Heating | Lighting | Substrates | Feeding

Heating:

Reptile and Amphibians almost all need a heat source as they cannot completely control their own body temperature internally. They need an outside heat gradient so help them. Common heat source providers are undertank heaters or heat lamps. Undertank heaters should be placed on a rheostat as most do not haev their own thermometer to keep them from baking a reptile. I prefer heat lamps, as it seems more natural to me, since in nature heat comes from the sun, and that's just about it.

Heat rocks are a cheaper way to heat a tank, but often cause burns since they do not heat the air. A reptile will sit on it forever still thinking it is cold since it is the only warm thing there. I recommend not using heat rocks ever.

Lighting:

Most diurnal (acrive during the day) reptile nees special lighting to keep them healthy. Turtles especially need supplemental lighting. Be sure to research exactly what kind you need for what animal you're trying to keep.

Access to sunlight (with no glass or screen in the way) negates the need for supplemental lighting, ie turtles living in an outdoor pond with direct sun.

Substrates:

Substrates can range from ultra simple paper towels to ceramic balls under mixed coco fiber with mesh between to two to form a water resivoir so you can pump water to a waterfall. Mostly it has to do with the humidity requirements of your critter. Desert animals are often put on sand, with forst or tropical critters put on moist dirt or wood chips. I personally try to use the smallest grain of anything if an animal is fed in it's cage. In the case of my corn snakes they live on aspen shavings beacuse it's easy to clean relatively low on dust, and doesn't attract bugs as much as coco fiber.

My desert critters i.e. Leopard Geckos live on paper towels with a moist hide to help them shed. They're notorius for eating sand, so I just avoid that problem. Crested Geckos are a toss up, paper towels don't really hold moisture as well as coc fiber does without rotting, so I prefer coco fiber. To prevent them from eating too much bedding I trained them to take their crickets out a bowl when I'm not feeding them mixed Crested Gecko food. I trained my white's tree frog and bahaman anoles the same way.

Feeding:

Almost all reptiles eat live prey. Most of them won't even look at food if isn't moving, or doesn't smell like food. Standard fare for insect eaters in crickets, mealworms and waxworms. In other countries they often use grasshoppers as well.

As to snakes, I personally prefer frozen food. Mostly due to squeamishness on my part, but I like the convenience and with the snakes I have it isn't a problem. I also like the safety. It is impossible for a frozen thawed rodent to bite or attack your snake, whereas live healthy food can easily bite, then turn your snake off that kind of food because as far as the snake is concerned it hurts.

Bowl training. I assume someone else figured this out before me but whatever. I feed my Crested Geckos, White's Tree Frog and Bahaman Anoles in 6 inch white ceramic bowls. The bowls, when cleaned regularly, keep crickets in, but all my perching critters can leap in after them. of course some crickets still end up wandering the cage, but the numbers are significantly fewer. I picked white so the crickets are very visible. I suspect bowls will work with any sticky footed criitter or tree frog.