Peqaboo series
Once a reptile is grown, care becomes a steady rhythm of feeding, hydration, shedding and quiet observation. This guide covers what daily and weekly routines should look like for an adult reptile, and the subtle signs that tell you it is thriving, or that something has started to go wrong.
Learn how to safely guide your reptile through brumation. Discover which species need it, how to perform pre-winter health checks, and the exact steps for temperature staging and fasting.
Shedding is a normal, healthy part of reptile life, but stuck or patchy shed usually points to a husbandry problem. This guide explains the shed cycle, what a good shed looks like, how humidity drives it, and the retained-shed warning signs that need a vet.
Many geckos have a clear scale over each eye that sheds with the rest of the skin. When humidity is low, that eye cap can stay stuck, causing a cloudy or crusty eye. Learn how to spot it, prevent it, and when a reptile vet should step in.
Hibernating a tortoise carries real risks, but the controlled fridge method is far safer than a garage or box outdoors. This step-by-step guide covers the health check, fasting, cooling, temperature control and safe waking and the red flags that mean you should stop.
A suddenly sluggish bearded dragon sends owners into a panic is it natural brumation or illness? This FAQ explains the signs of healthy brumation, the red flags that mean sickness, and how weight, hydration and a vet check tell the two apart.
What owners call reptile hibernation is really brumation, a period of cold-driven dormancy many temperate species need. Learn what brumation is, which species should and should not do it, the fasting and cooling routine, weekly monitoring, and the warning signs that mean waking the animal now.
A shell is living bone fused to the ribs and spine, not armour, so a dog that mouths a turtle can fracture it or drive bacteria into the body cavity without leaving an obvious mark. This guide covers the layouts that cause incidents, dog and cat risks separately, the danger a turtle poses to smaller pets, pond predator
Calcium dusting does not prevent metabolic bone disease, because calcium is only absorbed in the presence of vitamin D3, which most lizards make in their skin under ultraviolet B. This guide covers how the system works, which species need what, the strengths and traps of each lamp type, the three things that destroy ou
Warming cold outdoor air lowers relative humidity throughout a house, and heated enclosures dry further still. That is why retained shed and dehydration cluster in winter, and why the fix is measured humidity at the substrate rather than sealed ventilation.
Brumation is the seasonal slow-down of temperate snakes, and in captivity it is optional for most pets and essential mainly for breeding. This guide separates normal brumation behaviour from illness, explains why tropical species such as ball pythons must never be cooled, and sets out the checks that come first: a vete
Two questions come before the calendar: is this a species that hibernates, and is this individual healthy enough this year. This covers which tortoises must never be cooled, why the gut has to be empty first, hydration and kidney damage, fridge versus box, the thresholds that mean stop immediately, and the week rule af
Lizards do not get separation anxiety; what harms an unattended lizard is equipment. This guide covers thermostat pairing and the second thermostat used as a cut-out, the four failure modes that kill, how long a lizard can safely be left, monitoring that works remotely, the power cut plan, and the written sheet that ma
Cold weather does not dry a snake's skin, it dries the air in the enclosure, and the heating season causes a slow humidity drift that shows up as a broken shed and retained eye caps. This covers hygrometers, humid hides, substrate, ventilation, and why too wet is as dangerous as too dry.
