Selling & Listing Rules

These rules apply to every advert on Bask. Listing means agreeing to follow them.

What you may list

Bask is for reptiles and reptile keeping equipment only: no mammals, birds or amphibians, and never a primate. Please do not list any venomous animal, any crocodilian, or anything requiring a Dangerous Wild Animals licence. Species on the invasive species list, such as red-eared and yellow-bellied sliders, cannot be sold at all.

The Pet Advertising Advisory Group (PAAG) also name species that should not be sold through classified sites, and we follow that list: no anacondas, Burmese pythons or African rock pythons. Some species that fit the "Other" types are on Annex A of the GB Wildlife Trade Regulations, among them Argentine boas, Madagascan boas, Indian pythons and several monitors. An Annex A animal may only be offered with a valid Article 10 certificate, and you must put the certificate number in the description.

A listing is a sale at a price. Swaps, trades and part exchange are not allowed, and neither are stud animals, breeding loans or animals for rent or loan. Live animals must never be listed as food, under Equipment or anywhere else.

Who you are selling as

Every store picks a seller type, and every listing shows it so buyers know who they are dealing with. Pick the one that describes you:

• Hobbyist: you keep and breed as a hobby, not as a business, and do not need a licence to sell.
• Licensed seller: you hold an animal activities licence from your local council. Your licence number and issuing authority appear on every listing, as the law requires.
• Trade seller: you sell only to other breeders and businesses, not to pet keepers, so no pet-selling licence is required.

Bask does not verify seller types or licences. Selling under the wrong type is a breach of these rules. Rescue and rehoming centres cannot list on Bask yet. Rehoming your own animal is a private sale: list it as a Hobbyist, and read Rehoming an animal below.

Every listing must

• be for an animal you own and have with you. No listing on someone else's behalf, no brokering, no drop-shipping;
• describe the animal accurately: species, morph/genetics, sex where known, and year of hatching, which is required;
• be honest about health, temperament, feeding and any known issues;
• use your own recent photographs of the actual animal (representative photos are not allowed). No AI-generated images, and no edits that change the animal's colour or pattern; exposure and cropping are fine;
• show a clear, accurate price for what the listing sells;
• be marked as sold or on hold promptly once it is no longer available.

For equipment, describe the item and its condition honestly.

One animal per listing

A listing sells one animal, so a buyer sees the animal, its price and its photos and knows exactly what they are asking about. Two shapes go beyond that, and nothing else does:

• Identical animals with a quantity: the same species, morph and age, one price each, and the description says how many you have ("3 available, £80 each").
• A group sold together: a pair, a trio or a whole collection, all from one species category, sold as a single unit at one total price. List every animal in the description with its sex, age and morph, photograph each one, and do not sell them separately.

A menu of different morphs at different prices in one listing is neither. Split it: one listing per morph or price line, each with its own photos. The test is simple: the price shown is the price of what the listing sells, and the photos show it.

List each animal once. Renew a listing rather than deleting and recreating it, and never list the same animal from two stores.

What the description is for

The description is about the animal in the listing. It may not advertise other animals or products: another animal gets its own listing, and equipment goes in the Equipment section. Nothing is offered free with a purchase, and no giveaways, raffles, mystery boxes or bundles. A free animal draws the wrong buyer, whatever it comes with.

Enquiries start on bask. Phone numbers, email addresses, messaging apps and links off bask are refused when you save a listing. Keeping first contact here is what lets us see a scam attempt and act on it, for both of you. Once you are talking, how you carry on is yours to decide.

Health

An animal that is sick, injured or looks unwell may not be listed, and a listing showing visible mites is removed. Say plainly in the description anything a buyer should know: a kink, a scar, missing toes, a past illness. An animal that cannot be bred, or should not be, is sold as a pet only and the listing says so.

No eggs, no unhatched or unborn animals, and no gravid females. A hatchling is listed once it is established on food; three unassisted feeds is the usual mark.

Prohibited morphs

Bask applies REPTA's Deleterious Gene Policy. The morphs on its prohibited list are linked to serious hereditary health problems and cannot be listed here: spider royal pythons, super champagne, super cinnamon and super black pastel royals, enigma and lemon frost leopard geckos, silkback bearded dragons and the rest, including under combination names such as Bumblebee or Dreamsicle. A listing that carries one is refused when you save it, and a listing that was live before a morph joined the list is withdrawn with an email and no strike. The full list, with the reason for each, is on our Animal Welfare page.

Morphs with a welfare note

Some other morphs are linked to milder or less certain hereditary conditions. These are allowed, but must be represented honestly: Bask automatically shows a welfare note on any listing that carries one. Where a healthy single-copy morph produces prohibited offspring if paired to a similar line, the listing also carries breeding guidance, and a buyer confirms they have read it before their enquiry is sent. We may remove any listing that raises a genuine welfare concern.

Rehoming an animal

A listing may not offer an animal "free to a good home". A free animal draws impulse buyers and dealers. If you need to rehome one, list it at a nominal price and say in the description why it needs a new home. Ask the buyer about their setup and experience before you hand over, take your time choosing, and prefer an in-person handover so you can see where the animal is going. A reptile rescue can help if no suitable buyer comes forward.

Sales happen off-platform

Bask does not take payment or arrange delivery. You arrange the price, payment and handover directly with the other person. We are not a party to your sale and are not responsible for it. We strongly encourage safe, in-person handovers and putting animal welfare first.

Delivery

A live animal must never be sent by Royal Mail or any parcel service; Royal Mail's own rules prohibit it. If a listing offers shipping, that means either an in-person handover or a live-animal courier holding a transporter authorisation, issued by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) in Great Britain or DAERA in Northern Ireland. Ask the courier for their authorisation reference before you book: Type 1 covers journeys up to 8 hours, Type 2 any length, and APHA publishes the list of Type 2 holders. If you sell as a business and deliver more than 65 km yourself, you need a Type 1 authorisation too. A listing that offers postal delivery is refused when you save it.

Your legal responsibilities

You are responsible for selling lawfully. The law makes it an offence to sell an animal to anyone you have reasonable cause to believe is under 16. Bask goes further: accounts are for over-18s, and the sale is to the account holder, who takes legal responsibility for the animal. A young keeper is welcome to browse and choose alongside a parent or guardian, but the parent buys, the parent collects, and you deal with the parent. Selling to anyone you have reason to think is under 18 and acting alone is a breach of these rules, whatever the law allows.

If you sell in the course of a business you may also need a local-authority licence. See Animal Welfare & Seller Responsibilities.

If a listing breaks these rules

A listing that is shaped wrong rather than illegal, several animals in one advert, equipment inside an animal listing, is taken off the site and you get an email saying what to change. That is not a strike: edit it, put it right and switch it back on yourself. A listing that comes back unchanged is removed again, and that one counts. Illegal adverts and scams follow the three-strikes rule from the first removal.

Last updated: 23 September 2026.