The breed and type of an exotic pet can make a big difference. As with any animal production enterprise it is important to consider the outcomes and responsibilities involved in breeding of our charges, ensuring we do so in a way that minimises suffering and maintains high standards of welfare for both the animals we breed from and ultimately any offspring we produce for the remainder of their lives.

Exotic species like the lion fish and the African land snail are animals that were once introduced into this country as pets, but they somehow managed to escape and now become invasive species, which post great threat to the local enviornment in many ways.

Call the clinic 5 minutes to closing time on a Friday evening for your very sick pet that’s been vomiting, not eating, trembling and had explosive diarrhoea for three days already, but NOW it’s an emergency and at least two staff will have to stay behind on their own time to see you when you flip out about going to the out of hours clinic.

Basic biological knowledge dictates that the longer and more closely you breed somewhat related lines of animals (and I’d love a widespread genetic study to show just how closely related a lot of morph lines actually are, but again won’t happen as requires co-operation and honesty), the less vigorous these animals become, the shorter their lifespan and in many cases the poorer their welfare.

The owner will have to make efforts to introduce more variety into the snakes diet with earthworms, pink mice, feeder fish species that lack the thiaminase enzyme such as guppies and platies, or commercially available fresh and frozen fish species again that lack thiaminases such as trout and salmon and some other native freshwater angling species.

By Hathor