Blog Explanation

First of all, allow me to explain what made me decide to create this blog and certain reservations I have in making it.

I have a whole host of fascinating pets. They enrich my life and, as a High School student, help me relax. Living in the Philippines, this is where the vast majority of my true exotics come from. That means I don’t generally need to play around with temperature, humidity, etcetera. However, I also have a number of conventional pets – lovebirds, a cat, and so on. In this blog I will focus on the pets you are unlikely to find in a Western pet store. Having said this, I haven’t been to a “Western Pet store” in a few years, so I don’t quite know what’s available nowadays. Still, I am fairly confident you wouldn’t find Gray’s water skinks, Philippine Narrow-mouthed toads (Kaloula sp.), little file snakes, Philippine Hanging Parrots or wolf snakes (Lycodon sp.). Eventually I will write blogs about the trials as well as the rewards of keeping each of these and more.

However, I have certain reservations. It is not necessarily “easy” to keep some of these pets or, probably more to you interest, similar species. Many species have been pushed towards extinction by the unregulated pet trade. While the exotics I’ve got are not endangered, I’d like to make sure they stay that way. Please be responsible when buying pets that come from another country, as well as when getting pets from your own country. If possible, I suggest you only buy captive-bred animals. If you really want something unconventional perhaps you should consider a newt. I have two Japanese fire-bellies myself – wonderful pets. I know you can find newts in the pet store, but they still count as exotics!

In any case… I hope you find my blogs either A) informative or B) entertaining. I’m still not quite sure how this works so bear with me. Should you have any questions about keeping pets you think I might be able to answer e-mail me at naja[dot]nivea[at]gmail[dot]com or post a comment. I’m not an expert but even if I can’t answer a question myself I can post them on the blog or forward them to friends of mine who are somewhat more qualified in exotic pet care.

Cheers J