There are different reptiles to choose from with a variety of shapes and sizes.

You and your family need to choose a pet and then make a list of the pet products it will need to keep it in a warm and comfortable environment.

We at Ideas-4-Pets have a selection of vivariums and reptile products to suit your new pet.

Our range of vivariums can be free-standing or placed on a solid cabinet and are available in beech walnut or oak.

It is important you measure the space you have for your reptile and allow space around which provides good ventilation.

Remember your pet requires a viviarium large enough to let him comfortably move around.

Once you have chosen your vivarium you will need the correct reptile products such as food, heaters, heater mats, light bulbs, plants and drinking bowls.

At Ideas-4-Pets we have reptile products including ornaments you can place in your viviarium which allows your reptile to hide away when he wants to have some privacy.

Reptiles adore exploring and there are a variety of rocks for you to choose from which will keep your pet interested while exploring his surroundings.

Making a list of everything you need for your pet can be confusing. We at Ideas-4-Pets are trained in the care of reptiles and happy to help you make the correct choices for your new friend.

It is important to have your shopping list ready and have bought your reptile supplies before you can bring your new reptilian friend home. It is simply not possible to bring any reptile home and expect it to survive in a cardboard box. We at Ideas-4-Pets stock all the basic needs for the various reptiles to start your new pet off on the right foot.

Basic necessities

You will learn what your pet’s needs are as time goes on and you will be adding items, but to start your reptile off you need the basics. The main reptile supply item will be your vivarium. All vivariums that we supply at Ideas-4-Pets are top quality and are easy to assemble. Our vivariums are manufactured with optimum comfort in view for the inhabitant.

Part of your essential reptile supplies are the correct lights, thermometer and humidity gauge. This is how you will be able to regulate the correct temperature for your new reptile pet in his home. Be sure to supply non-toxic plants and other items such as a log or a branch to place inside the vivarium.

You must have the correct commercially-prepared reptile food on hand when your new pet arrives.  To ensure that you are completely ready for your new pet’s arrival, do research into the needs and habits of your specific reptile and get good reptile care tips to ensure your pet settles in and has a healthy life.

We have specially manufactured vivariums that cater to the needs of all reptiles. It is important to start out on the right foot with your reptile home to ensure a happy and healthy life for your bearded dragon.

Basic reptile home necessities

When you get your vivarium and you start setting up your reptile home, you must make sure you have basking spots in your reptile home. Your bearded dragon must also have a special place where it can hole up, this is important as reptiles need a hidey hole. Because heat is the most crucial thing in the life of your bearded dragon, proper lighting is top priority.

You need to make sure you have a UVB light; a bright white light is necessary for the daytime and a red night light is needed to provide warmth. A heater mat is a good option to keep the vivarium warm and snug. All of this might seen excessive, but reptiles cannot store heat in their bodies and without the proper care your prized bearded dragon will become ill and eventually die.

If you start out with a properly set up reptile home for your pet, you can build on to whatever needs it has as it grows up. Starting out right ensures that your pet is healthy and happy from the beginning.

Living comfortably

The most important aspect to keeping your reptile pet happy and healthy is to offer it as much space as it needs. Think about it for a moment. How would you feel squashed into a living area that is only the size of a bedroom or even worse, a bathroom? Chances are that you would not be very comfortable or happy. This goes for your reptile as well.

Your reptile habitat needs to be large enough to accommodate the fully grown adult reptile comfortably. Another thing to look for in a reptile habitat is that it mimics your pet’s natural habitat as closely as possible. Imagine what it would be like for you to have to live in a home that was decorated and furnished in a way that you hated.

We offer you a choice between cabinet vivariums and those that are free standing and can be placed on top of a table or stand. Choosing one of the cabinet reptile habitats offers you the extra storage space to pack any other reptile products you may have. Come to us for an extensive range to keep your pet happy.

Buy a captive bred hatchling because this ensures that you will have aperfect, healthy, trouble free snake and you are not adding to the pressures on the wild population.

Your snake should be aged 4 – 6 weeks old and at this age, security is all important and a baby snake will only eat if it feels safe and secure. Snakes can sometimes be frightened of open spaces so keep the baby snake in a small plastic box measuring about 20cm square and 10cms high that is well ventilated and escape proof. Place the last 5cm to 10 cm of the box on a heat mat so that the snake can keep its body temperature regulated.

Provide your snake with a hide of some kind, either purchased from a reptile shop or by using an inverted flower pot with an entry hole cut in one side. You will also need to provide your snake with clean fresh water and this needs to be in a vessel that is difficult to overturn. Finally, use something like kitchen roll as a floor covering which should be changed as soon as it is soiled.

When replacing the lid on your snake’s box make sure you always check that his head and tail are safely inside the box before you snap the lid shut or you could cause crippling damage to your baby snake.

Feed your snake one pinkie mouse every 4 to 7 days and as he grows, increase this to two pinkie mice, then a fuzzy and finally an adult mouse. The change from one size of food to the next depends on the rate that your pet is growing and not its age. If your snake regurgitates his food (brings up his food) it’s usually because you have fed him prey animals that are too large for him or he has been overfed.  It could also be due to the temperature being wrong or by being handled or disturbed when he’s trying to digest his food.

As your snake grows, he can be transferred to a larger box or allowed the freedom of a vivarium. If the vivarium has sliding glass or plastic doors check that your small snake can’t escape between the two panes of glass.

You should choose a vivarium that is escape proof, easy to clean, well ventilated and have a heat gradient. The vivarium should also offer your snake a degree of security. Ideas-4-pets have introduced some quality vivaria to their website which also have matching cabinets.

Wooden vivaria with sliding glass doors are a good purchase but make sure that all the joints are sealed with aquarium silicon sealer and ensure that you purchase a vivarium that is suitable for your particular snake.  Don’t house 2 king snakes together or they could eat each other.

Some snakes, like rat snakes and king snakes can overheat so it is important that the temperature should be about 30 degrees C in the hottest part of your vivarium and not higher than 25 degrees C in the coolest area.

Most snake owners find thatthe best form of heating for beginners are Heat Mats as these offer a gentle form of bottom heat and if set up correctly can’t harm your snake. The heat mat should cover no more than one third of the vivarium base so that your snake can regulate his body temperature. This means that your snake would move between the warm and cold areas of his vivarium to keep his body temperature under control. Snakes generally take in heat through their stomach scales and they will sit on the heat mat to warm up, digest their meals, before a slough and when they are carrying eggs. Make sure that you buy a low wattage vivarium heat mat rather than an aquarium heat mat as an aqaurium heat mat might get too hot. A vivarium heat mat is very reliable, easy to use and affordable, they don’t need a thermostat and are available in a range of sizes.

Light bulbs are thought to be a poor way of heating a vivarium and they often cause burns when the snake tries to climb over them. They heat all the cage, rather than just the small area required for your snake to keep his body temperature under control so the advise is to only use them as a last resort.  Most snakes don’t require any lighting.

Healthy snakes eat well and pass solid looking droppings so you are advised to ensure that you only offer your snake food of a suitable size for his size and place the food near his hiding place.  It is adviseable to separate your snakes at feeding time to help prevent problems.

It’s worth knowing that your snake may go off his food if he is about to shed its skin, if the temperature is too hot or too cold, the food is too big or given to them at the wrong time of day (evenings are usually the best time to feed)  A snake that has been recently handled or frightened in some way can go off his food and even having a vivarium that is overcrowded or too large can affect their appetite.  Some males go off their food if they want to mate and females can go off their food if they are heavy with eggs.

Before you fly into a panic, look for a reason first. Can any of the above reasons be the cause for his loss of appetite or is your snake ill? If in any doubt call your local vet – never leave a worrying problem for long as it could be dangerous or even fatal.

The gecko is a small lizard that can be found in warm climates all over the world.  They are also unique in being able to make chirping sounds to communicate with other geckos.

Unusually, they have no eyelids but periodically they lick the transparent membrane over their eyes clean with their tongue.  They have little toes which have an amazing ability to stick to many surfaces. However, the Leopard Gecko is an exception as this species does have eyelids but doesn’t have toe pads, so can’t climb particularly well.

In tropical regions, geckos are common “house guests”.  You may have seen them climbing the walls and ceilings of houses and they help to control insect pests. Geckos come in fantastic colours and patterns and this may account for their popularity as pets. Some species of gecko can even change colour to blend in with their surroundings and also in response to temperature differences.

You should never grab a gecko by its tail as he will drop it as a natural defence mechanism against predators.  It will eventually grow back but it may never regain its original shape and colour. If an accident of this nature does happen, then please make sure that your gecko is well-fed and cared for and separate it from any other geckos  until his tail has regrown.

Leopard Geckos have been known to live for over 20 years so please give careful thought before deciding to keep one as a pet. Remember as well that Geckos are usually nocturnal so you may not see much of them during the light hours of day.

If you decide to purchase a few Geckos, you can keep keep them together but it is better to avoid putting more than one male in the vivarium because two males could fight to the death.  Equally, only keep males and females together if you’re prepared to cope with numerous offspring!

Always ensure that you purchase a vivarium that is large enough for your geckos – the bigger the better. You should also provide hiding places and things to climb such as logs and perhaps some commercial reptile caves and any other features which will make the vivarium an interesting place to live. You can also just use cardboard boxes but make sure that you provide your geckos with a hiding place in a damp area, which will help with shedding. You could use a plastic container with damp soil or moss inside and a hole in the lid for easy access.

Paper or indoor carpet are good to put in the base of the vivarium but Try to avoid things like sand and wood shavings for baby geckos as they may eat it and cause themselves intestinal blockages.  Adult geckos are fine with sand in the bottom of their vivarium.

You don’t have to provide UV lighting for leopard geckos as they are nocturnal reptiles but they still need to have a basking spot under an incandescent bulb.  It is adviseable to use a red bulb or even a ceramic heating element to provide the warmth or maybe an undertank heater. The temperature gradient should range from low 80s F (around 27 C) in the day to mid 70s F (around 25 C) at night, with a basking spot of around 90 F (32 C).

Leopard geckos like to feed on insects in the wild so provide him with a diet of crickets, mealworms, waxworms and even pinkie mice sometimes as a treat. Make sure the insects are “gut-loaded” at least 24 hours before feeding and dust them with a calcium or Vitamin D supplement, especially for young lizards. Most young geckos need to be fed daily but adults can be fed every other day.