So you finally got to adopt a pet reptile
You brought him home and made him all cozy in a new terrarium. But, that’s not all there is to it.
This post is sponsored by petMD Reptile Center, and the BlogPaws Professional Pet Blogger Network. I am being compensated for helping spread the word about Reptile Ownership, but Rascal and Rocco only share information we feel is relevant to our readers. petMD® and PetSmart® are not responsible for the content of this article.
What’s next?
Now that you’ve done your research, PetMD Reptile Care Center makes that easy enough, prepared for bringing a reptile pet into your home, you’ve purchased all the supplies you need, thank goodness PetSmart is not far, and you’ve put it all together, now what?
Perhaps you let your new snake, turtle, or iguana relax and get used to his surroundings for a while? That’s a good idea.
Maybe you couldn’t wait so, decided on ways to play with your lizard; bearded dragons are just too cool not to touch and hold.
Have you fed your pet? Reptile ownership comes with responsibilities
Giving them adequate food and water is a major one you can’t forget.
It’s fun to watch a lizard eat and I’m not the only one who thinks so
Have you ever felt like someone was watching you? Lurking just outside your line of sight. Besides seeing how quick my blue belly lizard is at catching crickets for his dinner, take a look at who else is watering at the mouth, waiting for a juicy meal of his own, in this fun reptile video:
Rocco could barely contain himself and Rascal is no better. Even after we’ve had Dragon, our lizard, for a few months, the cats still await their chance to get at him.
Problems of reptile ownership that we did not anticipate
Problem 1
We made sure our terrarium had a lid, of course, but that lid is flimsy wire mesh. It is not made to hold a 12 lb cat nor a 15 lb cat. Especially not both of them together. As you can now imagine, these obnoxious boys bent up that screen lid in no time.
I’m sure Dragon would not approve of raining cats on his head, so we now place items on top of the screen where there’s enough room for air and light to get in, but large enough to leave little room for cats.
Has this worked?
Not entirely. It has discouraged the fur-balls from settling up there as often, but they still manage to wind their bodies around the objects and lay on top of the terrarium. It’s nice and warm and cat TV is just below, I get it.
If anyone has a genius suggestion on how to keep the cats off entirely, I’m all ears.
Problem 2
We kept a glass jar of crickets next to the terrarium so we would not forget to feed the little guy. Cats and crickets. Crickets and cats. That jar did not have a chance.
Problem 3
When removing Dragon from his sanctuary to come out and play, we hold him the whole time so he’s safe in hard. However, sometimes the cage must be cleaned. You may have notice cat hair inside the reptile terrarium in the video. It hasn’t rained cats for Dragon yet, but I can’t say the same for their hair.
In this case, where to safely keep Dragon while we clean his terrarium has been an interesting quest. First we tried a glass jar. Yes I can be a slow learner. Next we tried a shoe box, but lizards can climb cardboard and cats, well… cats and boxes are a thing.
We finally found a bug box with a lid that Dragon fits nicely into for such occasions, but it is light plastic and my cats have no problem batting it right off the table. It currently takes two people to clean the terrarium. One to clean and one to lizard sit while warding off kitty cats who don’t give up easily.
Maybe I need to check out PetSmart’s new petMD Reptile Center and browse their articles for lizard safety. They host many articles on all kinds of reptiles and they are adding new articles all the time.
PetSmart’s complete reptile section has the pet supplies you’ll need, in fact I bought more crickets there yesterday.
Be sure to follow petMD on Facebook and Twitter for deals, updates, articles, and to ask questions about your reptile concerns. There will be some!
Wow… I was thinking of getting a fish tank but this is starting to look more fun. We’ve got tons on the walls at home already though and Max has a thing for killing them. He just doesn’t like Lizards 🙁
In pots to keep cats out of plants we stick a lot of sticks or long toothpicks into the mud. Wonder if something like that would help here.
Oh no, killing of the lizards! Maybe not the best pet for you, then. The stick thing is a good idea. I do use that for potted plants. I’ll have to think on how that could work
Have you tried putting arches across the top made out of pvc or something? He is cool looking but it would drive Pierre crazy! Haha!
We have the world’s coolest bearded dragon, Drogo. ( Drago even has a page on my dog blog where he models all the latest Dragon fashions.) I would have never thought a reptile could have so much personality. Our biggest problem is getting Drogo to eat his veggies. He’s an adult dragon now, and should be eating more veggies and less bugs. He doesn’t believe us. I’m afraid he’s not getting all the nutrients that he needs.
Oh no! Have you looked to see if PetMD reptile care center has any articles on ways to help him come around? Can you play airplane like with a toddler? No, probably not. Heading over to check out the worlds coolest bearded dragon