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How to Best Add Decorations for Your Reptile Cage

By | News

It would be depressing to live in a home with four walls and little else. There are probably many items in your home that make it feel like your favorite place in the world. Some items keep your place comfortable, others make your home beautiful, while others serve an important purpose of keeping you fed or clean. When you stop to think about it, your pet deserves the same thing! That’s why if you have not yet learned about decorations for your reptile cage, you should take the time to do so today.

What Should Decorate the Cage?

The right decorations are more than just superficial. Setting up your pet’s terrarium properly is one of the most important things you can do to care for it in both the short- and long-term. An inappropriately set up habitat can lead to serious side effects, including sickness, unwillingness to mate, and even death. Take the time to decorate your snake, turtle, tortoise, or lizard’s terrarium right. 

With the right decorations for your reptile cage, they can enjoy a happy life and you can enjoy your pet for years to come. These include:

  • Vine
  • Rocks
  • Ledgses
  • Branches
  • Driftwood
  • Platforms with Water
  • Lounger/ Miniature Hammock
  • Plants (Real or Artificial)
  • Basking Ramp
  • Hideout Cave

Decorating your reptile tank can be a fun experience. With so many different types of decorations out there, you can be really creative in your design. Let your imagination run wild!

Of course, the exact items you will need for your pet depends on the exact species of reptile. For example, a Corn Snake cannot have anything with small holes, as the snake can easily get themselves stuck inside of them. Chameleons do well with a heavily decorated enclosure with ample climbing space, which can be provided by plants and appropriately-sized vines. Don’t worry, Jabberwock Reptiles’s staff is full of experts who can help you with this exact thing. Feel free to call and ask. We can be reached at (781) 729-0135.

Buy Decorations for Your Reptile Cage at Jabberwock Reptiles

Decorations for your reptile cage are more than just something that make your pet’s enclosure look pretty. Decorations like plastic and silk plants, cork bark, and grape vine actually help your pet feel secure, safe, and healthy in their environment. These enrichments make your little guy or gal happy too!

Is your favorite pet’s home looking a little bland? We have everything you need to make your pet feel at home. It is time you create an attractive and natural environment for it. We encourage you to visit our store to browse our selection of quality products that are functional as well as decorative. 

What Supplies to Buy Before Owning a Reptile

By | News

Any time you are bringing a new pet home, you want your new animal friend to be happy and healthy. This means buying essential supplies before they arrive. For a snake, tortoise, lizard, chameleon, or turtle, it is essential you look into the best reptile supplies ahead of time.

Buying a pet should never be a spur of the moment decision. You need to think it through, and ensure you have your house ready. 

What Reptile Supplies to Buy

A few important reptile supplies you’ll want to buy before you bring your new pet home include:

Food

This is first on the list, because it is the most important. While it is true that reptiles don’t typically need three meals a day like you do, you don’t want to bring him home without any food on hand. The right type of food for your new pet will depend on the species. Therefore, we encourage you to do a bit of research ahead of time to ensure you have the right diet available from day one.

Caging

Finding the correct habitat for your reptile is incredibly important to your pet’s well being. Reptile cages come in many different sizes and materials. The right one for your situation will depend on your pet’s species, as well as the square footage available in your home. Selecting the correct one can sometimes be confusing, but the experts at Jabberwock Reptiles are always here to help you find a cage that is perfect.

Some of the brands we carry include Exo Terra terrariums and faunariums, Zoo Med glass terrariums, ReptiBreeze screen cages for chameleons, and Zilla Critter Cages.

Lighting and Heating

Reptiles are cold-blooded, and so the right heating in their cage is just as important as food. Just like shopping for a cage, finding the correct lighting and heating options can be challenging. The trained staff at Jabberwock Reptiles can assist you in finding the best products for your particular pet. Light fixtures, heat bulbs, UVB bulbs, ceramic heaters, and under tank heaters are only a few of the choices you have.  

Bedding and Substrates

From terrarium liners to aspen snake bedding, we carry many different types of substrate for your new reptile. This includes terrariums liner, reptile carpet, Zoo Med Eco Earth coconut fiber, reptile sand, cypress mulch, aspen shavings, Exo Terra sand mats, and more.

Decorations

Decorations are more than something that make your pet’s enclosure pretty. Artificial plants, cork bark, and grape vines all help your pet feel secure. A secure reptile is a happy, friendly pet. If you’re looking to enrich their environment, we carry a complete line of MagNaturals, including magnetic cage decorations, ledges, and hides.

Buy Reptile Supplies from Jabberwock Reptiles

Jabberwock Reptiles is well-known in our area for being a premier pet reptile destination. Whether you’re looking to buy a Chinese Cave Gecko or a Ball Python, we have the pet you’re looking for! Beyond our collection of pets, we also have all of the reptile supplies you need to make their transition to your home a successful one.

Reptile's Favorite Food

What is a Reptile’s Favorite Food?

By | News

Jabberwock Reptiles is dedicated to providing top-quality, healthy, captive bred reptiles pets. We strive to offer an informed and responsive service to our customers. These animals are fascinating and intriguing, and we love to share our passion! This is why we want to ensure you are feeding your pet the right meals. What is your reptile’s favorite food?

The short answer is probably insects and veggies. With few exceptions, reptiles feed on some form of animal life. Most reptile pets eat insects, mollusks, frogs, mice, rats, fish, other reptiles, or even birds. Land tortoises are vegetarians, eating leaves, grass, and other yummy leafy greens.

What about the long answer? Your reptile’s favorite food really depends on exactly which type of reptile it is, down to the specific breed. It should come to no surprise that a tortoise, a lizard, and a snake don’t eat exactly the same. With this in mind, we’ll look at a few of our most popular reptile pets to give you a better idea.

Snakes

Most snakes are carnivores or insectivores. They need to eat meat and don’t eat any fruits or vegetables for the most part. Most snakes eat some combination of insects, rodents, other reptiles, and possibly even birds or larger mammals as they grow larger. You’ll probably feed your pet snake rodents, though, since they’re by far the easiest way to feed a captive reptile. This is true for pretty much every snake, from small Corn Snakes to even for large snakes, like an adult Boa Constrictor. Frozen thawed prey is always preferable to live, as mice and rats can potentially injure your snake.

Lizards

Most smaller lizards are mostly insectivores. However, other species of lizard can be vegetarian or omnivorous (both meat and veggies). A Blue Tongue Skink is an omnivore and will do best with a highly varied diet consisting of 40% protein, 50% veggies, and 10% fruit. A Chahoua Gecko is a more active and better hunter than many other lizards and will need a fair amount more live, gut-loaded insects than another breed.

Turtles and Tortoises

We have several options for these pets, from the Central American Wood Turtle to the Redfoot Tortoise. Most pet turtles and tortoises don’t eat any meat or insects. These animals are mostly herbivorous, and variety is key to keeping them healthy while providing good enrichment at the same time. A good captive diet consists of about 40-50% fruits, 20-30% veggies, and rounded off with Mazuri tortoise chow. Leafy greens like collards, dandelion, and turnip are best with spring mixes, kale, bok choy, and escarole being good supplemental treats. 

From turtles to snakes and beyond, reptiles are interesting and fun to care for. Making sure that your scaly friend has the right food to eat is incredibly important to its long term health and happiness. If you have any additional questions about what to feed your reptile, don’t hesitate to reach out and ask!

Holiday Hours

By | News

During the Holidays we will be open our regular hours except for:

 

Christmas Eve – Dec 24, 2021  10 am to 3 pm

Christmas Day – Dec 25, 2021  CLOSED

New Year’s Eve – Dec 31, 2021 10 am to 3 pm

New Year’s Day – Jan 1, 2022  CLOSED

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Reptile Habitat

What do I Need for a Reptile Habitat?

By | News

Bringing home a new reptile pet is so exciting! It’s worth noting, though, that you cannot simply buy a snake, tortoise, lizard, or other reptile and bring them back to your place empty handed. They need a special home, known as a reptile habitat or terrarium, in order to be happy, safe, and healthy. Your reptile has certain biological needs, but don’t worry. It is simple to set up a habitat that meets those needs.

Setting up Your Reptile Habitat

When creating a reptile habitat for your new pet, it is important that your terrarium doesn’t just look like their natural environment, it also acts like it. This means you’ll need the following:

Space: A larger habitat is always preferred. Purchase the largest terrarium you can afford that is able to fit into your home. There are two common terrarium shapes: long and tall. As a general rule, land-dwelling reptiles feel most at home in longer terrariums because they provide more surface area to roam. Reptiles that like to climb, like Chameleons, benefit most from taller enclosures.

Light: The exact lighting your reptile habitat needs is going to be dependent on the exact species. Many lizards, like Green Iguanas, require certain amounts of light exposure each day. On the other hand, nocturnal reptiles require more subdued lighting.

Temperature: A heating source is critical, because reptiles are cold-blooded animals and are unable to regulate their body temperatures on their own. Most reptiles need a constant temperature between 70 to 85 degrees F, with basking areas that reach over 100 degrees F. “Basking” reptiles move in and out of sunlight to gain the heat they need, as their form of thermoregulation. A basking lamp set up on one end of their terrarium will give your pet a temperature gradient that will allow them access to heat for digestion purposes and a cooler area for sleeping or resting. Their exact temperature needs are different for each species, time of day, and season, so be sure to research your individual species. Reptile heating device options including light bulbs, pads, tubular heaters, under-tank heaters, ceramic heating elements, and basking lights.

Humidity: Some reptiles may require different amounts of humidity in order to maintain optimal health. You can raise the humidity level by spraying the air with water frequently or by providing a source of standing or running water in the reptile habitat.

Bedding/Substrate: The ground beneath your reptile should feel natural. Tropical terrarium substrates include reptile bark, reptile soil, coconut husk, and moss. For a desert terrarium, you’ll want a substrate that is specially formulated sand.

Setting up a terrarium properly is one of the most important things you can do to care for a reptile. If you need help creating the perfect reptile habitat for your pet, Jabberwock Reptiles is here for you!

easy-to-care-for reptiles

Which Species of Reptiles are the Easiest to Take Care of at Home?

By | News

Reptiles are fascinating creatures, because they come in many different shapes and sizes. The smallest known reptile is the lizard Brookesia Nana, which is only half an inch long. On the other end of the spectrum, the largest reptile is the Saltwater Crocodile, which can weigh over a ton. That is a really, really big reptile! 

If it seems like either of these two options would be tough to take care of at home, you’re right. While all reptiles are fascinating, you want one as a pet that is easy to care for. This means your family will enjoy the experience and the animal will be safe, happy, and healthy. If you’re looking for a few fantastic options for easy-to-care-for reptiles, we have them here at Jabberwock Reptiles!

Easy-to-Care-for Reptiles

#1 Bearded Dragons

Bearded Dragons are entertaining and easy to care for, but the setup and installation needs to be just right. You need a 50-gallon tank for an adult lizard of this type. It needs constant exposure to UVA and UVB light, so you need to purchase a light that can provide that and install it over their habitat. Other than that, their diet consists of insects, fresh fruits, and vegetables. This pet is docile even as an adult, which makes it easy to handle.

#2 Tortoise

It doesn’t get much easier than a pet Redfoot Tortoise. These reptiles can survive extreme temperatures, are resilient, and can live in a simple enclosure without the need for any fancy equipment. This creature requires a diet of leafy and fibrous greens, a bowl of water, and some heat- that’s pretty much it. It’s easy to see why they are considered the easiest to take care of.

#3 Corn Snake

Sure a tortoise and a lizard are easy, but a snake? Yes! A Corn Snake makes a wonderful choice of a pet because it is very easy to care for, and it also has a mild temperament. The habitat for the corn snake is just a simple 30-gallon tank. If it gets sufficient light from the sun during the day, there is no need to mount a bulb in its habitat. It only needs feeding every couple of days. You could even go out of town for the weekend without needing someone to watch your pet.

Buy Easy-to-Care-for Reptiles for a Pet From Jabberwock Reptiles

Reptiles can make wonderful pets, depending on the type that you choose. However, it is vital to select a reptile that is easy to look after, especially if you are a first time reptile pet owner. This list is only the beginning! We have plenty of other fantastic reptiles for pets that are easy to care for, including aquatic turtles and green anoles.

Friendliest reptile for a pet

What is the Friendliest Reptile for a Pet?

By | News

Looking for a new pet is very exciting! You want to buy a reptile, but not just any reptile. You want a species that will not only make a good pet but actually enjoy your companionship. You’re looking for the friendliest reptile for a pet. But, what is it? Actually you have several options! In fact, many reptiles are friendly and enjoy being pets so the choice is yours!

The Friendliest Reptile for a Pet

Reptiles aren’t typically known for their cuddly nature, but the truth is that there are specific species of reptiles that enjoy being with you. With proper socialization, these reptiles can learn to be handled daily! That makes them good choices for families with children and for classrooms, science museums, and other educational facilities. Our top choices are:

#1 Bearded Dragon

If you’re looking for a reptile who likes you just as much as you like it, you want to buy a bearded dragon. Bearded Dragons can become close companions with their humans. As your pet Beardie gets to know you better, it will even learn to climb on your body and ride around on your shoulders. The level of care required for a Bearded Dragon is considered “easy.” Their overall hardiness and small-medium size make these lizards an excellent starter reptile. These friendly lizards are most active during the daytime hours and are not nocturnal like many reptiles, so they’re great for someone who wants to spend time with their reptile during the day. They eat a diet of vegetables, plants, insects, and fruits.

#2 Leopard Gecko

They are one of the most popular pet reptiles! Leopard Geckos are known for their calm nature. They are easy to handle and care for. They do well in a simple 10-gallon aquarium. Many families with children decided to buy a Leopard Gecko pet. They can be handled by kids as long as the young kids are supervised and warned of the potential to harm the gecko’s tail. Leopard Geckos are captively bred all over the US and so are commonly available in a wide range of color morphs.

#3 Black and White Tegu

You may think only a small lizard would be friendly enough to keep as a pet, but this is a common mistake. In fact, the Black and White Tegu is a wonderful, friendly pet! With proper socialization, these big lizards are friendly and social. Adult Tegus are highly docile, and these lizards are smart, too. They can even be housebroken! 

Reptile Pets from Jabberwock Reptiles

This list is only the beginning of the pet reptiles we offer! With any additional questions, concerns, or if you’re simply ready to purchase your new pet, you can contact Jabberwock Reptiles. We are dedicated to providing top quality healthy, captive bred reptiles. We strive to offer an informed and responsive service to our future pet owners. These animals are fascinating and intriguing, and we love to share our passion!

What Do Lizards Eat?

What Do Lizards Eat? Learn Their Diet in the Wild and as Pets

By | News

We’re proud to carry a wide variety of reptiles, including several species of lizards. This includes Geckos, Chameleons, Skinks, and other lizards. If you are interested in buying a lizard for a pet, one of the main things you will need to know is how to feed your new roommate. This isn’t quite as simple as saying “What do lizards eat?” For one thing, different species of lizards have a different diet. As well, lizards in the wild often eat differently than pets. 

Feeding a lizard is very simple once you learn what they eat and their dietary needs. Let’s do our best to answer this important question for you right now!

Bearded Dragon

Bearded dragons are small-medium sized lizards native to Australia. As a species relatively low on the food chain, Bearded Dragons are omnivores. Babies and juveniles require about 70% insects and protein with 30% greens. When beardies reach adulthood, their dietary needs switch and should ideally get closer to 70% greens and 30% insects. Gut-loaded crickets and dubia roaches are great options. Good staple greens include collard greens, dandelion greens, turnip greens, mustard greens, butternut squash, acorn squash, and even bell peppers.

Blue Tongue Skink

These lizards are omnivores and do best with a highly varied diet consisting of 40% protein, 50% veggies, and 10% fruit. Beyond gut-loaded crickets, dubias, mealworms, snails, and the occasional superworm, hard-boiled egg, cooked ground turkey, and lean ground beef are great for their diet. Veggies should include calcium-rich leafy greens. Suitable fruits include mango, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. 

Panther Chameleon

Panthers Chameleons are insectivores, and so a large variety of feeder insects is their prefered diet. Gut-loaded crickets and dubia roaches make good staples. Babies and juveniles should be fed once a day as much as they will eat, and then adults can be fed every other day. For an occasional treat, you can give your Chameleon a few hornworms. In order to truly mimic the nutrients they get in the wild, these feeder insects should be dusted with calcium and multivitamins at least once a week. 

Leopard Gecko

Leopard Geckos are strict insectivores, just like their Chameleon cousins. Just the same, gut loaded crickets, dubia roaches, and mealworms make good staple feeders. Pinheads are recommended for babies. These should be offered every day up until about six months of age. Food can be offered every second or third day once your lizard is an adult. Superworms and waxworms make good treats for adult Leopard Geckos. Insects should be dusted with calcium once a day and multivitamins at least once a week.

This is only a short list. If you have additional questions or concerns, our team is here to speak to you about it. You can reach us by calling 781-729-0135 or emailing JabberwockReptiles@gmail.com.

5 Facts About Reptiles You Most Likely Didn’t Know

By | News

For people of all ages, learning about animals is really fun! This is particularly true when it comes to reptiles. There is an incredible amount to learn about these fascinating creatures. If you are considering buying a pet reptile or simply love to learn as much as you can, we encourage you to study up on the subject and be as knowledgeable as possible.

A few of our favorite reptile facts include:

#1 Every reptile has scales. If you looked at a snake, lizard, and turtle, you may think they don’t have much in common. This may be partially true, but they do share one common trait: scales. These scales are made of keratin, which is the same biological material that forms hair and finger nails. Scales prevent reptiles from drying out in the sun while also providing tough protection against the teeth and claws of other animals.

#2 There are 10,000+ reptile species! In fact, the known species of reptiles around the world keeps rising. This makes them more diverse than mammals and amphibians. The reptile family includes lizards, turtles, alligators, crocodiles, and snakes. Reptiles are found on all continents except Antarctica. They are so numerous because they are able to thrive in deserts, oceans, rivers, lakes, swamps, rain forests, and cities.

#3 Reptiles come in many different shapes and sizes. The smallest known reptile is the lizard Brookesia nana, which is only 0.53 inches long. On the other end of the spectrum, the largest reptile is the saltwater crocodile, which can weigh over a ton. That is a really, really big reptile! The reticulated python is considered the longest living reptile. The world record was a 32 foot reticulated python that was found in Indonesia. Thankfully, this was seen in 1912 and no current snakes have measured this large!

#4 Reptiles can’t stay warm on their own. Because they are cold blooded, they need the sun or a special heating lamp to keep their body healthy. They must bask in the sun to raise their internal body temperature to have enough energy to hunt, mate, escape from predators, and digest food. This is one reason it is so important to set your pet reptile’s home up successfully.

#5 Some species have really amazing abilities. There is a reason reptiles are so fascinating! Snakes and most lizards can smell using their tongues. Tortoises can live well over 100 years. Chameleons are known for their ability to change color. The list goes on!

There is so much to learn beyond this! As one of the oldest and most diverse groups of animals, reptiles have many interesting qualities. At Jabberwock Reptiles, we are the reptile experts! We could talk about these smart, interesting, and well-evolved animals all day long. If you have any further questions, we encourage you to reach out to us and ask. Whether you’re shopping for a new pet, want to make your current pet as happy and healthy as possible, or simply have a reptile question, we are here for you! We can be reached at 781-729-0135 or JabberwockReptiles@gmail.com.