Before You Keep a Reptile
A £50 royal python costs around £4,850 to keep over its life. A chameleon costs more each month than any snake on bask, and lives a quarter as long. The price of the animal is the smallest number on this page.
Chapters
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Before you buy
Work out the lifetime cost, find your vet and check your household before you choose an animal.
The commitment · Lifetime cost · The monthly bills · Vets and insurance · Your home and household · Morphs and welfare · UK law
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Setting up
Put every heat source on a thermostat, and check every reading before anything lives in the enclosure.
The enclosure · Heat, light and safety · Humidity · Substrate · Hides, cover and water
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The first weeks
Run the enclosure empty for 48 hours, collect the animal yourself, and quarantine it for 12 weeks.
Setting up, first fortnight · Buying, collection, quarantine
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Day to day
Work out how you'll store food or keep it alive, a cleaning routine you'll stick to, and a plan for holidays and power cuts.
Food you store or keep alive · Cleaning routine · Holidays and power cuts
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Health
Learn the signs that mean a vet the same day, and what you'd do if you couldn't keep it any more.
Health: what to watch for · If you can no longer keep it
Now pick your animal
First reptileRoyal Python
Python regius90-150 cm long, lives 20-30 yr 9 min read
First reptileCorn Snake
Pantherophis guttatus120-150 cm long, lives 15-20 yr 8 min read
First reptileHognose
Heterodon nasicus40-90 cm long, lives 15-20 yr 9 min read
First reptileBearded Dragon
Pogona vitticeps45-60 cm long, lives 10-15 yr 9 min read
First reptileLeopard Gecko
Eublepharis macularius18-25 cm long, lives 15-20 yr 8 min read
First reptileCrested Gecko
Correlophus ciliatus18-23 cm long, lives 15-20 yr 8 min read
Some experienceBoa Constrictor
Boa imperator / Boa constrictor180-250 cm long, lives 20-30 yr 9 min read
SpecialistChameleon
Chamaeleo calyptratus · Furcifer pardalis35-60 cm long, lives 5-8 yr 10 min read