BeardieBabies

@lizardbeans and others have informed me that some of the leopard gecko information was bad. It shall be summarily edited. I always welcome corrections to the information. Until then, do not feel safe purely relying on that guide, and avoid using pure sand for leopard geckos. Everything should be fixed by July 7. 

Maybe it’s cheating to post images of the other animals that weren’t reptiles that were at the reptile expo. But I’m pretty sure this is the best photo my crappy tablet has ever taken in the 3 years I have had it, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let it go to waste.

I also got to hold a hedgehog

Soon after I received Linnaeus, he contracted a parasitic infection that was beginning to dehydrate him. I took him to the vet, and soon he was on a regimen of 2 medications and a powdered diet that was moistened with warm water before being fed to him via syringe. Suffice to say, he did not appreciate the medicines, though he tolerated the powdered diet a bit better. He never tried to bite, but he made sure to express his disdain with a beard so black and blue it went down to his chest, and being wiggly. 

He’s since forgiven me, but he glares at my grandmother at the sound of her voice to this day XD who knew a reptile could hold a grudge against an individual for months? 

Freya when she was first advertised for adoption. She’s more colorful now, and her blue bars have become far more pronounced In the past 5 months since I got her, but this does her more justice than any photo taken by my crappy tablet camera. Next time I go to a reptile expo, I’ll be sure to buy a decent camera first. 

You may have noticed that Linnaeus’s terrarium is rather empty. This is because he has a tendency to knock things over and attempt to eat anything that has portions he can get his mouth around, including an extremely hard plastic climbing log weighted to be kept from being knocked over (yet I come home to find him persistently trying to consume it). He even managed to bite off and consume the end of a syringe made to force feed him medicine when he was sick, much to my horrified shock (I tried to get it out of his mouth to no avail. Thankfully, he pooped it out a couple days later). 

In short, the barrenness of his terrarium is to prevent him from hurting himself. I also advise anyone against greenery, fake or otherwise, that is not edible for bearded dragons to be put in their terrariums. They will often try to consume it, and if left to their own devices, are liable to succeed in doing so. Most bearded dragons are not as silly as Linnaeus (including my other two), so don’t expect climbing logs or other such accessories to be an issue for most bearded dragons. 

So you all can see Freya’s nubby tail. I wish the camera on my tablet did her bright orange color justice, but alas, it is a crappy camera. 

Some might think that this trait is purely aesthetic, and that it would be fine to breed her, but this is completely incorrect. 

For one thing, I can’t be sure if she has malformations of internal organs or not without putting her through procedures that would stress her out, and even if some are found, they might not be fixable or beyond what I can pay. If she does, breeding her could kill her or her offspring. 

Secondly, she is unhappy with that nubby tail. The tails of reptiles and other vertebrates often play a role in balance. As a result, my lovely lady isn’t as much of a climber as my other beardies, and she hates being picked up as it makes her feel unsafe *cue frantic attempts at tail whipping*. Thus, I keep most of my interactions with her in the terrarium so she is comfortable. In short, tails are limbs with important functions, not accessories on your reptile, with maybe one or two exceptions (cough crested geckos often lose them with no negative effects cough). The tail also needs assistance from me in order to shed properly, due to a small curl at the end of it preventing shed skin from falling off once it has separated from her body. An inexperienced caretaker might not notice this problem, resulting in tail rot starting dangerously close to the main body and lowering survival chances. 

Thirdly, she was sold with the condition that she would be a well-loved pet never to be bred, and I am not about to break that promise. 

Some of the information on the Uromastyx care was incorrect, and has thusly been edited. Thank you, @spacesnek , for the corrections, I have no intention of spreading bad information.

This, my friends, is an alligator. Yes, you can own them as pets (may vary by country), though, it is not for the faint of heart or the light of wallet. 

I personally don’t have much to say on this one, other than if you’re really wanting to own a creature like a crocodile or alligator, you should probably consider the smaller species first, and for the love of everything, have their habitat set up prior to purchase (which you should do for any reptile, really). 

A guide on their care and then some http://crocodilian.com/crocfaq/index.html

and another good site for care sheets, with this page left on the American alligator http://www.repticzone.com/caresheets/868.html

Now, the person didn’t label what type of tortoise this was, but based on commonly available tortoises and some image comparisons, I think it is most likely a sulcata tortoise. Here’s some babies of that species

Starting tiny, these tortoises will eventually grow to be well over 50 pounds and can live for at least around 70 years, though they haven’t been raised in captivity long enough to be fully sure on that, it could be longer. (guide kept until further notice)

These guys aren’t getting terrariums if you’re smart. They’re ether getting indoor rooms dedicated to them, or outside pens if you have a yard and live in an area that is warm year-round. Their growth is highly variable, but the first 5-10 years have the fastest growth. Males can become a whopping 200 pounds (90 kilograms) with females around half of that. Quite frankly, if size is of any concern, a tortoise is probably not for you, because even relatively small Russian tortoises need a lot of space to be happy as adults compared to most other reptiles of similar size. 

However, if you are up for the challenge to raise a tortoise that will become a lifelong companion, I shall provide the basic care instructions for the sulcata tortoise. 

Now, more likely than not, you’ll impulsively by one of the tiny babies, because their cuteness is undeniable. A lot of people impulse buy these animals, however, so if you don’t mind getting an adult through adoption, that’s a great way to save some money and save on some of the trials of raising a baby tortoise. 

Now, to write out a proper care sheet taking multiple compared sources into account. 

When young, the tortoises should be kept indoors, where lighting and heat are easier to control. A 20 gallon terrarium works for a baby tortoise until they are 3 inches in diameter (7.5 cm). They can be gently handled for brief periods of 10 minutes as babies, but unless you are a 9 foot tall demigod, they’ll get too large for that as juveniles, restricting you to gentle pats on the tops of their shells. Don’t house two males together if they are juveniles or older, as they will fight for dominance and try to tip each other over. Baby sulcata tortoises need access to a humid hiding area for proper shell development and growth. If this is not provided, the shell will be malformed and cause the tortoise pain. Extreme cases can cause impaired movement. The humidity also helps prevent dehydration. Washed cypress mulch seems to be an ideal substrate for the tiny babies, though as adults they will not be needing it unless you insist on raising them indoors forever, or the soil in your yard is tainted with fertilizers and other chemicals. If that is the case, I’d recommend something like peat moss or orchard grass. Everyone has their own opinions on the best substrate, though. While grown indoors, they need desert strength UVB lights and heat lights. Outdoors, they don’t. 

Sulcata tortoises are attracted to bright, colorful objects. Thus, when older, larger tortoises need to be moved, the best method is to lure them with a bright piece of fruit or a toy appropriate for tortoise play (can’t eat it, can’t destroy it, nontoxic. Perhaps a colorful bowling ball between 5-10 pounds with no outside paint). It will take them a bit to get them to move where you want them to, so be patient. 

Once the tortoise is about the size of a basketball (that is, they are about the diameter of one), they can be housed in an outside pen. These guys are stronger than you might think and have been known to tear down fencing in pursuit of a shiny object. Very thick wood staked into the ground or perhaps a stone wall 2 feet off the ground  that the tortoise can’t see through seems ideal, though while searching through various enclosures online, I did see that some people use part of their house as a wall of the enclosure, as well as people that supplement the wall with metal fencing outside of the rest of the wall or on top of it. 

The tortoises should be provided with minimal objects in their enclosure so they have as much free space as possible. An enclosure like a doghouse is recommended, to give them a humid place to burrow and protection from the elements (in places where it gets very cold, they may need temporary indoor enclosures during those months, or for their outdoor enclosure to be heated). 

Sulcata tortoises are strict herbivores, and adults get adequate moisture from their diets. It is recommended that babies get baths twice a week in lukewarm water that comes up to their chins. Be present for the whole bath, which should last 10-15 minutes. Their diets should consist of dark leafy greens such as collard greens, endive, and dandelion greens (no more than 25% of their diet), while avoiding foods like spinach which are high in oxalates. Grass hay and hay flakes, and some clover, should make up the majority of their diet, which may be additionally supplemented with premade foods like Rep Cal tortoise diet and occasional small amounts of fruits like strawberries and bananas as treats. These are grazing animals with voracious appetites that need diets overall low in nutritional content, like the diet they have in the wild. Particularly, they need high fiber and low protein. They also need calcium supplements lightly dusted in their food. They will tend to nibble on grass in their enclosures, so unless what you are growing is safe for them to eat, remove it. 

These tortoises need a basking area of around 90 degrees (32 degrees Celsius), though older tortoises can handle it being 100 degrees (about 38 degrees Celsius) so long as they can hide away to thermoregulate. Their areas to cool down in should be no more than 80 degrees (26 degrees Celsius). If below 70 degrees at night or consistently during the day, the tortoise needs a heated shelter (21 degrees Celsius). They are diurnal, and while indoors, lights should be turned off at night. 

Sources: http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Care-Sheets/Sulcata-Tortoise/

http://www.lllreptile.com/articles/52-sulcata-tortoise