Do you think reps mind being swapped/sold?

[Siman]

Now i don't mean does it hurt the animals feelings or anything I'm just wondering after reading a lot of "For sale, doesn't fit in with this years breeding plans" whether you guys think there could be a health issue with reptiles being moved about up and down the country every time its morph doesn't fit in with plans?

I know for animals like birds, rats etc they can get really stressed out during moves (especially long moves) which can result in untimely death but I'm wondering whether reptiles share this stress?

I know some times they can go off food for a while after moving but that's not really what I'm asking I'm wondering if there's any proof that it can shorten life span or even i guess make them "unhappy".

Personally I think they get a bit stressed from the move, but I don't really think its enough to cause health issues. I don't think they're unhappy from being moved around so long as they have what they need I don't think any of my reps would give a hoot who was the "owner"

[kieran8143]

im not going to vote as i cant personally say but would liek to see the results of this poll! so come on people start voting lol

[Athravan]

Any change of environment can stress reptiles, and cause any number of side effects. But usually, in hardy species, this is minimal, and they adjust.

But even temperature and light changes in their own environment can be stressful. I don't know if they can be "unhappy" as such, but certainly it can affect their habits. I do think that reptiles that are sold from home to home to home to home in a short space of time will quite often suffer from it - the more hardy ones will bounce back quite quickly and adjust to the new environment, but the more they are moved, the more chance that the new environment is not correct.

An incorrect environment and high levels of stress can and will weaken the immune system and cause lethargy and not eating.

But being moved to the correct environment should only cause minimal levels of stress and usually they should settle down within a week.

So I guess it just depends on the responsibility of the buyer/seller, the species of reptile and health. Certainly, I do not think who the owner is matters to them - it's all just about down to whether the moving is done with minimal stress, and whether the new environment is as similar to the last one, (and correct regarding sizing, temperatures, etc) as possible.

[SiUK]

well theres always gonna be a settling in period, but I cant see any direct health problems from correct moving, and setting up with alot of animals there are those that are prone to stress a bit more than others so you would have to be more careful with them.

[Siman]

Originally Posted by Athravan

Any change of environment can stress reptiles, and cause any number of side effects. But usually, in hardy species, this is minimal, and they adjust.

But even temperature and light changes in their own environment can be stressful. I don't know if they can be "unhappy" as such, but certainly it can affect their habits. I do think that reptiles that are sold from home to home to home to home in a short space of time will quite often suffer from it - the more hardy ones will bounce back quite quickly and adjust to the new environment, but the more they are moved, the more chance that the new environment is not correct.

An incorrect environment and high levels of stress can and will weaken the immune system and cause lethargy and not eating.

But being moved to the correct environment should only cause minimal levels of stress and usually they should settle down within a week.

So I guess it just depends on the responsibility of the buyer/seller, the species of reptile and health. Certainly, I do not think who the owner is matters to them - it's all just about down to whether the moving is done with minimal stress, and whether the new environment is as similar to the last one, (and correct regarding sizing, temperatures, etc) as possible.

So would you consider then if a breeder feeds all his Leopard geckos (example as i know more about Leos than any other rep) meal worms all the time and keeps temps at 90F then sells a baby onto someone else, and they come onto the forums and read that meal worms are rubbish and to feed them crickets and keep temps at 87 this could be a direct cause to health/"emotional" issues?

[Athravan]

Originally Posted by Siman

So would you consider then if a breeder feeds all his Leopard geckos (example as i know more about Leos than any other rep) meal worms all the time and keeps temps at 90F then sells a baby onto someone else, and they come onto the forums and read that meal worms are rubbish and to feed them crickets and keep temps at 87 this could be a direct cause to health/"emotional" issues?

It would be a change that could cause stress. Leopard geckos are pretty hardy and such a minor temperature change I don't think would be a big cause for concern. As for the diet, people do switch their animals over from mealies to crickets and it shouldn't cause a huge health impact.

This stress should pass within the first week of "settling in" as they adjust to the changes, unless the animal is very very young, weak, has an infection or other problem, and then the stress could have a negative health impact.

A healthy animal, stress will occur but not cause an actual physical health problem and a week later, the new environment will be considered fairly normal for it!

[snickers]

What athravan said.

I think there's very little problem provided the animals go from one competant keeper to another.

It's possible that some lizards recognize people who interact with them but I dont think they feel emotions as such.

[Siman]

Glad to receive your input on this everyone. This isn't a curiosity for me selling on any animals by the way, just a curiosity based on what somebody posted about it being wrong to swap animals a while back.

I've not read of any health issues in regard to animals being moved around, and although i guess a new environment (especially that of a small tub that it would be placed it for a move) would be quite stressful i couldn't imagine that it would cause any health issues.

Then again i once had a rabbit when i was younger, was in perfect health but we moved it to a family members house whilst we had people round to view (we were moving and animals tend to put some people off.. Never sure why?!) and that died within two weeks.

[Mujician]

I think we'd all like to believe that a reptile becomes attatched to you and we all know that we get attached to them. I think that they get used to our handling routines and when 'passed on' to another person it won't be handled the same, maybe more, maybe less. And this i feel may leave the animal wondering why things are different and their behaviour may change leading us to believe they aren't 'happy'. Or something like that anyway!, Ben