Reptiles - Geckos, Lizards, Snakes, and Turtles!

[squamigera]

I'm going to share my Leopard Gecko's story.
I have a leopard gecko who is a few years old. Her name is Daisy. She had a sister named Violet! Her sister and her had lived together in a small tank and they were neglected by their past owner. He didn't feed, water, or socialize them. One had sadly died about a year ago. I finally got Daisy, but she was horribly underweight. She still is underweight. So, we got a few fatty foods for her. Now we feed her normal food, yet she still is underweight. She isn't used to being fed once a day, so she has a bit of trouble eating. She has bad aim when hunting and she takes around 20 minutes to even start looking to find food, and worse, has a hard time swallowing. When I had first gotten her, I decided to clean out her tank. Turns out, her past owner never cleaned out the tank and didn't get out Daisy;s sister's body. So Daisy was tortured every time she went in her wet hide. Her new tank is beuatiful now and gets cleaned weekly (since she doesn't poop a lot) and her wet hide is re-wet daily. <3 She is starting to be more social and is just so sweet!

Thank you for rescuing her! It sounds like she has a great home with you now <3 One of my geckos has a similar story. My girl Jolene was bought as a breeder at the pet shop where I used to work, along with like 10 other geckos. During one summer break I didn't work there, and when I came back all of them were dangerously underweight or sick because nobody cared for them, and all but two of them died over the next few weeks despite our best efforts. I got Jolene, and then my coworker (who also didn't work over the break) brought home the other one and they both recovered with lots of one on one care.
When I first got her:



Last night:

[ellebee]

I have a crested gecko named William! got him just a couple days old and he's super docile, never bitten anything other than crickets! he's 2 years old

[Aj_cookie04]

IMG_9617.jpg (308.73 KiB) Viewed 81 times

I have a beardie I named cumin and he is growing pretty fast

[squamigera]

flop

[Raven_Wolf]

flop

Are Savannah Monitors always so sassy? I thought about getting one at some point, but now I'm not so sure

Let's see everyone's scale babies. I have a crested gecko I traded an African Velvet gecko for named Arlo, a Chahoua named Rhaegal, and a bearded dragon named Nymeria (no, I don't even know what Game of Thrones is lol)

[squamigera]

Are Savannah Monitors always so sassy? I thought about getting one at some point, but now I'm not so sure

Let's see everyone's scale babies. I have a crested gecko I traded an African Velvet gecko for named Arlo, a Chahoua named Rhaegal, and a bearded dragon named Nymeria (no, I don't even know what Game of Thrones is lol)

Yep, they're very sassy, and I don't recommend anyone get one since they're always wild caught and don't tend to do well in captivity. I impulse bought mine ;-; Your geckos are super cute! I love your beardie too, and all your setups look rad! I'll post some pics of my babies soon

[tenturo]

hi all! names ten (:
i used to have a little experience in owning reptiles, as i owned a mexican milk snake for a couple of years when i was younger before rehoming him!

i’ve recently moved out and am really wanting to get back into owning snakes and am stuck between deciding which kind i want. for majority of the time, i really was wanting to get a ball python because i know they’re generally really docile and easy to care for (aside from the finicky eaters) but i recently started looking into boa constrictors some and they’ve really caught my interest, especially with some of the beautiful morphs they have.

i’m wondering if anyone here has experience with both of these types, and could give some advice on which they think would be best to get as i would definitely still consider myself more of a beginner as far as owning snakes goes.

i like the idea of being able to handle my snake more frequently than not, which had me a lot more interested in boas because from what i’ve read, they tend to be more tolerant of more frequent handling than pythons do, though i know each snake will be different and have its own preferences.
enclosure accommodations are no issue either, nor is acquiring the proper food (as i know boas tend to get pretty big and end up eating much larger prey) but i’d love a little advice from a more experienced handler!

[Targaryen]

hi all! names ten (:
i used to have a little experience in owning reptiles, as i owned a mexican milk snake for a couple of years when i was younger before rehoming him!

i’ve recently moved out and am really wanting to get back into owning snakes and am stuck between deciding which kind i want. for majority of the time, i really was wanting to get a ball python because i know they’re generally really docile and easy to care for (aside from the finicky eaters) but i recently started looking into boa constrictors some and they’ve really caught my interest, especially with some of the beautiful morphs they have.

i’m wondering if anyone here has experience with both of these types, and could give some advice on which they think would be best to get as i would definitely still consider myself more of a beginner as far as owning snakes goes.

i like the idea of being able to handle my snake more frequently than not, which had me a lot more interested in boas because from what i’ve read, they tend to be more tolerant of more frequent handling than pythons do, though i know each snake will be different and have its own preferences.
enclosure accommodations are no issue either, nor is acquiring the proper food (as i know boas tend to get pretty big and end up eating much larger prey) but i’d love a little advice from a more experienced handler!

Hey! I own both royal pythons and a boa constrictor amarali (dwarf subspecies of BC). I moderate the Ball Python subreddit's discord server, so I see a lot of different people come in and help them diagnose issues they might have with their ball pythons. I'll outline some pros/cons of both.

Royal Python
Pros

• Extremely docile - very relaxed and easy to handle because of this
• Very hardy - can tolerate a lot of husbandry mistakes
• Readily available
• Extremely large variety of colours, patterns, etc due to the morph trade
• Get a nice size which is enjoyable to handle, yet isn't too unmanageable.

Cons

• They're more nervous than most snakes and require very secure setups which provide a lot of clutter and fill their thigmotactic needs.
  
  This does not mean small enclosure!!! Royal pythons thrive in large enclosures, just offer plenty of hides and coverage.
• They have higher humidity needs, requiring between 60-80 percent which can be hard to achieve with improper setup
• They go off feed if their husbandry is suffering, making getting them back on track a bit harder.

Boas
(I'm guessing you mean boa imperator, or boa constrictor)
Pros

• Very confident snakes and can thrive despite husbandry mistakes
• Boa Imperator are easily accessible worldwide
• Get big without getting too big (males typically 6-8ft for BI, females in BI around 8-10ft)
• Can thrive in lower and higher humidity
• Puppydog tame when respected and socialised properly
• There are subspecies of both BI and BC that are dwarves which are more manageable in size, though these are harder to find.
• More active than royals, much more inquisitive and more likely to be out in the open.

Cons

• More prone to biting and hissing when stressed, upset or defensive.
• Require regular socialisation
• They may become too big and/or strong to handle them on your own, a spotter is recommended and their strength should never be underestimated.
• Risk of IBD/crypto being underlying condition for years if the animal does not come from stock-tested parents.
• Subspecies and BC are harder to find reliable sources for
• Require much larger enclosures both due to size and activity levels.

Happy to answer any questions you have

[black water]

i'm looking into (hopefully) getting a tortoise at some point, but i have been unsure where exactly i should be getting one from? i'm especially looking into a hermann's tortoise, or potentially a russian tortoise. i've heard that you can get them at expos, but there aren't really any expos going on right now. i don't know much about any reliable sites either, so i was curious if anyone had experience? i've owned other reptiles, but i've never owned a tortoise before.

also, i was curious if there were certain reptiles that thrived in mesh enclosures? i currently have an empty one that i don't know what to do with.

[Ninjashadowwolf]

Hi. Sounds like my kind of forum.

My brother and I share a room and he owns a leapord gecko named Lemon Floyd. His name was Floyd before. We got him from a friend who got a dog, and wanted to focus on the dog, so we took the gecko. Mum said he looks like a lemon cucumber. So we call him lemon or Lemon Floyd. He is about 5 years old now. We feed him Dubia roches.
We also have a crested gecko named Eithe (E- the) she is about 3 now and my brother got her from a breeder. She is super sweet and likes to chill. We have so many video of her. My favorite is when she was smaller and my brother put a guitar pick on her head and she very sassy like kicked it off. She is loud at night, jumping around. She has survived quite well through 3 fires. We have had to evacuate many times, but she is chill in the car.

I am super happy to have them geckos in my life. I live in an apartment that’s doesn’t allow fur animals, so having geckos is a great alternative.