What is the magic of two crawling pets that fascinates countless people?

Usually when introducing cute things, people always ask if they can keep them. Today, Calendar Niang will introduce five kinds of two-climbing pets that can be kept. Snake fear warning! Frog at the end! ]

Love and fear of friends can be pulled directly to the end of the article, there is a surprise!

There are some amphibians and reptiles with strange appearance and different habits, which are often called "different pets". But I don't like the word "out of favor" very much. On the one hand, as a gimmick, it attracts a group of people who do not know anything about the animals themselves and only buy and raise them out of curiosity. They buy animals that are not suitable for breeding out of novel impulses, either ending in the death of animals or buying conservation species that are "checked for water meters". Some time ago, there was even a tragedy in which players were killed when they bought highly poisonous silver ring snakes as pets.

The venomous silver ring snake. Be extra careful if you want to treat snakes as pets. Picture: Kevin / Flickr

On the other hand, it mistakenly regards traditional pets as "orthodox" and "correct". In fact, there are a large number of traditional pets that are not suitable for keeping or even illegal species, such as thrushes, larks and most parrots. Pets should not be divided into "out-of-favor" and "non-pet", but should be divided into "suitable for keeping" and "not allowed to keep". The most important thing is that even animals that are suitable for breeding should be kept in the right mindset and methods.

Here are a few types of crawlers that are very suitable for personal breeding, and they have a few characteristics that a "good pet" should have:

Commercial reproduction and maturity

Pet trade is not harmful to ecology.

Be safe for people

Be able to grow and reproduce healthily under individual feeding conditions.

Do not violate the local law

one

The leopard print guards the palace

Leopard print Guard Palace (Eublepharis macularius) can be regarded as the most widely raised two-climbing pet. For the introduction of the Leopard print Guard Palace, see here.

Leopard-print guardians at the New York State Crawl Show. Note that this is a temporary container for display and requires at least 3 times as much space for feeding. Picture: worms singing in the mountains

The leopard print guard the palace to the space demand is not big: has the cushion material, the shelter, the water basin food basin can meet their most basic need. Heating pads are needed when the room temperature is low.

Leopard print Shougong likes to eat insects, so prepare enough live feed. They like to eat yellow powder insects, crickets and forage cockroaches, and if you don't want to keep bugs at home, leopard prints and other insectivorous pets are probably not for you. Although there is so-called artificial feed, many individuals do not accept artificial food.

In addition, vitamins and calcium powder are also necessary for most crawlers. Leopard print Shougong will lick calcium powder and vitamins to supplement nutrition, so put a small basin containing calcium powder and vitamins in the feeding box.

The body color of the young leopard print guard the palace is different from that of the adult, which adds another pleasure to raising the leopard print guard palace. Picture: worms singing in the mountains

Fine sand can be used as a substrate to arrange feeding boxes, but some leopard-print gatekeepers may accidentally eat sand and cause digestive tract blockage and death. By contrast, kitchen paper is more affordable and easier to use, and it is easy to clean and replace it. The effect of using the rough reverse side of the ceramic tile as the substrate is also good, and it can also help Shougong sharpen your nails.

The growth of the leopard print guard the palace needs to molt, and smooth molting is very important to the health of keeping the palace. Unsmooth molting will not only cause skin problems, but also cause local muscle necrosis because the old skin hinders blood circulation. Molting requires a certain amount of air humidity, and if the indoor air is dry, you can prepare a small molting box: dig a hole in the lid to serve as an entrance, filled with wet coconut soil or wet towels, which is the simplest and most effective "small cave". If you encounter molting problems, you can also give it a warm bath, and then use your hands to slowly help remove the soft old skin. This one is also suitable for other lizards and snakes.

The leopard print in molting keeps the palace; the leopard print in normal molting will eat while pulling old clothes, leaving no trace after molting, which can be said to be very environmentally friendly and worry-free. Picture: worms singing in the mountains

In addition to the leopard print guarding the palace, the staple food, such as the eyelash horn guarding the palace, the fatter tail guarding the palace, and the expensive tumor tail guarding the palace are also good pets with their own characteristics.

The eyelash corner guards the palace, the fruit shell encourages the teacher Xiaolongnu. Picture: Xiaomi

two

Maned lion lizard

Although the leopard print gatekeeper can be regarded as the most entry-level lizard, they are dormant during the day, inactive during the day, and small enough to interact with each other. The much larger maned lion lizard (Pogona vitticeps) is more willing to let people do it on their knees-they are more confident and less afraid of people when they are more than half a meter.

The adult maned lion lizard always has an enigmatic and confident expression. Photo: Frank C. M ü ller, Baden-Baden / wikipedia

It takes more energy to raise a lion lizard with mane. As they get older, they need to eat more plant-based foods, so they have to prepare vegetables in addition to bugs, as well as vitamins and calcium powder. The maned lion lizard is a diurnal animal and needs to prepare ultraviolet light for reptiles as sunbathing equipment. The adult maned lion lizard also needs more space, and only enough height to satisfy these big guys who like to climb up and down and sunbathe. In order to meet the sunbathing needs of the maned lion lizard, it is necessary to prepare a sunspot for them. Large chunks of wood or stone are good choices, and the rough surface of these objects can also allow the maned lion to sharpen its nails.

A lion cub basking in the sun (lamp). Picture: worms singing in the mountains

After years of artificial breeding, the bristle lion lizard has a much brighter body color and a very good temper than its wild relatives. If their needs are fully met, you can have a strange partner who is powerful on the surface and Buddhist in your heart.

Although the body color variation is not as varied as that of the leopard print, the maned lion lizard also has many good-looking strains. Picture: worms singing in the mountains

three

Blue tongue dragon son

Can you imagine a lizard eating the same food as you? Bluetongzi is such an interesting lizard that their foodie properties are probably unbeatable in lizards. They like natural gifts such as insects and snails, but they don't mind eating vegetables, fruits, eggs, chicken, animal offal and so on. Many professionals even directly use cat food or dog food as their staple food, they still eat very delicious.

The blue tongue of the blue tongue dragon son. Picture: Doug Beckers / wikipedia

Because of miscellaneous eating habits, if the food is nutritionally balanced, UV light is not a necessity for blue tongue Skink. But they also like sunbathing, and a tanning lamp will make them more comfortable. Their preference for bedding is also quite special among lizards: coconut soil is good for crawling, but sawdust for small mammals is also suitable-in addition to coniferous sawdust, pine and cypress resin can harm them. In addition, as good diggers, they also like thick cushions.

The blue tongue dragon is similar in size to the maned lion lizard and needs a larger feeding space, but the blue tongue with short legs is not good at climbing and does not require a high height of space.

Different species of blue tongue have different environmental requirements. I introduce the breeding method of Australian blue tongue (the most common is the northern blue tongue Tiliqua scincoides intermedia). Non-Australian species have higher humidity requirements and can not use sawdust. The protection of wildlife in other producing areas is far less than that in Australia. Most of the non-Australian bluetongue species on the market (such as T. gigas in Indonesia) are the offspring of wild individuals or wild pregnant females, with very few artificial reproduction and far less eco-friendly than Australian Blue tongue.

A typical northern blue tongue dragon. The eastern blue tongue, which is similar to it, belongs to the same species and different subspecies, and there is an obvious black belt behind the eyes, which is rarer than the northern blue tongue in the market. Picture: worms singing in the mountains

After years of reproduction, Australia's blue tongue has a variety of body color variation, the character is also extremely docile. It is difficult to see their famous threat of sticking out their tongues from a blue tongue accustomed to humans.

Although the blue tongue is easy to raise, it is much more difficult to reproduce than the leopard-print palace guard and the maned lizard. The difficulty of sex identification in hell, the strong seasonality of reproduction and the year-long pregnancy make the number of artificially bred blue tongue Skink on the market far less than the first two, and the price is much more expensive.

four

Corn snake

Corn snakes (Pantherophis guttatus) are non-venomous snakes native to the United States. They are gentle and harmless to humans and can help farmers catch mice in the wild. After domestication, corn snakes also have a large number of different strains.

Different strains of corn snake, picture: pxhere.com

Compared with lizards, it is much easier to keep snakes. Although demonized as an "evil incarnation", snakes are out-and-out lazy cancers and energy conservationists: it is their daily routine to be trapped in a fat house every day. Snakes hunt much less frequently than other animals. Feeding them once a week or two, shoveling shit in the middle, adding water to the basin, and adjusting the temperature are almost all the fun of snake shoveling. Of course, the snake is not interested in the energy-wasting thing of interacting with its owner, and the good temper like Corn Snake doesn't mind being taken out by idle shoveling officials. But it should be noted that snakes just after eating and before molting are fragile and sensitive, so don't disturb them at this time.

Corn snakes are not for everyone, mainly because they don't like to move. In English, there is a word called pet rock "pet stone", which originally refers to a kind of stone for people to collect and play with. It is also used to describe pets like corn snakes, which are as motionless as stones all day. Another reason is that they want to eat mice, and not everyone will find it "really delicious" to freeze a few bags of mice in the refrigerator. But for owners who like snakes, corn snakes are undoubtedly a good choice-beautiful, diverse, docile and not picky, and thawed mice can grow healthily.

The milk snake looks brightly colored like a poisonous snake, but in fact it is not poisonous; this is a mimicry to the highly poisonous mountain butterfly snake. Picture: Mike Pingleton / wikipedia

In addition to corn snakes, some species of king snakes and milk snakes are also widely raised. They are as gentle, beautiful and innocuous as corn snakes. It is worth mentioning that the bright body color of the milk snake is imitating a highly poisonous mountain butterfly snake. Don't feel that a snake looks like a milk snake to touch it in the wild.

five

Zongjiao frog

Pacman frog Ceratophrys ornata, known as Pac-Man, is a big foodie. They are surprisingly similar in size to Pac-Man, with a big mouth accounting for 1/3 of the body and four short legs submerged under the fat body, as if proclaiming to the world that "frogs live to eat." Usually it doesn't move very much, and it can be regarded as pet rock like corn snake.

The big mouth of the bell horn frog. Picture: Max / wikimedia

As an inactive ambush predator, Zhongjiao frog is not suitable for owners who like lively pets. But if you accept the setting of this lazy son, Zhongjiao frog will still give you a good experience. The bell horn frog will swallow all the small animals it can swallow-insects, earthworms, fish, mice, and even other bell horn frogs. Therefore, the Zhongjiao frog must not be mixed. Gluttonous of them, it is easy to arouse the desire of shoveling shit officials to feed, but we must be careful not to feed too much, otherwise it will easily lead to digestive problems.

The bell horn frog needs to keep its skin moist at all times, but it cannot be raised directly in water. The best way to raise it is to mix wet coconut soil with a basin, which can not only allow the horned frog to take a bath from time to time, but also let it bury itself in the soil as if it were in the wild, waiting for its prey to pass by. Some owners who don't like soil will use the combination of shallow water and biochemical cotton. No matter what kind of culture, you should change the water and cushion materials frequently. These big eaters eat a lot of Dora, but they are very particular about the water quality, and if they don't pay attention to it, there will be big problems.

An albino bell horn frog. Picture: Grosscha / wikipedia

The Zhongjiao frog has a variety of body colors, but its character is very stupid. They are driven by a strong appetite all the time, and even if they see a person's fingers, they will jump on them decisively as flesh worms. It's not good to be bitten by it, but unless you enjoy it, it's better to be open-minded.

Another tip: although the Zhongjiao frog is super invincible and cute when it is young, it will change into a super fat house when it grows up, so it is best to look for adult photos on the Internet before raising the Zhongjiao frog, especially the strain you want to breed. See if you can still love it when you grow up.

Fat house. Jpg. Picture: Adrian Pingstone / wikipedia

After reading the full text, you may think that keeping animals is really troublesome, but only when you accept all the troubles of animals, fully understand all kinds of information, know how much you have to pay for your pets, and understand the negative effects that may accompany your pets, can you be qualified to enjoy the fun they bring, and the door to keeping pets will really open to you.

This article is a special contribution to species Calendar, from the author of species Calendar @ Shenshan Bug Yin.