Frogs and Reptiles

Looking for a pet with a difference or not the conventional pet, there's a option for you.

Reptiles are the newest group of pets that we are allowed keep in Queensland. Turtles, snakes, lizards, scorpions and spiders are all part of the reptile group that we can provide for you in Queensland.

At Pets Galore we keep a variety of reptiles (when available) and all the products required to set up and look after your new reptile family member.

Information Sheets

In Queensland, you may be required to have a reptile licence. You can find out more about applying for a licence here at

https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/plants-animals/wildlife-permits/permit-types/wildlife-licence - you will become a user of the Iconnect system first then (it takes about 1 hour) you can apply for your licence when logged in.

Featured Reptiles

Turtles

Overview
In Australia, the most common pet turtles are eastern snake necked or long necked turtles. These are common and also easy to care for.  Other favourites are the Murray turtle, the cheeky monkey's of the pet turtle world.  Australia has only native turtles and no tortoises, but in other countries, people have tortoises as pets.

Housing your turtle
A turtle baby or juvenile should be kept indoors and can live in a 90 -120 cm long glass tank, from 30 to 50 cm wide. Provide natural coloured, natural pH, 3-5mm aquarium gravel for the base or substrate of the aquarium or turtle enclosure.  The gravel is used for many tasks and purposes but firstly and critically for good bacterial cultivation.

The water needs to be deep enough so the turtles can swim and have a great area to move around, within plants and decorations, as well as a dock for the turtles to pop up and bask.  Now a days there is purposely created floating docks in many sizes with a ramp to walk up onto the dock.  We also have decorations, rocks and driftwood's that you can utilise to create the perfect ramp and dock for your turtles.

A light with a special bulb should hang 10 cm above the basking area, so that the turtle can bask in the "sunshine" drying out as they would in the midday sun in the wild.  The wattage you choose to use depends on the distance from where the animal settles, just ask and we can help.

In addition your turtle requires 8-12 hours of "day light" each day, we have both bulbs and tubes that are created just for reptiles to create the perfect spectrum for your pet turtle.  "Day light" helps keep a turtle's shell hard and healthy, including the very important Vitamins D's.

Water needs to be kept around 23 degrees Celsius, so a aquarium water heater will be useful to hold this temperature constant.  It is very important to keep the tank and water clean so your turtle does not get sick, most importantly breaking down the turtles waste so Ammonia, Nitrates and Phosphates do not develop.  
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Feeding your pet turtle
Turtles eat meat and greens especially fresh live plants.  When your pet turtle is young they will like a mixture of the appropriate sized dry food, dry shrimps and frozen foods (both turtle mixes and particular frozen animals like shrimps), as they grow and mature they will eat live fish, crayfish or yabbies, prawns or shrimp and worms.

They only feed in the water. Calcium is important for turtles and can be provided by putting a small hard blocks made particularly for this purpose into the water so it dissolves gradually, releasing calcium. Turtles should be fed in water that is about 23 degrees Celsius. Cooler or warmer temperatures can result in digestion problems.  Like many animals, feeding regularly (on a daily basis) small meals are the best and easiest method for the turtles digestive system.

​Choosing a turtle
Make sure the turtle is active, with bright eyes. It should pull back its head if touched. There should be no mucus coming from the nose or mouth and there should be no white or soft spots on the shell or skin.

Lizards

Lizards are a great option as a pet to stay in their enclosure or to come out and interact with humans.  The lizards varieties that we commonly keep in store are Blue Tongues, Pink Tongues and Bearded Dragons - when available.  It can be very challenging to get quality lizards at a good price so please ask and we can let you know when they come in next, if we do not have any in stock.

Lizards are great in that they are interactive with the humans, you can certainly have touchy feely session with them.  The Bearded's will climb whereas the Blue and Pink Tongues will not. They do require a correct reptile enclosure, with warm and cool zones, day lighting (to replicate the sun), staple foods and treat foods.  We do keep everything in store that you require to set up and keep your lizards happy and healthy.

The enclosures are all upstairs in the display room so just walk up and check them out, if you are not local please ask and we can help out.  We will also help out when you need to set up the enclosure, creating the warm and cool zones and what that all entails.

When it comes to feeding your lizards provide them with a staple of a dry pellet, we keep options in store for this.  Then we provide a meat treat in the form of insects (meal worms, silk worms, woodies and/or crickets) once a day, say in the mornings and then at a second time a day, say in the evenings the lizards get to have their finely cut, shaved or grated fruit and vegetables (broccoli heads, bok choy leaves, silverbeet leaves, carrot, apple, snow peas).

Other fruits and vegetables you can try are strawberries, grapes, blue berries, cranberries, raspberries, melons, capsicums,  peaches, plums, kiwi fruit, banana's (with skin on) however remember to only have a total of 10% of the lizards diet in fruits and vegetables.

Please note we do have Bearded Dragon's in store at the moment!

Snakes

The wonderful world of pet snakes

In Queensland we have only been able to trade in the pythons that grow from 1m to 1.2m's in adult length.  This means we keep in store (when available) Childrenii, Maculosa and the Stimsonii's and their colour or region varieties.  These three are all lovely easy going interactive snakes that are easy to handle and have the bonus of not growing to large so they can always be a member of your household and came out and interact with the family. 

You are best to set your pet snake up in an enclosure that they can have a warm and a cool zones and the ability to climb plus areas to create a warm hiding hole.  So the taller reptile enclosures are great for the snakes.  When you come into the store pop upstairs, all the enclosures are up there for you to check out.  Just ask and we will guide you through choosing the perfect items to create the perfect enclosure for your snake friend.

When feeding snakes it is extremely straight forward, depending on the start they have had - all our snakes have started eating foods when they come to us so we just carry on with the same weekly routine.  We prefer to provide regular small feeds, you can or the snake can choose to have a larger feed less often its up to them.  We do keep all 5 sizes of mice and 6 sizes of rats in store plus rabbits, chicks and quails all for your snakes.  Also please ask if you are not sure of the size to pick and also how to prepare the animal for your snake.

Overall snakes are a great option, they do not require a huge amount of daily attention if you do not have the spare to give to your snake, just a clean environment with the warm and cool zones is fine, when you have some time for your snake to come out and have some human time they will be available.  Remember you can have some human and pet snake time when you are watching TV or doing a hobby or reading a book, they don't mind.  Keep open minded the pet snake is truly a lovely and easy pet option. 

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Breed 5

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Pets Galore Toowoomba

07 4632 4650

0418 721 483

8 Hodgson Street

Toowoomba Qld 4350

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