What’s A Vivarium For Those Who Don’t Know?
A vivarium is a required thing if you want to keep and raise animals or plants. It not only provides an enclosure for animals or pets or both. It also serves as a living area for them in addition.
No matter if you are keeping animals or plants for observation/research purposes. Vivariums are capable of copying the partial ecosystem for a specific animal on a small scale and has controls to handle their unique environmental needs/conditions.
What also makes each vivarium special is not only the type of animals or plants that do reside inside of them on a regular basis. It is also the fact that they can be constructed in different sizes from small like a terrarium or aquarium to larger structures known as vivarium.
These vivarium structures can be very big in structure and are often seen outdoors. Large vivarium structures are more than capable of housing reptiles or birds as they contain sally port door mechanisms which allow organisms to enter and exit the structure. Dual-door mechanisms such as these allow animals to enter the inner door safely without allowing escape from the outer door.
There are a broad range of reptiles vivarium available to accommodate your specific reptile. Each reptile vivarium is designed to suit a variety of different species and these different species types include everything from lizards to snakes to geckos to other reptiles/amphibians.
The right reptile vivarium for your unique pet is the one that will provide the very best habitat to your pet overall. You cannot get just any vivarium for a reptile. A good reptile vivarium is one that offers a feeling of well being to your pet and makes them feel comfortable dwelling in it on the average.
Therefore, the right vivarium is the right one, which feels right to you and to your individual pet too. A vivarium is so much more than just a pet or plant enclosure. It is a place that your reptile will feel at home in and which they would “call home” if they knew how to speak for themselves.
The Importance Of Choosing Your First Lizard
There are many different kinds of lizards. They vary in a vast array of colors, sizes, and appearances. That makes owning a pet lizard extremely fascinating, and they are quickly becoming a popular home pet.
Just as owning any other pet there are things you need to know before, and after choosing your first lizard. They are not like some pets that are very friendly to play with and hold. You can do that with a dog or a cat. Lizards in general, do not like to be held, and are rather unfriendly. Therefore, it is imperative that you comprehend the care, and safety precautions required when you own a lizard.
Lizards have very strict dietary needs as well as certain requirements for where they can live. The house they live in need to have lots of space to go about and to grow. Try to buy a big enough tank so you do not have to spend additional funds later.
Some pets you can sort of figure out some kind of a plan on your own but with creatures such as these you will need to learn specifically how to take care of them.
The internet is a good resource to help you to learn how to care for your first lizard. Do that first before actually buying one for your pet. Make sure to research all about the different kinds of lizards as well as their specific nutritional needs. Be sure you can provide it with the proper care.
Related articles
- Intro to Breeding Lizards (bestreptilesonline.com)
- Feeding your Lizard (bestreptilesonline.com)
Feeding Snakes
Basic Food Facts
Before you purchase your snake make sure get a good knowledge on the proper handling, feeding, and care.
What To Feed Your Snake
Smaller snakes such as garter’s can eat things such as live crickets and live small pinky mice. As they grow so will their food. A snake that is about 2 foot to about 3 ½ foot can eat the live baby pinky rats or the larger adult sized mice. Larger snakes will eat adult rats, pigeons, etc and so on and so forth.
How Often?
It’s good to feed young or small snakes enough to hold them over for about two weeks at a time but the much larger ones if fed a good healthy amount of food they can go for a couple of months no problem.
You can always tell by looking at the bulge in their body as the bulge goes down you’ll notice they become more active this is usually a good sign that their ready to feed again.
Proper Food Handling
It is best when feeding a snake to be sure and keep all extremities at a distance. You can do this by having a smaller opening to the cage to drop the food through or by using a set of tongs or something to that nature.
Checking The Cage
When feeding snakes food such as mice and rats you will want to be sure there is no one left behind because if a rat or mouse is left with a snake without a appetite there is a danger of the prey becoming the predator. So don’t leave any live critters for more than an hour or so and keep everyone safe.
Health Problems in Reptiles
Many health issues relating to reptiles are down to simply not being looked after properly so the point is that many health problems can be prevented by knowing how to care for the reptile and how to react when a reptile looks ill.
There are some signs that mean you should take the reptile straight to the vet and these invclude: not eating, vomiting, not passing faeces,trembling, open mouth breathing or if the reptiles abdomen looks swollen. The obvious one would be if a reptile is limping or just not moving.
Metabolic bone disease is usually due to improper diet or lack of ultra violet light or even the wrong diet or temperature within the vivarium. If this is diagnosed then make sure the reptile hasn’t got anywhere it can climb because a fall could cause limb damage and be fatal. Some owners make the mistake of feeding their herbivour reptile meat. This is very dangerous and can cause kidney disease, always know what the reptile should be fed.
Never pick the reptile up by it’s tail. We are all aware that some reptiles can regenerate a tail but for some it can be fatal as most of the fat reserves are hoarded within the tail area.
Incomplete shedding of the skin. This can cause damage between the digits and cause infection. This is mainly caused by providing the wrong temperature or humidity. Incomplete shedding can be fatal but will certainly cause the reptile to go off it’s food due to it feeling uncomfortable.
Renal disease can occur in reptiles such as iguanas or chameleons. This often shows as loss of weight or the reptile being depressed or non interest in food and general weakness. a trip to the vet should always undertaken.
Reptiles almost always harbour samonella without actually suffering from the effect. This is more dangerous to humans and this is why you should always wear gloves when handling or at the very least wash thoroughly after handling and never put your hands near your mouth. This is especially important for children to be taught.
Choosing a Snake
If you are one of the numerous snake lovers in the world and have decided to finally adopt one, then there are a few things you should know about this magnificent species.
First of all, you have to know that keeping a snake requires a lot of care and attention, since they are cold blooded and need artificial heating.
Also, remember that you have to feed them mice and rats, so, if you`re not willing to deal with these main issues, then you should think twice before acquiring a snake. But, if you decide that you want to take this responsibility, then there are a few things you have to know when choosing a snake.
When choosing a snake, you should look closely at its character, as you wouldn`t like to have an aggressive pet. The snake you buy should have a docile nature and not bite. Also, make sure that your pet won`t grow to huge dimensions that will only make it more difficult to keep and might even get it ill.
A few snakes that fit the criteria are the Corn Snake, the Kingsnake, the Gopher Snake and the ball Python snake.
Before take this kind of commitment, make sure you read plenty of information about snakes, choosing a snake and how to take good care of them. Overcome your reluctance to handling dead and alive rodents and make sure you know how to clean and equip a reptile`s aquarium. Only after making sure you know all of these things you can enjoy having a snake as your pet.
Turtles or Tortoises
Turtles or tortoises make great pets if they are taken care of properly.
Before choosing a pet be sure that you are ready for the commitment and can give them proper care. Some domestic turtles have lived for more than 40 years, and this is a long time to care for a pet.
Turtles also need to have a clean tank, plenty of fresh food and need to be taken to regular veterinarian visits. For someone who can provide these things, a turtle can become a life long companion.
Although turtles don’t require much handling, they can still be entertaining to watch. A turtle will swim to hunt for food and also to play. Turtles will bathe in the rays of their heat lamp, and can possibly lay eggs if provided with the space and a mate.
Throughout the winter months your turtle may choose to hibernate. You will want to have both sand and water for your turtle, along with turtle pellets and fresh vegetation. Weeds found in most freshwater areas and vegetables like lettuce or carrots are great treats for your turtle.
Hygiene is very important when owning a turtle. If a tank isn’t cleaned properly the turtle can spread diseases like salmonella, or develop conditions like shell rot. For young children taking and interest in aquatics and animals this is a good pet. Most freshwater turtles have a good temperament and will not bite. With the proper habitat and care you can enjoy owning a turtle as a pet.
Intro to Breeding Lizards
Breeding Lizards can be a really difficult exercise and is slightly different for all different species. It’s really important to get to know your lizard properly and recognise when it’s healthy and know it’s ideal living conditions.
I’m not going to go into detail on the breeding process as you need to know the specific phases for your lizard but i will give some basic guidance as to what you need to look for.
The most important feature in breeding is climate control. Obviously because differing lizards come from different areas in the world then you need to research you lizard so you get to know how you can trigger the lizards need to breed using the temperature.
Lizards can show some strange behaviour when courting, some stomp on the ground or wave their front feet in a circular motion whilst others move their head up and down continuously, some might nibble or bite their partner. this si all normal and you will get to know what your species does.
The male lizard will approach the female from the side and not from the back, because of the design of the lizards sexual organ this is physicall impossible. The male will ofteen bite the female as he mates with her
When the time for egg laying is right the female will dig a few holes in the substrate of the tank and choose one of these to lay the eggs in. when she has done this she will cover the hole back up. at this point you should remove the eggs and place them into an incubator to continue the process.
Introduction to Breeding Snakes
Obviously different types of snake will require more specific guidelines but I’m going to give you a basic introduction to snake breeding and the different periods you need to watch out for. this isn’t a complete guide but an introduction.
Snakes breed after they have awoken from hibernation and the femal has shed her coat. Thios means that preparation for breeding snakes takes around 6-9 months, during this time different phases are passed through.
You obviously need to be aware of the sex of the snakes, if you are in any doubt then consult an experienced snake keeper, there is a way of sexing by squeezing the area the snake uses for dispersing waste and breeding. If this is squeezed then the male hemipenis will protrude or not if is a female, but don’t leave it too chance.
Snakes need to be fed well before entering hibernation so increase the food slowly late summer/ early autumn then as wintr progresses then slowly turn the heat down in the cage until the hibernation stage is entered. the male and female should be kept apart during the hibernation phase. during this stage neither should be fed but clean water should be available at all times.
After 12 week hibernation peod the cages should slowly be warmed up until the snakes have recovered fully and soon
after, usually in late march early april the snakes should start feeding normally again. This is the time that they need to be over fed once again, the Female uses the fat in her lower body to assist with production of eggs so plenty of food is the key. soon after this period the female will shed her skin and this is the point to introduce the male to her again.
Place the male in with the female, if she’s ready then she will lay straight and if she seems angry with him then she’s not ready !
I will make another post about the second part of breeding snakes. The man’s job is now done so in the next post we will discuss the actual production and laying of the eggs.
Feeding your Lizard
Food and your lizard is very important so it is critical that you learn how to and what to feed your particular species of 
lizard and it can be the hardest part about keeping a Lizard.
lizards come in one of three types, herbivorous, carnivorous and omnivorous. Omnivorous Lizards eat both meat and Plants.
Herbivouros are plant eating lizards and these tend to just eat fruits and vegetables and plants. obviously nowadays, fruit is quite plentiful all year round but you do need to make sure that the fruit is not treated with anny pesticides. Organically grown fruit and vegetables is the best choice. Us a heavy bowl and place the food at different locations in the vivarium if you have more than one lizard. this will stop them fighting over it.
Carnivorous lizards are meat eaters and the best food is the frozen . Frozen chicks and mice are freely avaialbale these days. make sure the food is at room temperature though before feeding 
it, cold or partially frozen food can kill your lizard. It’s important that if insects are fed then make sure they are small insects as Lizards can easily choke with bigger bits of food. As a guide feed nothing bigger that is the space between the Lizards eyes.
The exption to this rule is if your lizard eats fish. A lot of lizards do and you need to make sure yours is one of those but Lizards usually enjoy a nice freshwater fish ( not salt water). Feed these whole as this is how it would eat it in the wild.
Lizards also love the live cricket. these should be dropped into the vivarium so the lizard can hunt it down, it might be the only exercise it gets during the day ! remember to clean the vivaium of the old carcasses every couple of days.
Yawwwwn…I need to hibernate
Not all reptiles will hibernate although some such as Milk snakes and box turtles have to whatever the circumstances.
Of course with human interference we can make it difficult for our pet reptiles to know when to hibernate. With the modern vivariums which are easily accesible, maintaining the same temperature all year will provide a few issues for the reptile. You see in the wild the temperature varies during the year as does the length of the day so the Reptile knows when it needs to slow it’s metabolism and prepare for a cooler period. They need to do this as food becomes scarcer and the nights cooler.
Reptiles don’t sleep as such not like some mammals, so don’t need to stock up on food and fatten up for hibernation as they don’t actually live off their fat supplies. They have a way of slowing their metabolism down to extrodinary low levels and it’s actually called brumation not hibernation.
Reptiles will slowly stop eating before they hibernate, because, as the body will almost shut down completely they need to make sure that there is no food sitting in the stomach over the hibernation period so if you do see that the reptile is slowly going off it’s food as the end of autumn approaches then you have a good idea why.
We’ll post again on how to monitor and care for your reptile duing Brumation.