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wintermagic
09-04-2009, 03:13 PM
Here I am again with just wanting to see other peoples opinions. Again, there's no right or wrong answers.

Here's the issue,

When people go to get a pet they are usually encouraged to get a "starter" or "beginner" pet. I have mixed feelings on it because each breed/species has its own requirements.

These 'beginner' pets are great, easy to care for, less expensive and all that. But..... what happens to these pets when the owner is no longer a beginner and moves on to bigger and better? A lot of these animals can live for years. Its easy to start getting too many pets. How many animals can a person keep, care for, spend time with and all that? Are "beginner" pets becoming "disposable" pets?

Wouldn't it be better to start off with the pet they really want and become educated in that one?

Then again if you're looking at an agressive animal. Maybe you should get experience first? But how? Unless you know someone that has one and you can interact with it.... then again each animal has its own personality. :)

DaveDragon
09-04-2009, 03:59 PM
Our first reptile was a Bearded Dragon. We had him for 2.5 years and ended up selling him to another family because we were given a high end Beardie and didn't have room. I don't consider Bearded Dragons a beginner pet, they require proper heat & UVB and eat LOTS of crickets in the first year! My first snake was a Ball Python. We looked around the reptile show and found one that wasn't scared, he was very curious. We still have him and he isn't going anywhere.

We have bought a few reptiles and later sold them for many reasons, usually we decide we have too many and something has to go. Then you prioritize and decide which one you have the least interest in.

I think the biggest mistake is people buy a pet as a baby and don't realize how big they get as adults or don't have a clue as to how to properly care for them. That cute Green Iguana is 3 feet long in a year and he's still living in a 20g tank with no UVB and a heat rock.

aandfsoccr04
09-04-2009, 07:44 PM
my first pet was a leopard gecko that I got 8 years ago. He is stil with me. My first snake was an argentine red tail boa. I had to sell him to go to college and then I bought another one. I also had rainbow boas about the time I had my argentine red tail boa. I think african fat tail geckos are good starter pets too. they are easy to care for and cheap. I guess ball pythons would be the ideal starter snake or a corn snake.

wintermagic
09-04-2009, 11:09 PM
Its great to see people keeping their first pets. I find it hard to rehome pets because I get attached to them, then end up with a houseful when I start finding others I like. Not because of the "beginner" or "starter" pets.

I remember years ago when I was in a petstore. A person wanted a large cockatoo and had looked into care requirements and such but had never owned a bird before. She was strongly encouraged to get a "begginer" bird. I thought it kind of odd at the time. I can see it on one level because you need to know how to deal with them. But on another level she knew what she was looking for had looked into it all she lacked was experience. Of course I saw another person wanting to buy a large bird because it "matched" her color scheme for a particular room.

Ben3233
09-05-2009, 02:34 AM
Of course, it's a great thing to start with beginner reptile like Bearded dragon. But Beardie are beginner reptile due of their good temperament. As for housing, they are not beginner reptile. A 4feetx2feet enclosure with Uva/Uvb, a lot of food is not easy for a beginner to deal with.

Gecko and Anoles, on another way, are beginner pets due of their easy housing requirement. They are inexpensive too feed, and easy too house. Some of them have good temperament, and others are very agressive. But no matter what, those little guy are "fragile" and it can be hard to "handle"them.

Some people are asking me which Tortoise is a beginner tortoise. I always answer that Tortoise have the best temperament of every reptile. Calm, gentle and smart, these reptile are by far, the kindest reptile on earth. But unfortunatly, they outlived us. Have you ever heard somebody saying : Hey my 50 years old russian Tortoise is dead, I have him still he was a hatchling. Am I ready for a Sulcata tortoise now?

I do think that people who wants a reptile as a looking pet, can start with every species. All they have to do is to read a lot of info on them. Read book and read on the internet all the information that are possible to take. But if you want to "calm the beast" you better start with the calmer species or easier to handle. (like beardie/Uromastyx/some skink).

I do work in a reptile farm, this place give me a lot of experience with many different species of reptile. I have work with many agressive and calm reptile.

(Corn,ball python, constrictor boa, olive python, retic,burmese, ratsnake, blood python, amethyst python, geckos, Iguana,tegus, nile/blackthroat/savannah/blue-tail/croc/water/horn/peachthroat monitor, beardie, skink, many tortoise/turtle and finally Spectacle Caiman, alligator,Dwarf croc).

I have learn that most of "small species" of reptile are most of the time, the most agressive one. Example : The Spectacled Caiman is 10x much agressive than the american alligator.The Water monitor are much calmer than horn/blue-tail monitor.

Many people are making the same mistake. They do think that a "smaller species" is easier to start with. I have to say, that sometime I am more nervous to clean the geckos cage than the friendly 4 feet long Water monitor. Size means nothing.

All I have to say is this: If you do think that you are ready for a giant or "harder species" make your research and be prepare to feed/house/care the monster.

Good luck with your reptile, have fun and RESEARCH A LOT.

Anthony
09-05-2009, 05:06 AM
I agree with the original poster that you should get the pet that you WANT. If you get a pet that you do NOT WANT, just because it is a "beginner" pet, for educational purposes, and end up neglecting it, that is very bad for the animal. The only possible exception that I can think of is where there is danger involved, but even then, how can keeping some beardies or a leo "give you experience" to keep an adult nile monitor? Some species maybe just reserved for people who just have kept a lot of different reptiles that they WANTED To keep, but still want to add, or someone who has gained experience working in zoos or the like etc., or maybe shouldn't be kept at all.

I think you should Step 1) Decide what pet you WANT to keep, and Step 2) Decide if you CAN keep it, and keep it well. If not, then just don't get any pet.

laurarfl
09-11-2009, 12:48 PM
I saw this post awhile back but didn't have the time to sit and write a response. Beware: it'll probably be long. :)

I'm not really a black and white person. This is a gray issue with a LOT of extenuating circumstances.

I've kept a variety of animals from furry to scaly, small to large. Each has their own set of requirements and requires a type of temperament from the owner. Some people can start out with what they want because they are willing to learn, some people are better suited with a beginner pet.

When I was a teenager, I had horses. A girl at my boarding stable had a very high strung Tennessee Walker because that's what she wanted. He was a huge horse that was fed grain and hay every day and kept in a stall 24/7. She hardly ever rode him and turned him out in a paddock for maybe 20 min while she cleaned his stall. That horse was a live wire and some neurotic habits from the way she kept him. Every once in a while I would ride him and once he took off on me as a run away...one of the scariest experiences of my life. Sometimes having what you want and not being prepared to keep it properly is not fair to the animal and is just plain dangerous. Some people keep large snakes and lizards with about the same regard.

The first reptile I had was a Savannah Monitor about 20 years ago. There were no Internet resources and the pet store told me he would only get about 2-3 ft long. I kept him in an aquarium with a hot rock in my dorm at U of FL. That poor animal also ended up being a neurotic mess until a friend took him for me. I had no idea what I was doing and only bought him because he was cool and I wanted it.

When I got back into reptiles about 10 years ago, my daughter wanted a pet lizard. We really wanted a green iguana. After doing some research, we decided we weren't ready for an ig. If we went that route, my kids would probably hate reptiles and we would be stuck with a big angry green lizard, lol! I didn't feel confident enough to tackle the green iguana until last year!

We got a little beardie instead. How does a beardie prepare you for owning something else? Well, first of all, beardies are very forgiving of mistakes in their husbandry. While you are learning about UV lighting and temperature gradients, the hardy little beardie or leo doesn't die off. You become more confident in the handling of the animal and aren't so paranoid each year when it brumates. I still have that original beardie's offspring. My original passed away, but I have her daughter and her daughter's daughter. :)

My best friend's son wanted a chameleon. I've never kept chams because I think they are too high maintenance. The cham got MBD and other issues. Guess who has the chameleon now? He enjoys hanging out on my screen porch and I take him outside every day for natural sunlight and a shower.

When we got into snakes, we started with easy keeping corn snakes. We got used to the care and handling and reading of the body language. Then we got a pair of ball pythons. Later we got a boa and finally took in a Burmese python that someone needed to rehome.

Sure, someone can get a Burmese python as their first snake if that's what they want. But they should be doing the research before they get it, and hopefully hanging out with someone who already has an adult. If they have someone who can 'mentor' them, they can learn how to handle a large snake properly, how to hook train it, how to look for signs of aggression. Sure someone can get a tegu as their first lizard, but they seem to be less forgiving of dietary mistakes and develop MBD quickly. Get that iguana, but be prepared for an aggressive lizard that requires a huge cage and a lot of UV. Potential owners who are interested in animal husbandry and learn about the animal before they purchase it, then are willing to spend the time working with it over time are usually pretty successful. We've all been newbies with our particular animals and we are all still learning.

It's when people get what they want, when they want, because they want it with no regards to the pet that the exotics industry takes on a bad name. I have quite a few rescues from picking up those pieces. I look at it as karma owed to that little sav I started out with years ago.

wintermagic
09-11-2009, 02:28 PM
Sorry it took so long to get back to this. Thank you all for your opinions. I love discussing "gray" areas. It keeps life interesting.

Ben, you raised some great points with the reptiles. A lot of times the smaller ones do seem more flighty and/or aggressive but they get sold as "starters" because of their size. Some of the small ones also require a more specialized habitat than the large ones.

I think we all agree that if a person researches the animal they want they are more able to decide for themselves if they can realistically handle them and meet their needs.

spanky
11-09-2009, 11:48 AM
i started out with hamsters haha. my first reptile was a green iguana. i was 13, and my parents were dicks and wouldnt buy me the stuff i needed or pay the vet bill. the poor thing only lived 8 months:( but thats what happens when you buy things on impulse when your not ready for em

ianrambell
12-21-2009, 03:30 AM
Im only 14 but i started off with blood pythons and carpet pythons in 2nd garde with the help of my dad. I guess not the best starts but they were for me. I tend to start off with the harder stuff first. I agree a bearded dragon may be a very docile animal but they will eat you out of food quick. So when it comes to a bearded dragon i dont think they are starters.