Keeping Exotic Pets

2V355M4HNCCD Travelling with cats is easy because cat carriers are widely available and work well. Dogs, too, are generally pretty easy to travel with. But if you’re looking to bring a reptile home from a pet shop or from the vets things can be a little more challenging. The purpose of this article is therefore [...]

One of the first questions I receive from people when they find out I keep a menagerie of exotic pets is “do you handle them?”. Sadly, they’re often disappointed with my answer. The fact is that while some reptiles are suitable for handling, the vast majority aren’t. As responsible reptile keepers our first priority must [...]

Tarantulas are truly amazing creatures that have captured human imaginations over the centuries. However there’s a lot more to these giant hairy spiders than initially meets the eye. So let’s take a closer look at some amazing tarantula facts that you may not know about these impressive animals… Some Tarantulas Can Hiss Like A Snake [...]

It still surprises me just what a small percentage of the exotic pet keepers I come across actually belong to one or more reptile societies. It’s not through a lack of societies – most Western countries have a number of reptile-related societies as well as smaller niche societies dedicated specifically to groups such as tarantulas, [...]

In a way it’s a shame that most people think of the standard Chile Rose Haired and the Curly Haired spiders when they think of tarantulas because many people think that all tarantulas are a boring brown color. Of course this couldn’t be further from the truth and if you know what species to look [...]

photo credit: Instant Vantage It’s essential that any animal can protect itself from predators in the wild and tarantulas are no different. They spend much of their lives hiding in their burrows away from any other creature that may want to eat them. They also have large fangs and powerful venom which can be enough [...]

photo credit: chexed If you’ve ever bred praying mantis then you’ll no doubt have seen their egg cases or oothecae as they’re often referred to. Female praying mantis lay numerous eggs together in one single neat little package, then produce a “shaving-foam” type of substance which they cover the eggs in. After a short while [...]

photo credit: dlm7155 The majority of snakes kept in captivity require mammals or birds to eat and it is most common for these to be fed to them dead. Feeding dead animals to a snake means there is less chance of damage being done to your snake during an attack in the narrow confines of [...]

photo credit: Tambako the Jaguar Having spent some time in Central America recently I have been lucky enough to spend considerable time observing both green iguanas (Iguana iguana) and black spiny-tailed iguanas (Ctenosaura similis) in their natural surroundings and whilst at face value these two species appear very similar I observed some surprising differences between [...]

photo credit: Thomas Shahan Indian stick insects are some of the easiest of all pet invertebrates to keep in captivity and of course have been kept by school children for decades. Indian (or laboratory) stick insects will feed readily on common food plants such as bramble or privet, which can be kept alive for around [...]