Having a pet reptile is great way to learn about this fascinating creatures. This page is here to help you decide if you really do want a pet reptile, and then to help you figure out the type of reptile you want.

This page is a general overview of reptile keeping. For more detailed information on specific aspects, have a look at the links in the menu on the left.

So you want to get a pet reptile?

Reptiles are cool, but they're not for everyone.

Here are some generalisations about reptiles as pets. There are probably exceptions to each of these (well, maybe not the hair one).

I deliberately didn't mention anything about reptiles being low maintenance. Lots of people assume that reptiles don't take much time to look after. True, you feed them much more infrequently than a dog or a cat, but they do require other kinds of looking after. Because they're in a small enclosure (not running around your house or yard like a dog or cat) you have to take extra care to make sure that their enclosure is in good shape. This means checking on the temperature, making sure they've got fresh water, cleaning up any uneaten food or other waste material, making sure they can't hurt themselves on any of the cage furniture, etc. All in all it does take less time per week to tend to a reptile when compared with a cat, but you shouldn't enter the reptile keeping game expecting to do no work and still have a healthy reptile.

What kind do you want?

There's an amazing variety of reptiles that can be kept as pets in Australia. The three main types are freshwater turtles, lizards, and snakes. They're each different enough to warrant their own sections.

Turtles

Turtles (such as this saw-shelled turtle) are very popular,
though relatively high-maintenance, pets.

First of all, there's no such thing as a "penny turtle". That's just a name that was coined back when pet shops sold hatchling turtles (which are indeed very small) by the thousands. You can't get a turtle the size of a coin and expect it to stay that size forever. Most Australian freshwater turtles will grow up to have a shell 20 to 30 cm long. Hatchling turtles might take four or five years to reach an adult size. Turtles generally won't tolerate much handling.

Turtles need to have very clean water at the right temperature and right pH. This means you'll need a strong filter and a decent heater. Try to avoid glass heaters, as they crack very easily. Hatchling turtles are very prone to stress, which will frequently lead to them developing potentially lethal fungal infections. Turtles need direct, unfiltered UV light to prevent shell deformities. This is easily provided by a UV-light tube, which will have to be replaced every six months or so. An area of dry land should be placed under the UV light so that your turtle can bask.

Eventually your turtle will reach adulthood. It's best to keep adult turtles in an outside pond, unless you have a very big fish tank.

Lizards

Blue-tongued skinks are amongst the most popular of lizards as pets.

Some of the smaller lizard (e.g., blue-tongued skinks and bearded dragons) species are the most popular pet reptiles, and for good reason. They're well-suited to captivity and quite easy to care for. Once settled in, many individuals adjust to handling very well. Diurnal lizards such as these can be quite entertaining with their day-time activities and displays, especially if keeping more than one together. If you do keep more than one together you will have to ensure that they are of a similar size, well-fed and provided with plenty of shelter, otherwise you might end up with one very large lizard.

When your lizard sheds its skin, check its toes and its tail tip to make sure that all the skin has come away from these areas. If the old skin remains around a toe, it can constrict the digit as the animal grows, prevent blood flow and ultimately cause the digit to fall off.

When you first get your new lizard friend, it can be hard to resist the temptation to play with it immediately. But resist you should! After your scaly buddy has just moved into a strange new environment, the last thing it wants is for a gigantic, threatening creature to start grabbing at it. It's best to let it settle in, and then start handling it briefly.

Snakes

Children's pythons make ideal pet snakes, even if they think
eating a mouse tail-first is sensible.

If you're after a relatively small reptile, I personally think that a snake from the Children's python group is ideal. These small (up to one metre), generally docile snakes are easy to look after and require a relatively small enclosure. As with any type of reptile, youngsters are easily stressed. It's best to let your new reptile settle in for a week or so before you try to handle it. Even hatchling snakes can go for quite a while without food. Don't panic if your snake won't eat the minute you get it home. In fact, it's probably a wise idea to let your snake settle in for a week before you offer it food. It's also a very good idea to only bring the snake home once the breeder has got it feeding, and it's shed its skin a couple of times. It can be problematic to get little snakes to eat sometimes. Small snakes can sometimes get freaked out by large enclosures. Most people keep their young snakes in small containers so the animals feel safe and secure.

Pythons are generally quite easy to feed once they get a bit of size to them. Frozen mice and rats can be purchased from many pet stores (albeit at a highly inflated price) or rodent breeders, defrosted and fed to your snake. It might take a bit of jiggling to get your snake interested, but most of them will readily accept food in this manner.

Young snakes will shed their skin quite frequently as they grow. It's important that your enclosure has the right humidity, especially when your snake is about to shed. If the air is too dry, your snake may have difficult shedding. When you notice that your snake is approaching shedding time, it's a good idea to increase the humidity in the enclosure by spraying the inside with some water. After your snake has shed, it's important to check that the skin on the tip of the tail has come off. If it remains, it can constrict and damage the tail as the snake grows. It's also important to ensure the transparent scales covering the eyes (called spectacles) have been shed properly. If these scales are retained (which can happen if your snake has had mites or if the humidity has been too low) they can impair your snake's vision, or even damage the eye itself.

More info

Have a look at the rest of this section to learn more about licensing and enclosure design.