The exotic pet trade is huge and it's on the rise.
There are thousands of videos on social media of people posing with them,
and these videos are gaining millions of likes and being shared millions of times.
I want to find out why reptiles are such a popular pet choice.
Does social media paint the full picture of what it's like to own one?
What impact has being kept as a pet have on them?
This lady, that was not a reptile specialist.
She just used scissors on his eyes.
He is now blind.
And what happens if it goes wrong?
People who have been calling around and can't find anywhere to go for them just end up resorting to dumping them in our car park.
I've decided to go online to see what's being shared at the moment.
It doesn't take you long. This is a guy in a christmas jumper with a what looks like an iguana.
This is a girl in her car they're both wearing scarves as the car drives.
Pet check, reptile edition.
Meet all of my reptiles.
There's loads of videos like this, people kind of showing how many reptiles they have.
There's a lot of unboxing videos like my pets just arrived and now we're going to see what it
is, kind of thing.
So what else have we got?
This person is taking their reptile for a walk on a lead.
So I know from this species that that crest is the threat display and it is firing that threat display
and trying to bite the owner.
This girl's written "this better go viral"
And she's put her hand into the mouth of a bearded dragon to be bitten.
She's playing, obviously, on a kind of morbid curiosity with people being
attacked. And there's a lot of more controversial videos like this of people kind of deliberately agitating
animals like
this bearded dragon, but snakes as well, so that they're, you know, in striking position, trying to attack the
people around. There's obviously a massive appetite.
There's millions and millions and millions of videos of reptiles
doing so many different things, whether they're being dressed up or being made to bite
or put in funny positions.
This is a huge world.
I would love to meet one of these content creators to find out what it's like when the cameras are turned off.
Good morning. Welcome and welcome back to the channel.
I'm Elle and this is Sterling and this is Elle's reptiles.
I'm about to meet YouTuber 'Elle Reptiles' who's based in the US.
She owns 14 reptiles and uses her channel to speak openly about some of her struggles in caring for their
diverse and complex needs.
I would love to meet some of your friends.
Who have we got here?
This is Sterling, the Ball python.
God, he's gorgeous.
So is this a different colour morph to the kind of wild Ball python?
Yeah. So this he is a banana morph, and so he's like super yellow.
And as the bananas get older, they get more and more of these black spots.
So what is it about keeping Sterling that you love so much?
He's just fantastic.
He is super cuddly.
He'll come out and glass surf and...
Cuddly?
Yes, cuddly. That's not usually a word people use for snakes.
So he is very cuddly.
Who's next?
Next we have a Percy, the Leopard gecko.
I'm just passing him over.
Oh, God, they're so cool.
Yeah, she is a Mack Snow, is her Morph
How popular are Leopard geckos?
They are very popular.
This is another reptile that you can literally get anywhere that reptiles are sold and I mean,
they have really cool personalities.
Next, we have my Bearded dragon.
Hello. I love Bearded dragons.
So where did you get her from?
She came from a local pet store that is under new ownership now.
But when I got her, she was...errr
she was sold as basically the only beginner reptile, I guess, that they would sell because he was like,
Oh, she's so easy. They're so easy.
She was not as easy as I was led to believe.
I want to find out more about some of the struggles Elle has faced since keeping reptiles.
Do you think it's harder than you anticipated it would be?
Caring for reptiles?
Yeah. The care requirements are pretty vast.
Most of the time when you get a reptile, it's basically up to you to do that
research. And then one of the biggest issues is that a lot of especially like
chain pet stores,
they'll give out little pamphlets with little booklets of care, and that care is super outdated.
What have been your personal biggest struggles?
I think my personal, biggest struggles would be vets, finding good vets for my
animals. I know some people have to drive hours to get to vets.
I have to drive about an hour and a half hour or hour 45 minutes to get to a reptile specialist.
I had a situation with my Ball python.
He had like a stuck eye cap when he was shedding.
It didn't come off.
So I took him in.
This lady that was not a reptile specialist, she's just like, Oh yeah, I can, I can do that.
And she took him to the back and used scissors on his eyes.
And yeah! He is now blind.
Oh my God!
So I think yeah, that's a huge struggle and
basically, yeah, that's the biggest one is just finding good vets.
What do you think influences the choices of people's favourite reptiles to have as pets?
I definitely think that social media does contribute to that, but then
that's where like the reptile YouTube community comes in.
Like always trying to be like, hey, like this is important, you need to research.
And I think as a whole too, we try to show more negative things about animals.
Like it's not just a throw'em in a tank and be done.
Is there a worry about the internet and the growing availability of reptiles
online?
There are a few websites that people just kind of know that you
probably want to stay away from that one,
because they import a lot of animals or they farm breed these animals.
They're not taking care of the animals before they're sending them out.
But again, with social media and stuff, a lot of people will join Facebook groups.
And so they'll say like, hey, is this a good place to get an animal from?
But if you're not taking part in that, if you don't understand that that's something you'd be doing, then yes, you are
ordering, you could potentially be ordering from places that are not taking the best care.
Those people kind of are at the mercy of a
massive growing industry in trading reptiles online.
They definitely can be, yeah.
It's estimated that there are around 1.8 million reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates being kept as pets in
UK households.
And it's claimed that reptile keeping has been the fastest growing sector of the pet industry over the last ten years.
Some require a dangerous wild animal licence, but many require no licence at all,
Including Boa constrictors, large Monitor lizards and even Komodo dragons.
I've decided to take a look online to see just how easy they are to buy.
Right. So I'm going to find out what I can get right now on the Internet.
Reptiles for sale.
Well, yeah. One such top site.
African Fat Tailed Geckos, Bearded dragons, Brooks King Snakes,
California King snake,
Boa constrictors.
Ball pythons.
There are just so many.
Like countless actually literally website upon website and within them hundreds of available reptiles.
This one here. Central American Banded Gecko, has no information on where in the world it comes
from, whether it's from a desert or a jungle.
No information on how to care for it.
And obviously, those two habitats alone, they're going to have vastly different needs.
I would have no idea how to look after most, if not all, of the reptiles on this list.
This is incredibly easy to get.
If I wanted any kind of reptile, I could just do it right now.
And I reckon, yeah, I wouldn't need to find out much information, wouldn't need to speak to anyone.
I could just do it right now and it would come to my door and the onus is on me to learn about it if I want to.
I'd love to find out what happens to the reptiles that people can't care for.
I'm shocked at how many reptiles are available online and with next to no warnings or guidance on just
how complex their needs are.
What happens when the owners can't cope?
The RSPCA rescues around one and a half thousand reptiles each year.
Their specially trained exotics officers are on the front line, responding to call outs of unwell, abandoned or
neglected reptiles.
I'm meeting Fred at one of the rescue centres to find out what the impact of being kept as a pet can have on them.
Who've we got in here?
So basically all of the animals, when they come in to us, they get a quick health check and then they come in here
for their quarantine period, which is 30 days.
So how many different species do you have here?
Well, to be honest, we've got about 350 animals here at the moment,
350?
There's like a huge variety in the species we get.
We get little Corn snakes, we get Royal pythons and these tanks here.
And then we also get everything from turtles to lizards.
We've got a Tegu down here.
We didn't really know the scale of how bad it was when she came in and she was this kind of dirty yellow colour.
And that's just from where she hasn't been kept to the right temperatures and the right humidity.
So she hasn't been able to shed her skin when she needs to.
And actually got to the point where she had so many layers of shed around her armpits and stuff
that they started to split open a little bit, and she had to go to the vets and have that kind of cleaned up
and have all the excess stuff taken away.
There's a Musk turtle in here.
He was literally dumped outside in our car park.
People have been calling around and can't find anywhere to go for them, sometimes just end up resorting to dumping them here
or in ponds, in the countryside or whatever.
And they can survive and actually breed?
Yeah, that's and that's part of the reason why some of these turtles are on invasive species lists,
because they can become a danger to our ecosystem by reproducing
and not having any natural predators and kind of throwing everything out of balance.
Exotic pets being abandoned by their owners is a leading cause of invasive species in the world.
They introduce new diseases to our ecosystems and often kill off native species.
Why is this animal got, like, a cover up when none of the other ones do?
Yeah. We're not trying to hide him.
It's more we're trying to hide ourselves from him.
He came from a very unfortunate situation where he was in basically a three foot by three foot
enclosure, which is almost the size of him.
So he was very defensive because he didn't have anywhere to retreat to.
So we went into the house to to get him signed over and take him to us, I open the tank and he immediately started
whipping and puffing himself up just because he didn't have anywhere to go, unfortunately .
Such a beautiful animal.
I know it's such a shame, especially with something as beautiful as he.
Who else have we got in here?
Who is this guy?
So this is Ricky, one of our Chinese water dragons.
He came in with a whole load of stuff from a wholesaler basically.
A wholesaler?
Yeah. So it was someone who kind of breeds imports and sells animals
to pet shops, basically.
Even the people who were supplying the pet shops can become a problem if they're operating without
licenses or not keeping them properly.
Once the reptiles have been rehabilitated, they're given a second chance at being a pet.
The team here do a thorough assessment ahead of adoption so their new owners are fully prepared for the
responsibilities
that owning a reptile brings.
How does it make you feel having some of these animals come in such bad shape and then improve so much?
I mean, initially it is sad and heartbreaking to see them like that, but when we do get them to this stage where
they're doing so well, they've been okayed by the vets.
And we're kind of, you know, when we've got animals like Bindi ready to go and they're waiting to go to their homes,
or Barnaby, where he's in such a good state to what he was compared to when he came in.
It does make me proud of what we do here and it gives me hope that there is a future for these animals
and a second chance for them to kind of continue on into a better life for themselves.
And and yeah, it's quite rewarding, actually.
So what's your hope for the future of this place?
Well, I hope with with more awareness raised around these animals that people will be able to take better care of them in captivity.
And we'll see the numbers that are needing to come into the rescue reduced because we are almost at full capacity here.
And we've got waiting lists of various different things waiting to come in.
So, you know, the more the more education and the more information we can get out there, the better.
And I think that's that's the end goal is to reduce the amount of animals coming into us.
Yeah. I mean, it's, there's so much more to this story than I think people have realised.
If you're watching social media, it can paint an enticing picture of what it would be like to own a reptile.
And I've learned that it can be surprisingly easy to buy one with little guidance too.
But these are complex animals with very specific needs.
They need the right equipment, space, set up and commitment in order to adequately care for them.
Instead, many end up being abandoned or suffering ill health before being rescued by charities like the
RSPCA,
who are doing their best but are at capacity.
I think if we want to take on the responsibility of keeping reptiles as pets,
we need to look beyond social media and educate ourselves on just how much work they require.