If you are thinking of keeping a tortoise or a frog or even a snake, you must be aware of proper steps of reptile care. Reptiles can be ideal pets as they are quite easy to keep. They do not require regular cleanings and you may even miss a day’s food servings. In fact, reptiles are not to be fed on a regular basis as they tend to get obese. Compared to pet mammals, reptiles are very quite in nature and hardly emit any body odor. To handle your pet reptile safely you are required to be familiar with its nature, behavioral characteristics and specific requirements. Even some reptiles require a space not more than a flower pot.
Reptiles are cold blooded animals and are unable to regulate their body temperature. They are also known as Herptiles and when in wild they go for hibernation or aestivation to stay away from extreme temperature changes. For reptile care you must make sure of not handing your pet with dry hands and also do not allow your pet to cool down.
The following are some reptile care tips that would help you to keep your pet healthy and strong.
Reptile Care Tips
- Cage your pet according to its size and nature of habitat that would be ideal for the particular pet to survive. You may have long narrow cage with a tree branch for climbing in case you have an arboreal or a tree dweller like a chameleon. A low but wide cage is required for the pet which is accustomed to terrestrial habitat like tortoise. In case of aquatic terrarium, its cage can be an aquarium. Cages can also have a special enclosure in the form of a small pool where the reptile can cool down if it wishes to stay away from heat. Some special considerations should be made with respect to the size of the cage if you are planning to keep a large sized reptile like a pythons growing up to the length of 20 feet or green iguanas of 6 feet.
- For good reptile care the dwelling place of your pet must be escape proof, heat and moisture resistant and well lighted.
- Every object that you place inside the cage including dishes and cage decors must be treated with disinfectants. In stead of phenol use chlorine or any alcohol cleaner for washing and rinsing purposes.
- Reptiles have varying food habits. They can be herbivorous, carnivorous or omnivorous. Pets like iguanas, turtles and tortoises are true herbivores. They generally require small quantity of food but with great variety. Their diet should include right proportions of minerals and nutrients. Some common food items of herbivores reptiles are parsley, leaves of dandelion, cress, lettuce, yellow vegetables and fruits. Tomatoes are highly preferred by tortoise. Spinach should not be included in their body as it binds calcium.
- Carnivorous reptiles like snake, frog and small turtles live on diets that are rich in protein. Some common food items they would like to have are rodents, insects and other invertebrates. A snake would like to eat a frog while a large lizard would prefer a small lizard. Other protein foods include guppies, gold fish, eggs and small sized reptiles.
- Rodents like mice, baby rats and rabbits and chickens can be fed to snakes and lizards either live or in frozen form. Insects like crickets, meal worms, wax worms, butter worms, earth worms, fruit flies, black worms, blood worms, may be fed to turtles and frogs.
- Before buying a reptile as your pet make sure to which category it falls. Some reptiles are handleable, semi-handleable while few pets for their biting nature are kept solely for visual purposes.
