What reptiles will you NEVER* keep and why?

Ouch! :slight_smile:

Welcome to the community! We would love to hear from you in a introduction post!

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komodo dragon/. Why? Besides the housing requirements, I want to live :grimacing:

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nah not a bad mood. the post itself is basically saying what animals are you scared of/think aren’t worth it and that question in itself is negative. like all the comments basically talking down on those that keep venomous. focus on what you do like instead of raining on parades of what others like.

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I used to think monitors were going to be a major time consumption. I also have some health issues and balancing that, work, and reptiles is hard. Since I have my monitor enclosures on automated lights, and misting, all I have to do is fill their water and feed. bedding is all bioactive. rarely even spot clean. 12 tree monitors barely takes 20 minutes a day

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The point of this post was not to be negative, it’s just an open discussion about what species people aren’t interested in. There are plenty of topics talking about what species people do want or their dream species, so I really enjoyed seeing the flip side of that.

I don’t think anyone was talking down on venomous keepers, people just have different comfort levels. and majority of people don’t want the risk that comes along with keeping venomous.

Btw welcome! I hope you enjoy some of the other topics more than this one.

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That wasn’t the point at all. In fact, I specifically stated that the point was NOT to malign any species or the people who keep them. I also specifically stated that I have great respect for responsible venomous keepers, so I’m not sure where you’re getting that I’m trying to be down on anyone for choosing to keep any reptile, venomous or otherwise. As it happens, the only one here maligning any species or keepers seems to be you, referring to ball pythons as “pet rocks” and implying that those who keep them are afraid to keep anything else. Just sayin’. :person_shrugging:

Not every animal is right for every person’s situation, level of comfort/experience, budget, or tastes. It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the animal, it just means that it isn’t right for every keeper. I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast our various criteria for reptiles that suit our individual tastes and situations. We’re all different, and that’s what makes this interesting to discuss (at least for me and the other users who shared their opinions here). If that doesn’t interest you, feel free to participate in any of the other myriad topics on this forum. :slight_smile:

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No it’s really not.
There’s animals people will keep and won’t keep for ANY reason. Not because they’re scared.

I wouldn’t keep an elephant, I don’t have the room :joy:

And no one is talking down venomous at all.

I think you’re the one raining down on everyone’s parade as you can clearly see a lot are contributing to this topic and enjoying it :blush:

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But if there was, like, a mini-elephant, or rhino! I’d definitely keep those!!

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If there were elephants that were, say, the size of a large dog, I’d be all over that! Super-mini elephants would be freaking adorable. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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I’m with you regarding aquatic setups. It just adds a whole other element of maintenance and expense and I think I’d struggle a bit with staying on top of it. It’s the same reason I don’t have fish. I really like fish and in some ways I miss the fish tank I had as a kid…but I don’t miss doing water changes or scrubbing algae.

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I can’t think of many species I wouldn’t own just exclusively due to time restrains, space, or money. Because I don’t see it as an issue. Need room for a 10ft enclosure? Move the furniture out. Or live in an area where you can make outdoor enclosures. Need money? Second job and sell what you don’t need. Time? Make a schedule for everything so you can balance work, hobby, and free time equally. Emergencies? Have backup plans for vet expenses and people willing to take in a collection at a moments notice incase of hospitalization or natural disasters.

But with all that said, I am insanely picky with the ones I own due to how they move, react, hold their color into old age, etc. I’m less likely to own arboreal again, just because they aren’t my preferred but I do have a handful of bucket list species that are the exception.

I don’t like lizards just because the care is basically the reptile equivalent of dog ownership, and I’d rather have a dog. But if I marry someone who loves lizards, I’d definitely allow myself to get some iguana morphs and definitely get back into monitors if my partner would help me with the daily maintenance. I miss having a Nile Monitor.

I’d love to own venomous, but I’d never ever own a boomslang or a mamba, or any of the really speedy boi’s. I’ll stick to vipers and cobras.

I’m not a fan of 80% of colubrid species just because of the way they react and basically try to plop out of your hands cause they don’t know how to hold on and don’t take to being handled for more than a few minutes or they stress.

Again most rear fanged species is the exception here and so are cribos and king rat snakes.

I don’t like ball pythons because they are way too shy and don’t seem to have a single brain cell. As adults there are very few morphs that keep the brightness of the juvenile colors. Most just looks like they took a sand bath and got dirty as they get older.

For the same color reasons, I’m not a fan of carpet pythons. Though there’s only 2 exceptions which is the Diamond and the stonewashed.

For all the species I wouldn’t own, more power to the breeders and keepers that love the species!! Even if I don’t particularly like them, we need good healthy captive collections incase they do go extinct in the wild due to habitat loss, or to make antivenin. We need to protect all species despite personal opinions on how they act, look, or potentially dangerous.

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I am yet to own a ‘shy’ one.
All mine are out and about and active, and are out a lot with us here. So defo not shy Royals here!
I know many breeders and apart from the odd shy one all there’s are a dream to own also! :smiling_face:

I was even shocked about the newbies being so friendly! You’d atleast expect them to be shy or little buggers at first :sweat_smile:

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I’ve only owned 3 personally, and only my first ball python was bullet proof with confidence. He was a Mojave I had as a minor. Never had a single issue out of him. (Even when he escaped one time and got into the chinchilla cage in the mammal room that always had the door shut. He apparently was able to squeeze through the gap under the door) and I found him with bite marks down his back and had to send him to the vet for treatment.

Even with all the stress of medications, being lost in a house for a good 24-48hrs, he never skipped feeding, never got head shy, never balled up, never breathed heavy or had a change in tongue flicks.
He was too confident for his own good and I loved Squishy so much.

The other two were kept more secure after that. With the only ball I own as an adult being housed in a snake rack.
I just had feeding problems and shyness with the other two. Which I fixed last year with the one I currently own. He’s still shy but he eats every single week without hesitation as long as I don’t take him out to interact except quickly to clean the tub. And he’s a mouser which is a headache in itself.

If I ever get more balls it’s just gonna be for breeding and I’m only gonna breed the colors I think are the prettiest and hold the most color as adults. I’d also see if I can have lines that were as confidently bulletproof as my first BP when I was a minor. I’m big into Mojave GHI’s and Urban Camos.
I loved the freeway so much until I seen how it aged and it put me off.

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But if you never own a dragon are you really even living lol

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That is not the purpose of this topic. We all have different opinions and circumstances. Some people are unable to keep certain reptiles, while others simply have no interest in keeping them at that point. This hobby is so broad that if we didn’t value others’ opinions, this community wouldn’t exist!

If you do not find yourself relating or offering constructive criticism to a conversation, please simply move on.

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This is the same with me as well. An axolotl was my dream pet until I figured out that they lived in water rather than on land like most other salamanders :frowning: It is easier with fish than with herps.

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I agree. I will save those for the more hardcore keepers for now :sweat_smile:

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Never say never, :slight_smile: i never plan to keep snakes wirh medically significant venum, but the last time i went to a show with hots i found myself looking hard at a beautiful rattle snake and wondering about learnig to handle dangerious snakes. May happen someday, who knows.

I never thougjt i would get to own a monitor. Things changed in my life that I never expected and now i have 5. Ackies, Asian water monitor from Nerd, Black Throat, White Throat, and Argus.
You never know what is around the corner in the future.

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Of course, situations and perspectives change over time. I used to think I’d never get a snake, because despite loving them, I didn’t think I could deal with feeding rodents (I’ve kept rats as pets on and off since I was a kid and absolutely adore them). But when I was a teenager, I found myself caring for a friend’s king snake for an extended period of time and discovered that feeding f/t really wasn’t so bad. Now snakes are pretty much the only reptiles I want to keep, haha. I also used to think I’d only ever be interested in keeping relatively small snakes (nothing larger than, say, a ball python), but now I have a blood python and am planning to get several other species of medium-large size in the relatively near future. In fact, these days I find myself much more drawn to larger species than small ones (with a few exceptions).

So yeah, I totally get that things can change. There are quite a few things on my “never” list that I’d get in a heartbeat if and when my circumstances change enough to make them viable options for me.

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Yep! My only deciding factor is space. If I was not limited to just one room dedicated to animals, I would be 1 Million dollars in reptile debt. :slight_smile:

F/t is definitely a game-changer for me as well. I could never bring myself to feed anything live other than crickets, roaches, worms, etc. unless someone killed it for me :joy:

And it broke my heart to cut a hornworm in half for my leo, even though he would have gotten digested either way. :smiling_face_with_tear: And I haven’t smacked a fly in over 2 years, which even I think is overkill. But they are innocent! I let them go outside.

Mosquitoes are living :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: though so no regrets there. I used to live in the swampy areas around the Great Salt Lake and it was infested with them. As an understatement, I have probably smashed 20,000+++ mosquitoes living there. I hate them with a passion stronger than my love for reptiles (which is a LOT). I can go on and on and on about mosquitoes but I will stop here so I don’t get reported for accidentally hating on mosquito farmers. :slight_smile: With a passion.

Sorry not sorry.

Sorry.

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