Melbourne

In Melbourne is not uncommon of unusual for animal loving kids to have reptile parties as the main entertainment for their birthday event. However an unexpected consequence is when the birthday child or another asks if they can get themselves their very own snake and a lizard as a pet.
With a proliferation of imitators copying the original reptile party shows also claiming to do reptile party shows in Melbourne it is not surprising that kids across Victoria are now familiar with the idea of tame captive snakes and lizards. These are the ones that don't run around trying to kill people. As a result there has been a boom in interest in reptiles and frogs as pets.
For many years it was highly illegal to keep reptiles as pets in Australia. This changed in 1993 when zoologist Ray Hoser published the definitive book, Smuggled: The Underground Trade in Australia’s wildlife. The book led to a rewrite of Australian laws in all states to allow people the right to keep reptiles as pets for the first time in many decades.
Backed up with the publication of the book, Australian Reptiles and Frogs, also published by Hoser, way back in 1989, but still the definitive work on the subject, people had both legal access to reptiles as pets and the so-called keeper’s bible with which to use as a reference in terms of being able to look after their animal pets properly.
A pet reptile is often the first step a child makes in their pathway to a proper love and understanding of all kinds of native wildlife and is something a parent should allow if their child really has their mind set on it.
Of course the rules for keeping dogs, cats and other domestic animals is the same as the rules for reptiles. It is a lifetime commitment, at least for the animal being kept. While wild snakes and lizards rarely live beyond seven years, captive ones commonly live for double this time frame, so a 10-15 year commitment is worth noting at the time you get a pet reptile.
Assuming you get a healthy adult, that does not appear to be particularly old, it is reasonable to estimate half that life expectancy. However if you acquire an adult reptile as a pet it may well die within a year or two if it is already aged. The most common diseases encountered are the infectious ones caused by parasites and the like, although the most common cause of death for captive reptiles are stress-related illnesses caused by housing more than one reptile in the same cage.
In the wild reptiles are usually found on their own and there is a good reason for this.
They simply don’t like one another. When housed together, you will invariably get one reptile that will bash up and dominate the rest. He or she will tend to do well in captivity, while the rest will invariably decline over time and if not attended to, will obviously die. In summary, keep one reptile per cage if at all possible.
Don’t worry about getting your first pet reptile a companion. They don’t need one!
While getting food for your pet reptile in the form of insects, rodents or whatever may appear to be hard, it no longer needs to be. Pet shops will sell you as many rats, mice, crickets and any other feed required. The downside is that this will cost you a decent whack of money.
Some people prefer to breed their own food and set up a whole shed for the purpose of breeding rodents. This is both very time consuming and expensive and so the general recommendation for people with just one or two pet reptiles is to pay the extra and get the food from your local pet shop.
Caging for reptiles is not cheap either.
A professionally built cage for a single snake may cost in the order of several hundred to a thousand dollars. This is one with heating, lighting, a heat gradient, ventilation and everything else needed to keep your snake happy and healthy in a proper environment. If you or someone with you is a handyman or good with making things, you can DIY your cage and save a small fortune.
Another way to get a cheap cage is to look at the second hand market.
There is always an abundance of reptile cages for sale. This is because people will have a pet snake oir lizard that dies of old age and the owner chooses not to replace it. They are then stuck with an unwanted cage. Shops won’t buy them back and so it is either dumped on the second hand market or often given away.
Even hard rubbish collections commonly see reptile cages left on the side of the road, just waiting to be taken away.
Another driver of the surplus of reptile cages being available is the nature of the reptile keeping business. People with large collections will often swap from keeping their snakes in large cages to more compact rack style systems. These are racks of plastic tubs which house individual snakes in simple and easy to clean containers. They are not designed to look nice or for the keeper to observe the snakes, but rather so that they are easy to clean and good enough to keep the snakes happy and healthy.
Snakes in particular are not like people and do not need a lot of intellectual stimulation to stay healthy. Most are quite happy to live in a box, provided they have an ample supply of food on a regular basis and water.
As it happens captive snakes commonly get too much of the food and death caused by morbid obesity is not uncommon.
Lizards are also excellent pets and are also more interactive with their owners. They will run across the cage for food in your hand and also in many species, happily live in small groups in a single cage, which in reality is something you should never do with virtually all snakes.
A downside of lizards as pets is that maintaining a supply of insects is not quite as easy as rodents, although like rodents, insects may be frozen and stored in the freezer for later use.
An upside of lizards is that insects are way cheaper to buy and also far cheaper to keep and breed.
Another downside of lizards is that they often require UV light and the UV bulbs are expensive and have a short useful life. They need to be replaced frequently or else they don't work properly.
Failure to give the lizards UV will result in bone and other metabolic diseases.
In other words, the next reptile party you go to in Melbourne may go way further than you realise. You may wish to visit http://www.snakebusters.com.au/kp4.htm for further details about kids parties and pets.