Havenstead
Ranch
Please
note: Feedback Form is not working at this time, and all of the care
sheets are not available, but more is continuously being added.
We apologize and thank you for your patience!
Updated 01-10-09
Welcome! My hobby of keeping and breeding
various reptiles
has grown over the years. With this website I'd like to pass
on some of the information I've gathered and learned about the keeping,
maintaining and care of reptiles in a captive environment.
I've included many useful links to other herpetological
websites which may be of some use to you in your search for information
about the care of various snakes, lizards, toads and other reptiles.
I hope you find the information here, as well as the links to
other websites, helpful. If you're new to caring for reptiles
I hope you come to enjoy these fascinating creatures and learn to
appreciate their uniqueness; and if you've been caring for reptiles for
some time already perhaps there will still be some information here
that may help you.
If you find this site
useful, please consider making a donation to Havenstead Ranch using the
"Donate" button found on our web pages. Donations help with the
costs of maintaining the website. Thank you very much!
This site is a member of WebRing.
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CARING FOR
REPTILES IN GENERAL
HOUSING
The first and, in my opinion, most important thing you must know about
reptiles is that they are poikilothermic
("cold-blooded"), relying on environmental conditions such as sunlight
in order to control their body temperatures. They cannot
regulate
their own body temperature internally but must depend upon the
temperature of their environment. Reptiles are able to
control
their body temperature to a certain extent by a process known as
"thermoregulation." They do this by moving in or out of the
sun
or other warm places, by flattening their bodies, and by using various
appendages to gain maximum warmth from the sun's rays.
In general reptiles have a great
dependence on thermoregulation,
and this is a major factor
when designing captive housing. You must create a living area
within which the animal can move from warmer to cooler areas and back
again as needed to control their body temperature. If you
have a
heat lamp shining into a small enclosure/cage/terrarium it's possible
the ambient temperature of the entire enclosure may climb to the point
that the reptile is unable to cool itself. If the heat source
is
not controlled by a thermostat, when it is on the heat may climb
steadily over a period of hours until the entire enclosure is warm,
with no cooler areas for the animal to move into. It is
critical,
therefore, that you use two thermometers in your animal's enclosure to
monitor temperatures...one on the cool side and one on the warm side or
in the basking area.
In
addition to providing a thermal gradient (warmer to cooler areas), you
may also need to provide humidity that is higher or lower than the
relative humidity of the room the reptile's enclosure is located in,
depending on the species of reptile you're caring for. Some
animals require a living area that provides height for climbing, while
some require only floor space...these are just a few of the things you
should know about your reptiles before
you bring them home. If you are keeping snakes, think ahead to how large the snake will become as an adult. The 18 to 20 inch hatchling that can be initially kept in a 10-gallon aquarium may end up being over 10 feet long a few years later. A good rule of thumb in estimating how much room a snake will require for an enclosure is this: LENGTH OF CAGE + TWICE THE WIDTH SHOULD BE AS BIG OR BIGGER THAN THE LENGTH OF THE SNAKE.
Website Last Updated:
01/10/09
More pages, including species specific care sheets for snakes and
lizards to be added soon.
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"Tomorrow,
and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
to the last syllable of recorded time; and all our yesterdays have
lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow; poor player, that struts and
frets
his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a
tale
told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
Shakespeare's Macbeth
Website Last
Updated: 01/10/09
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2008-2009 by Havenstead RanchTM. All Rights Reserved. Havenstead RanchTM
is Trademarked.
