Reptilian fascination

Here are some books that I have personally read and found very worthwhile. I will try to link the best reptile books that I have found here. Although reptile books seem to be less popular than in years past,  books are a great way to pickup information.  I strongly recommend all reptile owners read the next one regardless of what you keep. Invisible Ark by David & Tracy Barker This one is older but covers a good number of species Good stories from the old days of reptile keeping A lot of photographs and description of illnesses in here. This is probably more of interest to someone with a large collection than for a quick reference book for personal pets. A classic book that opened the door to keeping and catching snakes for a generation and is still a great read This is a good book to read. It will help reinforce the need for cleanliness, quarantine, and give you some basic understanding of parasites. A basic boo...

"My Vet just googled it" is one of those phrases I cringe when I hear people say. Reptile vets face a tough audience. If you have chosen a good vet, then he or she will have an excellent set of colleagues, techniques, medical knowledge, and labs in which to draw upon in order to properly diagnose and prescribe treatment from. In my experience, they use all of these tools when they are needed. When we have been unable to find a solution, a necropsy has been performed. Likely your vet will have the animal sent off to a pathologist for details. Even in the event that a vet has been unable to diagnose and/or cure the reptile patient, they will still be instrumental in working with the pathologist and ultimately getting further information for the animal caretaker and increase the working knowledge of reptile husbandry as a whole. Furthermore, let's say you are a mechanic with 25 years of experience. It is very likely that you can google some resources and determine how to fix...

About Rear-Fanged/opisthoglyph snakes In recent years, the level of fear, tall tales, and sometimes paranoia about snakes in this category has risen to unthinkable levels. Some people have blamed a handful of researchers for this, but if you look at their actual comments, they are usually downplaying the dangers, encouraging safe handling techniques, and trying to drag the discussion back to the center. As such, I do not think such blame is accurate. For example, let's take a look at what one of the best known venom researchers (Dr. Bryan Fry) actually stated on the subject, ""Something we have gone to great pains to stress at every opportunity is that venomous and dangerous are not interchangeable. The vast majority of ‘rear-fanged’ snakes are totally harmless from a human medical perspective due to very small amounts of venom that is often very specific to a particular prey type (eg being 100 times more potent towards birds/reptiles than mammals). Similarly, the varan...

Emergency Preparedness and your reptile collection The last thing you want to be doing is figuring out what you're going to do during the middle of a storm and your reptiles life may well depend on your planning and readiness to face an emergency. The size of your collection and hardiness of the species kept will determine which options are feasible for you. If you have a small collection of 1-15 animals, a very practical technique may simply be to keep deli cups or bags and shipping boxes handy. In the event of a power outage, you can box the animals up with a heat pack or precharged cold pack and simply wait for conditions to improve or transport the animals to a safe location such as a family member's home. For extended power outages caused by major storms, you may need to create temporary enclosures. It would be a good idea to make such arrangements before they are needed. For those with larger collections, it will likely prove more difficult to move all the animals a...

Heating your reptile room If you live in an area with cold winters or keep tropical species, you may have to provide supplemental heat. Radiant heat panels will probably heat an enclosure up enough that the room temperature is not terribly important, but if your room is very cold or if you're depending on heat tape alone, it is best to heat the room into at least the low 70s(F). The heater used is important but much more important is to use at least two thermostats in tandem since a runaway thermostat will potentially cause the temperature to raise too high and endanger all animals in the entire room. Here are a couple of Heaters that I would recommend: Oil radiant heaters. These are good and safe space heaters and produce a large amount of heat. They are recommended when the room is larger than a bedroom or you need a large amount of supplemental heat. Costway Oil Filled Radiator Heater Portable Electric Whole Room Digital adjustable Thermostat w/ Time Control Wall Mounted...