A couple of issues before I start; first I have a very serious medical condition - man flu, as all of the men will appreciate this is very serious, far worse that bird flu. Consequently I feel as rough as a badgers bum, but I will heroically struggle on…

Secondly an apology to the organisers, I was suppose to give them my presentation some weeks ago. Being the consummate professional that I am, I was sat in my home back in England at 4am this morning finishing the wrenched thing!

Good afternoon, my name is Chris Newman and I am here today representing the Reptile and Exotic Pet Trade Association [REPTA] and the Federation of British Herpetologists [FBH].

REPTA is my paid day job, representing the interests of the reptile industry in the UK, and indeed the EU, a role that I have carried out since 2004.

My role as chair of the FBH is voluntary and I have been doing this for many years in my capacity as a dedicated private animal keeper.

As for my background, well at the age of 25 I was depressed; being quarter of a century old and next year I shall be exceedingly depressed as I shall have reached half a century – positively prehistoric!

Notwithstanding this, it will mark my 45th year as a reptile, and indeed animal keeper in general. Reptiles are my passion, but my interest extends to all animals. In addition to keeping reptiles I also have other animals, raccoons, porcupines, possums, skunks and children – oh and a wife some where in this midst of the mayhem.

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Ok, on to more important matters – the pet industry, the pet industry as a whole has a turnover of some £4billion pounds [5.5 bn] Euros in the UK annually, and it employs over 47,000 people. In terms of pet shops, there are approximately 5,000 shops, of which approximately 3,000 sell livestock, and of these an estimated 30% sell reptiles.

The number of shops stocking livestock is increasing year or year, and within the last 12 months the number of shops stocking increased by some 10%.

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So how big is the reptile market in the UK? In simple terms we don’t know. This is not a surprise as in reality we don’t have reliable data on any of the pet sectors, with the possible exception of tropical and coldwater fish. In terms of numbers of animals kept the best answer I can give you right at this moment in time is: it’s ambiguous at best!
I don’t wish to dwell on this issue as it is an issue of some contention within our industry at the moment, all I would say is “Pet Industry GB - lets get our act together and get some good base line data on pet ownership, upon which we can all agree”.

So what do we know? Well the reptile sector is the fastest growing sector of the pet market in the UK today that is not in doubt.

In 2004 the FBH, in connection with REPTA, endeavoured to evaluate the extent of the number of reptiles kept. We concluded at the time in access of one million households kept in excess of 5 million pet reptiles, although I should also say that we included amphibians in the term reptiles.

How did we come to that figure? I will cover that in more detail in a moment. Notwithstanding this, it is today probable that there are in fact more pet reptiles in the UK than pet dogs, and I make that suggestion in all sincerity.

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So how did we try and determine the number of reptiles kept? Well reptiles are rather convenient in that, by-and-large, the food they consume is specifically produced for them. So measure the volume of food and you have some idea of the number of animals being kept – sound reasonable?

In 2004 the UK the cricket farms were producing on average 10,000,000 crickets a week. Ten Million Crickets! And no before anyone asks I didn’t PERSONALY count
them, I took the producers words for it!

In 2008 the same farms are now producing approximately 20,000,000 crickets a week which is a lot of crickets!

In addition to the doubling of cricket production the volume of locusts has more than quadrupled.

In addition to livefood, the volumes of frozen rodents sold has increased dramatically. It is more difficult to evaluate the volume of frozen rodents sold, but in addition to the rodents bred for the purpose in the UK and EU, we are currently importing approximately 3.5 tons of frozen rodents from outside of the EU each month – which is a lot of mice!

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It is often thought reptile keeping is a new interest but this is not the case. The earliest examples of reptile keeping date back Tower of London menagerie, which was founded back in the thirteenth century.

The earliest records of breeding date back to 1828 when a pair of pythons, probably Burmese pythons, bred and laid eggs in the same collection. At the time the snakes had been in captivity for over two years but sadly we do not know if the eggs hatched or not.

We do know that William Laud, Bishop of London, purchased a Spur-Thighed Tortoise in 1625. Eight years later he became the Archbishop of Canterbury and the tortoise moved with him to Lambeth Palace, where it lived for another 120 years.
Both suffered the same fate - having their heads chopped off. One by a disgruntled employer, the other by a carless gardener - who said owners take after their pets, or should that be pets take after their owners!?

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A colleague of mine was browsing at a jumble sale and stumbled upon a collection of old magazines - The Aquarist & Pond Keeper Magazine dating back to the 1930s. The magazine is still in production today.

Interestingly this incorporated the "Reptilian Review” a magazine for reptile keepers which dates back to at least the 1930’s, possibly earlier. Included within these were pricelists from dealers at the time – they make fascinating reading.

The reason I have included this information is these facts are of great importance, not only are they fascinating, but they help to provide us with very positive assistance.

It is sometimes argued by the various organisations that many of the animals we keep were illegally imported. For example, in the UK our enforcement agencies argue that there have not been any legal shipments of reptiles from Australia into the pet trade when clearly this pricelist proves beyond any doubt this is not correct!

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Ok, let’s get to some more interesting. Here are the top five reptiles in the pet trade today. We used to have the top four but the continuing growth of the industry has led to Ball pythons sneaking onto the list, the little devils.

So we have the leopard geckos, bearded dragon, royal (or ball) python, the corn snake and the good old faithful tortoise.

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Corn snakes originate from North America and are a small to medium sized snake, rarely reaching beyond 1.5 meters, and are docile and hardy. Bred in captivity in huge numbers and, as you can see, in an infinite variety of colours.

Corn snakes are, without doubt, the most popular snake in captivity. As I have already said, they are easy to keep, have minimal requirements and are bred in large numbers. The trade today in corn snakes is almost exclusively in captive bred specimens, especially colour and pattern mutations.

Like all snakes Corn snakes are carnivores and their diet consists of appropriately sized rodents (dead of course). One of the future developments I foresee is the introduction of an artificial diet – a snake sausage if you like. For some reason many ladies appear to be opposed to having dead rats in there freezer! Must be a girl thing!

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Leopard geckos are terrestrial lizards found from Northern India, Pakistan, Afghanistan etc. and they were the first lizards to be bred in substantial numbers in captivity.

They grow to around 20-25cm, perhaps a little more with some of the newer mutations. Again virtually all animals in trade are bred in captivity and are now being bred in a large number of colour and pattern mutations, you can see just a few here. The chap in the top left is the wild type, the others are mutations.

They are very easy to keep, not demanding and as they are nocturnal their requirements in terms of specialist lighting etc are minimal. I will just add a proviso here, leopard geckos have been bred in captivity continually for 50 years without the use of UV lighting. Now some are suggesting that in fact they should have UV lighting although to date I have yet to see a single piece of conclusive, peer reviewed, scientific paper that supports this view.

Until such time as this is produced I will remain of the opinion that leopard, or other nocturnal geckos, do not need UV, although we need to keep this matter under review.

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Bearded Dragons, what can I say about bearded dragons – they are, in my opinion, simply the best pet species there is! Not just in the reptile world, but across all taxa. There simply is not a better pet animal!

Don’t consider them as reptiles, think of them more in terms of ‘convenient dogs’. Convenient in that they behave more like a dog then they do a reptile, but lack all of the associated ‘issues’ incumbent upon dog owners. They won’t chew your furniture or your slippers! They don’t demand to be taken for walks in the pouring rain and neither will they chase the postman down the road before he delivers your mail!

Unfortunately if you like throwing stick for your dog to bring back, I suspect you are out of luck! Whilst I haven’t tried it, I rather anticipate if you throw a stick and expect your dragon to fetch it – it will simply sit there with the expression on its face saying “you want it you get it” - dragons aren’t that dumb!

Bearded dragons originate from Australia and again are all bred in captivity. They are easy to keep, hardy and above seem to like to interact with people. They are omnivorous, will eat most things, but not your slippers! They do, however, positively enjoy live foods. The growth in the locust market is almost exclusively down to the upsurge in dragon numbers.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m rather keen on dragons!

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Royal pythons, or as our colonial cousins across the pond call them, ‘ball pythons’ – are, unquestionably, the single most boring snake on the planet! They are also, however, arguably the most beautiful.

A ball python’s idea of a ‘wild night’ out is to do absolutely nothing - for weeks at a time. In the wild, ball pythons spend something like 95% of their life asleep down a burrow.

They pop out once every month or so to nab a passing rat and have a drink and in some parts of their range they fast for 6 months of the year. Once a year Mr python comes out to find Mrs python for a spot of ‘canoodaling’, after which they retreat back to their burrows. Even ‘canoodaling’ in wild pythons is probably not an annual event, it takes them a couple of years to work up enthusiasm! So, you should get the picture that these are not exactly active animals!

Ball pythons originate from West Africa and for many years were imported as wild caught adult pythons. These often proved difficult to acclimatise to captivity, refusing to feed.

Today virtually all ball pythons in trade are juveniles hatched in captivity, either ranched sock in West Africa, or increasingly as captive bred stock. The single biggest phenomenon to hit the reptile trade in recent years is colour mutation ball pythons.

There are over 300 colour mutations, and it seems more are being produced every day. Even an old cynic such as myself has to agree some of what is being bred today is stunningly attractive – breathtaking.

Perhaps the only thing more breathtaking than the beauty of some of these animals is the value, the most expensive sold that I am aware of fetched 100,000 Euros! The 5,000 – 10,000 price range is not uncommon and the 1,000 Euro snake is common place!

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We have covered what are the five most common species, so here are a few more species that are also commonly in trade.

When we say Corn snakes are popular, what we probably should say is colubrid snakes. The dudes on the left are all colubrids which are easy to keep and popular.

The centre picture is the veiled chameleon originating from the Yeomen. At one time chameleons were considered impossible to keep in captivity, but today there are more veiled chameleons bred in captivity than exist in the wild!

The chap at top left and middle left is the crested gecko, a species destined for high places in the pet industry. The species was only rediscovered in 1994, heaving been thought extinct for many years, but by 2004 the crested gecko was the fifth most commonly bred lizard in captivity – a triumph for conservation of a species!

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We have largely talked about reptiles, but we mustn’t forget their slippery cousins the amphibians. Not as popular as reptiles, certainly as far as the UK is concerned, they probably account for less than 10% of the market.

Here in the Netherlands poison arrow frogs are very popular, these are the chaps along the bottom. Small but exceedingly beautiful, and active, to date they have not been as popular in the UK, but there is hope for the future.




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So why are reptiles as popular as pets today? The reason I would suggest is because they are far more suitable as pets, than are what are perceived as more traditional pets, such as cats, dogs, small mammals etc.

Reptiles fit today’s modern life styles as they are less time consuming than more traditional pets and they are more ecologically friendly. Your beaded dragons doesn’t leave ‘deposits’ all over the place for other people to tread in, it doesn’t rip open your neighbours bin bags, or murder the local bird population!

They can also be easier to keep than other traditional pet species.. Here is a quote from the Companion Animal Welfare Councils report on non-domesticated pets kept as companions:

“it may be easier to keep some non-domesticated species to high welfare standards than some that are domesticated. Thus, meeting all the requirements - space, dietary, social, thermal, and so on - of a small, hardy, reptile may be more readily achievable for many people than adequately fulfilling all the needs of some breeds of dog”

A very powerful statement, and from the UK governments’ advisors on animal welfare!

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Here is another reason, today’s terrariums.

The single biggest advance in the reptile trade within the last decade has been the introduction of the Exo Terra terrarium - that is beyond any doubt.

Whilst men wear the trousers [when we are allowed] the wife decided what will, or will not, be allowed in the living room. The introduction of the Exo Terra terrarium has taken reptiles from the spare room to the living room.

Hagen has set the bench mark that other terrarium manufacturers have endeavoured to copy. The recent introduction of the Zoo Med terrariums, a facsimile of Exo Terra, for example.

I hope this is the start of things to come and other manufacturers will enter the market place and raise the stakes even further.

What is clear, is today’s terrariums can be every bit as aesthetical pleasing as an aquarium, with the advantage that the occupants can be interactive without the need for getting wet.

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20 years ago there were virtually no manufacturers of reptile products, we [keepers] stole everything we used predominantly from the aquatics sector, but also birds etc. Then Zoo Med entered the market place in the early 1980’s with a small range of products, followed by T-Rex.

Both of these companies were small independent manufacturers of reptile products, but they changed the face of reptile keeping and started what we see today.

The entry of Rolf C. Hagen into the market place in the early part of the new millennia changed the world of reptile keeping for ever, as Hagen took reptile keeping from being a small niche market into main line pet keeping. Had Exo Terra not been conceived the face of reptile keeping, certainly in the UK, would have been very different.

The change has been fast and furious, with new companies entering the market place. Companies such as EuoRep, a British company that has revolutionised the electronics market with new and innovative products, now produce the equipment which governs the way we keep reptiles today.

We should also not forget newcomers such as Lucky Reptiles, a German-based company who’s products are the fastest grown product range in the UK today.

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The market leader in terms of reptile products, and sales, is without doubt Rolf C Hagen’s Exo Terra product range.

They have, and I’m sure will continue to change the face of reptile keeping, making reptiles more and more accessible as pets. They are also the first major international pet product manufacture to enter the reptile marketplace.

Perhaps there is nothing more persuasive in terms of demonstrating the growth of the reptile market in the UK, than to show the growth of the market leader.

In 2004 when Exo Terra was introduced in the UK it accounted for 4% of total sales. By 2008 it has accounted for 17%. I think you will agree that is phenomenal growth, it also interestingly mirrors the explosion of interest of reptiles as pets – coincidence?

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Just a gratuitous plug for Exo Terra products, but I would like to thank them for sharing their sales information with me and for allowing me to use it in this presentation. I think that has perhaps been more persuasive regards to the growth of the reptile market place in the UK than any thing else I could say!

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Time is marching on and I can here some subtle snoring emanating from the somewhere in the audience, so perhaps its time to start drawing this to a close.
We have covered quite a bit, and I suspect you might have gathered by now that I am rather enthusiastic about reptiles as pets, well here’s another reason why I think reptiles are good – they are the choice of the informed and caring keeper.

In the UK today, one of the biggest criticisms of the pet industry is that we create a ‘throw away society’ – in other words unwanted pets, pets that need rehoming.

Indeed this is an issue upon which the pet industry needs to take stock as it may be that we are part of the problems, no matter how small that part may be. Animals need rehoming for many, many legitimate reasons. We are constantly blamed for creating the problem, but when you try to identify the issues the facts are remarkably illusive, or perhaps non existent!

For example the largest number of animals that need new homes in the UK are dogs, but probably less than 1% of dogs sold in the UK are sold though pet shops – so is it fair to blame pet shops – I would suggest not.

Notwithstanding this, the good news is that reptiles are clearly the choice of responsible owners. Let us just look at the statistics available:

• In the UK there are 6.5 million companion dogs

• There are over 5 million companion reptiles

• The RSPCA rescue or rehomed on average 25,000 dogs a year

• RSPCA rescue or rehomed less than a 1000 reptiles on average

Clearly the facts speak for themselves!

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The future is bright and reptiles will continue to grow in popularity and our friends here - the beaded dragons will become even more entrenched in the pet industry. Dragons are the future. Bill Gates was sneered at when he said he had a dream every home would have a computer!

Well, I wonder how far wrong I will be if I suggest that every pet keeper will one day have a dragon - only time will tell.

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As I have said, the future is bright, but there are dark clouds on the horizon. The single biggest threat to the pet industry is that of the Animal Rights Industry.

Ignore them and we do so at our peril, for the Animal Rights Industry is immensely wealthy and politically powerful. Animal Rights organizations often masquerade under the banner of animal welfare, but their objective are not welfare orientated. Their objective is to end human exploitation of animals, which includes exploiting animals by keeping them as pets!

Unless pet keepers and the pet industry recognises and starts to address the threat posed by the Animal Rights industry within a decade the retailing of pets from pet shops will be consigned to history.

Within two decades the keeping of companion animals (pets) will be just a memory.

Upon that sobering thought, I will close.

Thank you for listening.

Thanks very much for that Chris, it is very interesting.

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just a few wee pet snakes

I can only echo Toyah's comments. Very interesting reading.

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Fraser Gilchrist
www.smauggiganteus.com ( back soon )
Exchange information and observations on the Sungazer
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European Studbook Foundation
www.studbooks.eu
UK Coordinator & Studbook keeper for the Smaug giganteus & Ouroborus cataphractus