Buying reptiles

[rakuenso]

I guess its mainly to mokele: Where do your get your snakes and other reptiles, local pet stores sells them but my wallet isn't fat enough.

[Mokele]

Basically, I get them from specialist breeders and rarely from specialist importers (for species not bred in captivity).

 

The general rule is that you get what you pay for. If you buy a lizard for $3 at a flea market, don't be suprised when it drops dead the next day due to horrible prior care. If you buy from somewhere like Petsmart and Petco, well, they're better, but the animals are generally kept in sub-optimal conditions, and are often imported. If you buy from a breeder or specialist in reptiles, while it will cost more, you'll be more likely to get a healthy, well-cared-for animal.

 

Generally, you have two options: wild-caught (imports) or captive bred. Captive bred animals are just that, the product of the mating of a two animals in captivity, raised under captive conditions. They're superior for many reasons, including known genetic lines, lack of parasites (which can kill herps quite easily), less stress (not plucked out of the wild and into a cage), better health, and usually more tame. Wild-caughts are usually stressed, mean, dehydrated, and parasite-ridden. You might hear of "captive hatched", which means the eggs or gravid females were taken from the wild, and hatched in captivity. They're superior to wild-caught, but inferior to captive-bred, and usually not worth the trouble.

 

As far as expense goes, just save up. The vast majority of costs in reptile keeping are initial setup, buying the animal, and changing the cage (if you get a growing juvenile). If you save up, you can buy a superior animal that'll make keeping much more fun. For instance, I paid over $150 for my first snake in 1993, from a breeder, and he's wonderful. But the lab just recently bought a cheapo import for $25 of the same species and subspecies, and it's a vile little bastard of a snake.

 

Think of it like a car; a yugo costs less, but a caddy won't explode without warning.

 

What animal were you thinking of getting?

 

Mokele

[rakuenso]

Right now I"m a uni, but i'm planning to move in an apartment next year... Something that doesn't have smelly poo and doesn't require uber high maintenance

[Mokele]

Well, most reptiles are pretty low maintenance, and the worst are herbivores, but they have the smelliest crap, so that rules them out.

 

Which would you find more suitable/appealing: crickets, which means daily or every-two-days feedings, or dead mice (live is a big no-no) which might mean weekly feedings? The former is the case for all lizards I'd recommend (ones big enough to eat mice are *not* beginner animals), the latter in the case of all snakes (again, big ones aren't beginner pets).

 

Mokele

[rakuenso]

i'll probably start with a beginner, what do i do if it tries to bite my hands off

[AzurePhoenix]

I'd try to start off with a leopard gecko. They're excellent beginner-lizards, if you can really call any animal a "beginner pet".

[Mokele]

Leopards are good (small, cricket-eaters, tame, harmless)

Bearded dragons are also good (a bit bigger, crickets and veggies, tame).

Crested geckos perhaps, though they might be a bit advanced (small, arboreal, a bit flighty but not bitey, insects and babyfood)

Cornsnakes and kingsnakes are good snakes (mouse eaters, very tame, modest size, calm)

Ball pythons also might be good (only get to 3 feet long, calm, chunky, mouse eaters, though they may fast for months at a time)

 

Things to avoid:

Monitors and tegus: Most species are vicious, large and carnivorous. Even the tame ones require *lots* of room (3 foot by 5 foot cage, minimum)

Most tortoises: Veggie eaters with complex dietary requirements, and often reach large sizes (50 lbs +)

Most turtles: Require complex filtered aquaria, get to big enough to need 100-gallon plus aquaria, and can have a nasty bite. Most don't tame well and are more 'display animals'. Snappers and softshells are sometimes sold, and these get inordinately large, quite mean, and can inflict severe bites.

Iguanas: Big, sometimes mean, complex diet, large cage.

Water dragons: Think smaller (but still over 4 foot) iguana that eats insects.

Crocodilians: Some pet shops actually sell these. I'm not ready for one and I've been keeping reptiles over a decade. Invariably vicious, large, and capable of inflicting horrific injury with great ease. True crocodiles will regularly try to kill you as soon as they think they can (usually at about 3 feet, and don't underestimate them).

Boas and Pythons: Aside from balls, no affordable species remains small. They get huge fast; my boa went from 19 inches to 6 foot 5 inches in only two years, burmese and retics grow even faster. Massively powerful, require huge cages and often may need more than 1 person to safely handle them.

 

As far as bites, I've never had a bite that required medical attention from any lizard or snake, including bites from a 12 foot burm and a 4 foot monitor. Snake bites are mostly just punctures, and lizards can slash, but there's rarely more than surface damage. Turtles and crocs, on the other hand, can generate massive bite pressures. For most of the "good" species I listed, the bites are trivial and you'll probably feelt little if any pain.

 

Mokele

[AzurePhoenix]

Invariably vicious' date=' large, and capable of inflicting horrific injury with great ease. True crocodiles will regularly try to kill you as soon as they think they can (usually at about 3 feet, and don't underestimate them).

[/quote'] God, I know exactly what you mean. At the center where i work we had a just under three foot alligator for a few months before it went to the zoo. As well fed as one could hope to be, but meaner than a bear on PCP. We lost three brooms and my favorite shovel, the one with the molded rubber grip