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When taking any new pet reptile or amphibian home there are a few important things to remember to ensure that they settle into their new surroundings.
The Golden rule is simple. Limit the amount of disturbance to limit their stress levels. Here are some handy tips to help you do this.
1. Make sure your environment is set up and ready before you bring your new pet home. Check your temperatures and make sure all your lighting working correctly. Also make sure that you are happy with how you have the décor laid out in the enclosure. There is nothing worse than taking an animal home and then trying to make continued adjustments to their environment once they are already in it, this is guaranteed to stress them out. If you do happen to decide you want to change something in terms of the layout of their enclosure, so long as its not going to cause immediate harm (In which case change it immediately) then save any changes to the environment for at least a month after putting them into a new environment.
2. When you take your pet home, remember that the pet you have just purchased was probably bred right here in our shop. They have never travelled in a car before, they have probably never been out of an enclosure for more than an hour at a time, everything is going to be new to them. We put them in a dark box to ensure they travel with minimum disturbance. Don’t open the box until you are home and ready to let them out. Resist the urge to keep checking on them in the car, this will only cause them stress.
3. When you put your new pet into its new environment you must leave it to settle in, resist the urge to handle it, hand feed it, stroke it etc. Even lifting hides repeatedly to check on it can stress some species out. How long you leave it to settle varies by species, but the good general rule is a minimum of a week for any species, once your pet is feeding and pooing you can deem it to have settled in but don’t interact with it until at least a week has passed. Some species will take longer, many snakes can take up to a month to settle, the same is true for a lot of tortoises.
What if it doesn’t eat as much as you expected or doesn’t eat at all?
Don’t worry, this can be quite normal for an animal settling into its new environment. It can often take a couple of weeks for their full appetite to resume. If this is the case with insectivorous lizards just put a few less bugs into the enclosure or put them in less frequently. For herbivores, just keep offering food each day. For snakes specifically, don’t worry if it takes several weeks for them to feed for you. Don’t pester your snake by trying to offer it food every day, just offer food once per week off feeding tongs and if it doesn’t take it off the tongs you can leave the prey in the enclosure overnight but make sure you remove uneaten food the next morning. Also remember animals that do not have the correct temperatures will often choose not to eat so one of the most common issues when an animal wont feed in a new environment is because the environment is a couple of degrees colder than the optimum. Adjusting your thermostat to increase the temperature by a couple of degrees can often help stimulate a feeding response. Just don’t be too overzealous with increasing temperatures, remember there is an upper limit of comfortable temperatures for all these species too.
What if your new pet seems lethargic or hides a lot?
Under the assumption that you have checked all your environmental parameters regarding temperature, humidity and lighting cycles and these variables are all correct for the species you are keeping then again, your animal’s behaviour will just be due to the natural settling in period. Give it space and time and it will get bolder as it feels more secure in its surroundings.
What if you’re worried about something, who should you speak to?
If you are concerned about something then speak to a professional, please remember that a lot of vets have limited experience with exotics. We are always happy to help and advise customers with any concerns and we have decades of experience, and we will know the specific animal in question so please feel free to contact us with any concerns or queries as a first port of call. No question is too small, we would rather be bombarded with questions and be able to help rather than an animal suffer through lack of communication. If we feel that there is an issue that may require veterinary help, we would be happy to advise you on recommended vets we would use based upon your location. We are here to help in any way that we can. In almost all cases a visit to a vet is not required, a basic change to husbandry or some further reassurance is all that’s required.