Leopard geckos popularity as pets is easy to understand. They are small, cute, typically friendly and easy to handle. They come in a variety of color morphs are require less space than many larger reptiles. They're relatively long lived, many living into their late teens and early twenties. They breed easily in captivity. However, they are prone to problems with their eyes, skin, and skeleton if not cared for properly.
Green iguanas are very popular pets, but are perhaps one of the most misunderstood and poorly kept all reptile pets.
Box turtles are hardy and long-lived if cared for properly.
A common mistake is feeding a diet too low in vitamin A, calcium, or other nutrients. Depending on the nutrients that are missing, a malnourished box turtle will suffer from dry flakey skin, overgrown beak and toenails, and deformed shells. Once affected, some box turtles may require special calcium supplements, injections of vitamin A, special diets, and assist-feeding until they are doing well.
Bearded dragons may get diarrhea from a number of causes such as stress, parasites, bacterial infections of the intestine, atadenovirus infections, spoiled food, malnutrition, dirty water bowls, unsanitary cages, and inappropriately cool or excessively high temperatures in the cage.
Constipation, which is the failure to produce feces, is a common condition in bearded dragons. There are many possible causes including, but not limited to, dehydration, parasites, poor diet, an injury, infection, and tumors.
Bearded dragons are social, active lizards that need proper heat, ultraviolet light, and the correct diet with necessary supplements. Bearded dragons may not get along if crowded or territorial so caution with housing them together and ideally never have an adult with baby bearded dragons.
An adult bearded dragon needs a cage at least 3 ft long, 2 ft wide, and 1.5 ft tall.
Ball pythons are modestly sized snakes that range from 30-45" in length and rarely reach five feet or slightly longer. They originate from west and central Africa with most of the wild-collected animals exported from Ghana, Togo, and Benin.
Most of the ball pythons sold in pet stores are wild-collected. Babies are often exported from "ranches" where adult females are collected, kept in captivity until they lay eggs, and then the babies that hatch are exported to other countries. These "ranched" babies are often much cheaper to buy than ball pythons that were captive-bred and born in the United States and may be more difficult to get feeding. Wild-collected ball pythons are more likely to have parasites than true captive-bred and born ball pythons.
There are now many different color morphs of ball pythons. Some of them, such as panda pieds and scaleless, may sell for thousands of dollars.
Parrots and other birds are intelligent, curious and naturally active in the wild. The typical wild bird spends most of its day searching for food and being alert for predators. When it is not looking for food, it may be searching for a mate or helping take care of a nest, protecting its home from rivals, socializing with other birds, or preening its feathers, among other activities. As pets, birds no longer have to search for food, worry about predators, defend their home from rivals, or do many of the other things necessary to survive in the wild. Without these things to do, some parrots and other birds begin to engage in abnormal behaviors such as feather-plucking and chewing at their skin, pacing around their cages, back-flipping, eating their own stool, prolonged abnormal screaming, etc.
