Hello fellow reptile lovers,
Just wondering if any one else has had this problem. After many years of having reptiles as pets i have a very large collection, including a 3yr old alligater snapping turtle, a very large common snapper, 3 red eared 6 yellow bellied, 3 maps, 1 bosc moniter, 1 iguana, 1 chameleon, 1 bearded dragon, 3 leo geckco's, 2 snakes & a very fat whites tree frog. As you can imagine this is a big problem when we all go on holiday. i phoned a few local petshops in essex & had no luck in them looking after them.The "lizerds & snakes" not turtles. The point i'm getting at is i have a large workshop where i keep my reptiles & have many spare viv's so i was thinking of starting my own reptile boarding facility. Let me no your opinions.

Not a bad idea, there is a lot to take into consideration though when starting up a boarding business, for example what would you do if an animal died in your care, the owners blame you and you have no proof that your innocent?

When you can work that one out you should be ready

I used to run a boaring business, i was ensured with an agency so it wasn't so hard, and tbh thats the best way to go about it i think, you sign with them, they find you boarders in your area and you care for the pet, the agency take about 20% of your earnings.
But i did run my pwn business on the side, so i also had my own clients and cash in hand, but i kept it to seleced people so prevent any problems.

and i have been in the situation where a dog has injured itself in my care and the owners have pointed fingers...its not pleasant i can tell you.
I also had someones 14 year old beloved dog die in my care on xmas day, again its extremely traumatic for yourself and the owner, but because she died from illness and not injury, there was no hard feelings from the owners, we did everything we could have done.

You can never do it for money on such a small scale, i prob only earned about 2k a year and all that went back on bedding, accomodation, food etc for the animals, boarding is only seasonal and it will be dead quiet over winter, and come summer hols, easter hols etc etc it their will be a boom.

I know your not doing it for the money though, and neither was i at around £1.50 a day for small animals, was the cheapest anyone had come by according to my customers.

But i will admit gives you a huge buzz, its a great hobby to say the least, meeting lots of people and animals, owners always so sad to leave them, you give them top care and when the owners arrive theres nothing like the looks on the human and animals faces when reunited, just great it is!

I did more the domestic side of things, anywhere from a mouse to a great dane! although i would take any household or backyard pet like poultry and even goats! we did get a few reptiles in, but i would only have them if accomodation was provided. But i offered to do home calls for locals, though most people don't like that which is understandable, i wouldn't want a stranger in my home, but some people keep sheds, garages, outhouses as shelter for their pets which works out better as you don't need to enter the house.

anyways enough babbling, if your serious and can do the homework and make sure you have your butt covered should anything happen, then theres no reason why you shouldn't!!

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0.1.0 Pain in the butt mutt Bull terrier - 1.1.0 Belgian Hares - 0.0.2 Tortoises
1.1.0 Blue tongued skinks - 2.0.0 Horned lizards - 1.1.0 Bearded Dragons - 0.1.0 Crocodile skink - 1.2.0 Leopard geckos - 1.1.0 Percivals legless skinks
1.2.0 Coastal Carpet pythons - 0.0.3 Corn snakes - 1.2.0 Common boas + babies - 0.1.0 Columbian Rainbow boa - 1.0.0 Speckled king snake - 0.0.1 Amazon Tree boa - 1.1.3 Hognoses - 0.0.1 Gopher snake
0.0.6 Praying mantids - 0.0.3 Scorpions - 1.1.0 Whip scorpions - 0.0.1 Vinagaroon - 0.0.2 Giant centipedes - 8 species of roach - couple hundred Tarantulas.
Normal rats - Hairless rats - Fancy mice - Hairless mice - Striped grass mice - Egyptian Spiny mice - Harvest mice
Marine aquarium - Tropical aquarium