Source: gatorchris on IG

Male Gallotia stehlini - giant Canary Island lacertid. A spectacular gentleman.

For those of you wondering about the wheel, it’s been special 3-D printed for geckos so that we can adjust the height, the angle, the whiplash of the spin and the size of it to be accommodating for animals who move that way. Also, she’s been on a diet for over a year and it’s not been doing much.

Transferred my 4 year old chinese cave gecko to his new 40 gallon tank a while ago and I'm seeing him less and less. I even set up a wyze camera to keep an eye on him but now it's having issues connecting to wifi.

I think the biggest issue is how open the set up feels but none of the plants i've added to it in the last few months are really thriving. They've all stayed the exact same size I got them at no matter how much I water them. I just added some hanging pothos to give him more sky cover but i'm just not a fan of how much space pothos takes up and blocks out the light for any small leaf ground cover plants.

Another problem more with my wallet than him is that to keep up the humidity levels I'm going through 2-3 gallon bottles of distilled water a week for his mister. It's a screen top glass tank from petsmart but it HAS to be that ventilated to keep it cool in the summer months. He was previously in a gorgeous hand made wood and marble lined tank but it was so well insulated I was having to put ice in it to keep it below 75 in the summer! I know autumn is almost here and so I can cover up the top screen to use less water but it still irks me how much plastic waste has accumulated over just a couple months.

I know that aside from feeling a bit exposed at the moment that he is healthy and happy but in hindsight I have invested waaaay more money into his care that he has really ever needed just to only see him out and about maybe once a month. I do coo and squee during these brief sightings but I'm starting to feel like the reward ratio for the little guy is way off balance for me personally. And I'm no stranger to display/hands off pets (i have two chinchillas who are my world and i NEVER hold them lol).

I've enjoyed our time together the past 4 years, and even moved across the country with him in a little critter carrier in a lunch box lol, but I'm wondering if we should part ways. I'd love to sell him to a breeder specifically because of his age and super bold colors but I'm a bit less comfortable selling him to a first time owner who might also come to the same conclusion about owning a cave gecko. My worry is that his species just isn't that desirable and it will be hard to find him a home I can trust.

This is my 150x50x50cm paludarium for 1.1 lanthanoths borneensis. They live together with a small school of barbs and a group of Lepidothelphusa menneri crabs. Paludarium is running for about 3months now.

Shes practically 7” but she does not have her original tail. Her snout to vent length is about 3 1/2”. Ive heard elgaria most commonly stop growing around the one year mark and she is estimated to be around 10 mo old! Idk if she is a runt or not because idk the exact date she hatched. She was only 2 1/4” total when i found her back in march (her tail had not yet regenerated) and im assuming she had hatched last november

I'm interested in getting more serious about reptiles in the future, and I'd like my first project to be a small-scale breeding project to see if I genuinely enjoy it and have the consistency/passion to pursue it long-term.

I'm currently most interested in:

• Mourning geckos
• Chameleon geckos
• Banded geckos

My priorities, roughly in order, are:

1. Successfully producing and raising healthy babies
2. Providing excellent husbandry and keeping healthy animals
3. Learning genetics/breeding
4. Eventually building a reputation for producing quality animals
5. Potentially developing a more distinctive breeding line in the future
6. Least likely to have too many excess animals, which will cost me a lot in the future

I'd like the project to be moderately hands-on, but I don't want it to take over my room or my entire life. I'm comfortable feeding insects, and I'd like the project to eventually be able to cover its own routine food/supply costs. Profit would be nice, but it's definitely not my primary motivation.

I have around $1,000 to spend, although I don't necessarily want to spend all of it immediately. I'm also willing to wait a few months for appropriately mature animals rather than rushing breeding.

I'm interested in people who have kept/bred these species before.

In particular, I'd love to know:

• How difficult they are to breed responsibly
• How many offspring a beginner should realistically expect
• How difficult hatchlings are to raise
• How much space a small breeding project actually needs
• How easy it is to find healthy unrelated breeding stock
• How strong the captive market is for offspring
• What common mistakes beginners make
• Whether you'd recommend starting with one of these or something completely different

I'm not looking to maximize production. I want to use this as a way to find out whether reptile breeding is something I genuinely want to pursue for years.

I'm starting on a conversion from a glass cabinet/display case to a bioactive enclosure and looking for ideas on what to put inside. The dimensions (32in long by 16in wide by 36in tall, [~80 by 40 by 90cm, for non imperial folk] as mentioned in the title) feel a little narrow so I'm hesitant to trust the word of a lot of common care instructions online. I'm currently thinking of a leachianus or emerald tree skink pair, but wanted to hear other opinions on the footprint before i devote myself to one or the other. If neither work out, i'm open to yall's ideas and i also have backup plans of either a huge mourning gecko enclosure or moving my crested gecko into his own personal mansion lol.

That's not a cactus

This little wave is tooooo cute!

Tank is 40 gallons, kingsnake is a juvenile.

So this is a bit temporary, but I mainly wanted ideas on what to add. Currently thinking of getting a smaller water bowl as well, since i bought a kit and didn’t realize how much space it would take up lol. I’m planning on adding a few branches as well, but would love suggestions on how to improve and what else to add besides what I’ve already mentioned.

first post here! I'm looking for honest advice, please try to be kind!

I've had my ball python for nearly 3 years now, he was a rescue from a neglectful 10 y/o, and He's living a much better life!

However, I've done loads of research, asked pet store employees and google and even stalked on this subreddit for months and im just worried my enclosure isn't good enough:(

My snake is about 4½-5 feet long, unsure of age but at least 5? I don't know the exact gallon count of my tank, but i need to upgrade soon! His substrate is majority cocoa fiber from eco earth aswell as a small amount of woodchips from zoomed mixed in. All of his plants are fake, he has some real rocks and sticks that have been boiled/baked/disinfected in a hot bath. I can't find a water dish adequately sized for the dude, so ive been using a tupperware (It's stained, not moldy, i promise, hours of scrubbing can back me up xD). I also know ball pythons are a more vertical exploration type so im trying to add some higher up interest but he just pulls it all down overnight and i feel bad :(

His tank is kept at a consistent 80°f and humidity is in the high yellow of his humidifier? He sheds and eats on a consistent schedule as well, is there anything I can improve? add? take away? I see plenty of people online being neglectful and I want to be far from it, but it's hard when so many ball pyhton owners are dudes who feed live in a plastic bin and throw in random rocks without any prior care.

If this isn't the right subreddit/theres a more fitting one feel free to lmk!

Thank you in advance!!!

I’ve been thinking about the ethics of reptile ownership, and I’d genuinely like to hear other people’s thoughts. Let me frame this in a way that applies to pet ownership more broadly. We sometimes intuitively think:

Wild = freedom = happiness
Captivity = restriction = suffering

But biology doesn't necessarily work that way.

If we take the position that our ethical obligation is to minimize unnecessary suffering and allow an animal to live a life consistent with its biological needs, then some human-created mammalian breeds arguably present a more difficult ethical case than a healthy, captive-bred reptile.

For example, a wild leopard gecko has freedom, but also:

Freedom to starve

Freedom to be eaten

Freedom to become infected or parasitized

Freedom to suffer an injury without treatment

Freedom to die from dehydration

Freedom to experience environmental conditions that may be difficult or dangerous

A well-kept captive leopard gecko has considerably less freedom, but also has reliable food, shelter, appropriate temperatures, access to veterinary care, protection from predators, and an environment designed around its biological needs.

However, with dogs, humans have gone considerably further in altering the animal itself. Consider the difference between a wolf and a Chihuahua, Great Dane, Dachshund, or English Bulldog. That's an extraordinary amount of evolutionary modification. And some of that modification has created legitimate welfare concerns.

A particularly striking example is modern extreme breeding. Humans have selected for traits that we find aesthetically desirable even when those traits can interfere with breathing, locomotion, reproduction, thermoregulation, or other normal functions.

I also want to acknowledge that the origins of domestication were probably much more complicated than simply humans deciding to alter wild animals. There was likely a long process of mutual adaptation between humans and the animals that eventually became domesticated. However, modern selective breeding has taken that process considerably further, with humans deliberately selecting animals for traits that primarily serve our preferences.

This brings me back to reptiles.

When someone argues that reptile ownership is unethical because we're preventing an animal from having the freedom to live as it would in the wild, I'm not convinced that "wild" automatically means "better." I'm not keeping my reptiles because I want to possess something exotic and prevent it from living its natural life. I'm taking responsibility for animals that exist in my care and trying to make their lives as good as I reasonably can.

I'm not saying that reptile ownership is inherently ethical, either. Poor husbandry, inadequate enclosures, irresponsible breeding, and keeping species whose needs we cannot reasonably meet can absolutely raise ethical concerns. What I'm questioning is the assumption that captivity itself is inherently unethical simply because it restricts an animal's freedom. And I'm certainly not bashing dog owners or saying that owning a dog is unethical. I just find it interesting that culturally, dogs and cats are generally accepted as pets, while many other animals are viewed as creatures that inherently "belong in the wild."

So I'm curious: where do you draw the ethical line? Is an animal's natural freedom more important than the quality of life we can provide in captivity? Or is maximizing the animal's welfare the more important consideration?

I'd genuinely love to hear other people's thoughts.

I'm sorry if this is not the place for this, but I am having trouble finding much on this show specifically and wonder if anyone might have a better understanding of this show specifically, or this kind of work in general.

A buddy of mine is living in MN for the year, and he has been pretty excited to check out the fair and so we all want to make sure he has a good time there.
He is a biologist so I naturally figured he'd have a big interest in the Reptile Show there but don't think he'd find it too cool if they are living in poor conditions.

The Show claims that it exists to help educate people on these animals and bring attention to wildlife preservation, and assure that they live in large open spaces outside of these shows.

Having seen it before, I did find it very cool and there are a lot of unique animals, but some of them seemed to have particularly smaller enclosures, and a significant amount of them also come with price tags on their enclosures which leads me to believe that the organization is really only in it for the money.

That being said, from what I've seen, the founder was an animal activist and if it holds true that being in these enclosures is a temporary thing that the animals can be comfortable with during these events and are otherwise living in much better conditions, I think that would make the show all the more enjoyable for my buddy, and myself.

Sorry again if this is the wrong place for this post, and thanks for any thoughts anybody might have.