encourage Reluctant Feeders

A reptile that simply won’t feed is a real worry and once you’ve made sure that there’s no obvious cause, and checked that you’re offering it the right kind of food, it’s often difficult to know what to do next. Fortunately, in many cases getting your pet to start eating …

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Saving the World’s Rarest Snake: A Case Study

It’s not often that any animal can be said to have been brought back from extinction, but in the case of the Antiguan racer (Alsophis antiguae), it is quite literally true. Once widespread across Antigua in the Caribbean’s Leeward Isles, the population of these harmless, metre-long snakes was decimated by …

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Bringing ‘Dragons’ Back to Wales: A Case Study

You could be forgiven for thinking that the only dragons you’re likely to see on a trip to the Welsh coast are the ones on the road signs that say “Croeso y Cymru/Welcome to Wales” – or the distinctive flags that flutter from buildings along the way. With the work …

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Discovering Butikaw a New Species of Monitor: A Case Study

For the most part, animals that are new to science tend to be fairly small; it’s being little and relatively inconspicuous amongst the undergrowth that allows them to avoid detection for so long, despite the relentless incursions of humans into their natural habitats. The novel discovery of large species, particularly …

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The Tuatara: A True Living Fossil

For most reptile fans, the prospect of being able to see a real-live dinosaur wouldn’t be something to miss – from a safe distance, of course! While that’s obviously not really going to happen, at least not until someone does get round to some pretty clever Jurassic Park-style cloning, it …

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Sex Determination in Reptiles

Is it a boy or a girl? It’s a simple enough question to answer you’d suppose, but if you’re talking about reptiles, you might need to think again! A mammal’s sex is usually defined by a fairly straightforward matter of chromosomes – the familiar XY for male and XX for …

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Reptile Expert