Handling your reptiles

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Handling

All reptiles need to be conditioned to handling from a young age. This makes husbandry, health checks and enclosure cleaning less stressful. It will also allow children to interact safely with the animals. Some guidelines for handling lizards and snakes are:

• Always wash your hands before and after any handling

• Don’t surprise the animal when picking it up. Let it see you coming or feel the vibrations from opening the enclosure

• Make gentle contact with the animal before picking it up

• For bearded dragons and blue-tongue lizards, place one hand under the back legs and the other under the neck and front legs. Once lifted, place one hand around the neck and the other under the abdomen so that the back legs are against the animal’s body

• Never grip tightly around the body. This may stress the animal and cause it to struggle. This is particularly important when teaching children to handle animals

• Ensure that the weight of lizards is supported at all times.

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