Unique Apartment Pets: Reptiles

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Unique Apartment Pets: Reptiles

Staff Writer · Nov 20, 2009

Reptiles may not be traditional apartment pets, but they’re perfect for the smaller home environment because of their size, habitats and relatively simple care. While every kind of reptile requires individualized care, there are some basic facts about caring for reptiles that anyone considering reptile pets should know.

Types of Reptiles for Beginners

The best apartment pets for first-time reptile owners include:

  • Bearded dragon lizards
  • Blue-tongued skinks
  • Box turtles
  • California kingsnakes
  • Corn snakes
  • Leopard geckos
  • Slider turtles

These reptiles are relatively inexpensive, easy to find for sale and fairly simple to care for. They’re not dangerous and they’re attractive. For example, the blue-tongued skinks literally have blue tongues and the bearded dragon lizards have spiny throat projections that look like beards.

The Reptile Habitat

The most important purchase for a pet reptile is the reptile habitat. As ideal apartment pets, reptiles don’t need free range of the house (although many can explore safe areas of your apartment under supervision). A reptile will spend most of its time in a reptile tank. What you fill the reptile tank with depends largely on the species, as there are both aquatic and and terrestrial breeds of most reptile species. The most popular beginner reptiles are usually terrestrial. The terrestrial reptile tank should be as large as possible to give the reptiles room to explore. It should usually be temperature-controlled with an ultraviolet light that you turn on for about 10 hours a day during daylight hours. The bottom of the reptile tank should be filled with a couple of inches of reptile bedding like gravel or sand. Plant life (both plastic and real) should be added to make the environment more akin to the natural reptile habitat. Plants should be specifically meant for a reptile tank and should not be taken from your yard. Add rocks for the reptile to climb on. Although all reptiles will require fresh dechlorinated water available at all times, turtles will require a small swimming area as well. You can ad a larger bowl of water or build an elevated platform with a water bowl.

Feeding Your Reptiles

The reptile diet differs greatly depending on the individual species; reptiles can be carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. Carnivorous reptiles-which all snakes are-will eat insects (particularly crickets and worms), eggs, small mammals (such as mice and rats) and fish, depending on their size. Because of their slow digestion systems, they won’t need to eat daily.

Herbivores, such as some turtles, lizards and geckos, require daily fresh fruit and vegetables to stay healthy. Some species enjoy grapes, bananas, pears, peaches, strawberries, carrots, pumpkins, rose petals and romaine lettuce. Break the food into small pieces before feeding. Omnivores of course eat both meat and greens.

Vet Care

When considering adopting reptiles as apartment pets, it’s important that you find a vet who is trained to work with reptiles. Reptile medical care is more complicated than mammal pet care and you want to make sure your reptiles live as long as possible.

Even beginners can enjoy reptiles as apartment pets as long as they brush up on basic reptile care. Before adopting your new pets, be sure to read up on individualized care for the reptile you have selected.

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