Hey guys, I work at PetSmart as a pet care lead, and I'm trying to increase my knowledge on the animals I don't know a lot about. I'm the "fish person" at work mainly. There are several reptile youtubers I've been watching for a couple years, but a lot of their stuff is more advanced than what I want to be explaining to customers.
I do know basics about the most popular reptiles (beardies and leopard geckos) such as diet, general husbandry, lifespan and size, etc., but not really anything specific. Like I don't know off-hand what temperature their basking areas should be or humidity levels and such. I also don't know which reptiles benefit from overhead heating vs a heat mat (though my bf says leopard geckos do better with heat mat because they are nocturnal, and that also seems to be better for most snakes?)
I try looking this stuff up online, but there is *a lot* of contradictory advice, especially when it comes to substrates. So, I'm going to list off the reptiles we sell plus the basic info I'd like to know about them. Please keep in mind the info I need is care info that can be done by most people. I know massive bioactive, biotope enclosures are amazing, but the vast majority of people don't have the money for that, or the interest. Especially the average PetSmart customer :P. I honestly mainly deal with impulse buyers when it comes to reptiles and yes, we try to deter them and make them really consider first, but unfortunately we are not allowed to deny a sale just because it was impulse or we don't trust their skills in caring for the animal.
So anyways, we carry anoles, long-tailed lizard, crested gecko, leopard gecko, chameleon (really wish we didn't x.x), bearded dragon, corn snake, milk snake, ball python. Again, I know some info about them, but it's easier to just ask for it all anyways rather than separate out what I already know. So the info I'd like to know is:
- Adult size/lifespan
- Minimum and recommended enclosure size
- Diurnal/crepuscular/nocturnal
- Temperature (including gradient or basking vs elsewhere)
- Humidity (if should have humidity box or entire enclosure)
- Best substrate options (yes I try to deter everyone from calcium sand lol)
- Basic diet including how much/how often, if food should be calcium/multivitamin dusted and/or gutloaded
Plus any other beginner friendly info I may have forgotten to ask about. Thank you guys!
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