It may sound weird, but reptiles could be pets, too. Reptiles are vertebrates that include lizards, snakes, etc.
They are beautiful and fun creatures and don’t require much stress to keep them.
Read on as we discuss some awesome pet reptiles you should know.
1. Corn Snake
Corn snakes are rat snakes that live in North America and use constriction to get their prey. You’ll find them in the southeastern and central parts of the United States.
Even though corn snakes look poisonous and are often mistaken for copperheads, they don’t have functional venom. So they are safe.
Corn snakes are beneficial because they reduce the number of wild rodent pests that eat crops and spread disease. Also, corn snakes are often recommended as first pets because of their actions and what they eat.
Corn snakes love to climb branches, so put them in a tank with many branches. Corn snakes are also hard to catch, so their tanks should be well-protected.
Further, adult corn snakes can grow up to 182 cm long. They usually live for six to eight years in the wild. In captivity, they can live for up to 23 years.
2. Bearded Dragon
People love Bearded Dragons because they have a bright personality and are easy to care for. They are easy to care for because they are omnivores, which means they eat plants and animals.
Bearded dragons are native to Australia’s deserts and other dry places. However, they have different species living in different parts of the country.
You’ll also find them in dry and subtropical forests, coastal habitats, and the big inland deserts.
Their range includes the eastern states’ interiors, South Australia’s east part, and the Southeastern Northern Territory.
It means they are part-arboreal and can climb and bask at high altitudes. When they sunbathe, you can see them on trees cut down.
Initially, they are docile, but as they get older, they become less docile. Pet snakes don’t like to play with their owners, but bearded dragons do.
3. Ball Python
Pythons live in grasslands, shrublands, and open woodlands in West and Central Africa. The ball python is one of them.
Ball pythons come in a wide range of bright and appealing colors. They generally live for about 25 to 30 years, but it varies.
Ball pythons eat mice or rats when they are in captivity. They form into balls when afraid, so people call them ball pythons.
This kind of defense is usually common instead of biting. Thus making them easy to handle and popular as pets.
In the wild, ball pythons like to sleep in mammal burrows and other underground places. Males are more likely to do semi-arboreal things, while females are likelier to do things on the ground.
Once or twice a day, you should handle your ball python. This will make them very comfortable with you, and there will be no trouble.
4. Iguanas
Iguanas are among the pet reptiles that exist. They come from Central and South America and are very popular as pets. They need extra attention, as well as exceptional food and lodging.
Iguanas can get huge and powerful, and it can sometimes be hard to control them. As their tails get longer, they can grow up to 1.5 or 1.8 meters long, including their body length.
These lizards have a dewlap and lengthy scales that run from the middle of their necks to their tails.
Also, iguanas have many different scales covering different parts of their bodies. The scales are thicker and more packed on their backs than on their fronts.
This scale can come in many colors and isn’t always easy to see from afar. Iguanas have excellent eyesight and can see shapes, shadows, colors, and movement far away.
Their ability to see well allows them to move through wooded areas and find food. They use visual signals to communicate with other members of the same animal.
5. Russian Tortoise
The Russian tortoise is the most common turtle to keep as a pet. They are easy to care for because they are small and don’t need much space.
The big deal is that a Russian tortoise has an average lifespan of 50 years and can even live for more than 100 years. So, you can be sure the tortoise will be with you for a very long time.
In Russian tortoises, there is sexual dimorphism. A male has a longer tail, often tucked to the side, and more extended claws. Females have short tails and shorter claws than males, but they both have much skin on their bodies.
The male has a slit-shaped vent near its tail end, while the female has a vent similar to an asterisk shape. Also, Russian tortoises have four toes. Generally, the shell is brown or black, and the body is straw-yellow or brown, depending on the species.
To get a female tortoise, male Russian tortoises bob their heads, circle them, and bite into their foreleg. When the female agrees, the male mounts her behind and makes high-pitched squeaking noises while having sex.
Outdoors are the best place to keep a Russian tortoise, especially if you live in a warm area. Burrowing is one of their favorite things to do, and they take advantage of the sand and rocks around them to dig under. They use this burrowing mechanism to keep themselves from getting cold in the wild.
6. Crested Gecko
The crested gecko is another reptile we can take in as a pet, and some people also call it the eyelash gecko. This is a gecko species that lives in southern New Caledonia. People who want to keep reptiles as pets for the first time should get one.
They are small and easy to care for. They come in many different colors and designs, and they love to be touched. They are night owls and will sleep most of the time.
To keep them safe, we must use branches and leaves to make a branch and leaf enclosure. Its tail is 4–6 inches long, and its body is 6–10 inches long.
Moreover, geckos are famous for having hair-like projections that look like eyelashes above their eyes, and this is one of their most unique features.
From their eyes, two spine rows run to the sides of their head and down to the base of their tail. Their eyes don’t have eyelids. They keep their eyes moist with a transparent spectacle, and the geckos clean their tongues to remove dirt.
These geckos have a tail that isn’t very flexible, but it helps them climb. To fool predators, they can lower the tail. Further, geckos don’t grow back their tails after they lose them. Most adults in the wild don’t have tails, either.
7. Chinese Water Dragon
The Chinese water dragon is an agamid lizard native to mainland Southeast Asia and China. The Asian water dragon, Thai water dragon, and green water dragon are other names.
Chinese water dragons can grow up to 36″ long, including their tails, and live for 10 to 15 years. The color ranges from dark green to light green, with an orange tummy on a tiny number of times.
A green or turquoise diagonal stripe runs across the body, and the tail is banded from the middle to the end with green and white stripes.
They have undersides that are white, off-white, pale green, or pale yellow. However, some think their throats are more appealing because they can be of different colors; some have a single color, and others have stripes.
Males generally have bigger crests on their heads, necks, and tails and bigger heads, necks, and tails. As a weapon for balance and swimming, they use the tail, about two-thirds of the length of the body.
8. Leopard Gecko
The leopard gecko lives on the ground in rocky, dry grassland. These lizards have rough, yellow-brown skin with black spots on them. They are friendly and easy to deal with.
Also, leopard geckos are nocturnal creatures that feed on insects. Adults are about 7 to 10 inches long and weigh 40 to 80 grams. They don’t need a lot of space.
Like lizards, leopard geckos are eaten by snakes, foxes, and other large reptiles. Their hearing and vision are excellent, so they can escape them when it’s dark.
Their skin helps them hide from predators, and they have great vision and hearing abilities. Taste and smell also help them stay alive. They also stay in underground holes and burrow all day to avoid getting eaten.
9. Merauke Blue-Tongue Skink
The Merauke blue-tongued skink is an Indonesian and Papua New Guinean subspecies of Tiliqua. The Merauke blue-tongued skink can grow up to 26-30 inches long.
Many people buy exotic pets from this species, and its popularity in herpetoculture and zoos worldwide is growing constantly.
People who like blue-tongued skinks will find them friendly and have a lot of personalities. They want to be handled and get a scratch on the head or chin.
Blue-tongued skinks are primarily ground dwellers and prefer to stay on the ground rather than climb. Furthermore, it would help if you never kept males together because they fight and are even more likely to fight females. So, it’s best to separate them.
10. Chameleon
The chameleon is among the different types of pet reptiles. Chameleons are identified by their zygodactylous feet and swaying movement.
Most species, especially the larger ones, have a prehensile tail. Chameleons’ eyes are individually moveable, yet they focus forward in synchronization when aiming at a prey item, giving the animal stereoscopic vision.
Chameleons are unusual and attractive creatures that need a vast, well-maintained habitat at a specific humidity and temperature. Because chameleons are easily stressed, this is the case.
They should also not be handled frequently due to their susceptibility to stress. Chameleons feed on live insects that they capture with their extended tongues.
Their vibrant hue varies in response to their surroundings, and these reptiles are best suited to more seasoned reptile keepers.
11. Red-Eared Slider
These aquatic turtles are a lot of fun to watch as they swim around. Red-eared sliders are so named because of the red markings on either side of their heads that distinguish them from other species. Their bodies are black with yellowish streaks down the sides of their bodies.
They are omnivores who prefer to eat while swimming in water. They remain small even when they reach adulthood, reaching a maximum size of roughly 12 inches at full maturity.
It should be noted that they are territorial by nature and have strong claws, making them unsuitable for keeping as pet reptiles.
