Scents to investigate.
Even simply throwing in shed skin from another species
or aromatics like crushed eucalyptus leaves will provide
stimulation for many animals. Some aromatics are
thought to negatively impact certain reptiles, so do your
research before you offer them to your pet.
‘ Live plants bring back a lot of
the complexity that exists in the
wild.’
Plants.
Plants, whether they be live planted or sacrificial, are a
great addition to enclosures! Live planted enclosures
change the game entirely and you get all manner of varia-
tions to your substrate, microclimates, etc. Essentially
this brings back a lot of the complexity these animals
have in their wild microhabitats. Sacrificial plants for
omnivorous species on the other hand (i.e. parsley plants)
are put in the enclosure knowing full well they will die.
These guys still offer a bit of microclimatic variation for
your herps, while also providing them with a tasty plant
to try to tear leaves off!
Complexity.
Environmental complexity encompasses all of the above
ideas and is the key to determining good welfare. This is
where I think the enclosure size debate starts to creep in;
with larger enclosures you can build more complex
environments, but with that said just because you’ve got
a bigger space that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve
set it up well! You can also have a huge enclosure with
zero complexity – and that is going to have poor welfare
outcomes.
I guess like most things in captive keeping, what I’m
getting at is variety is the key. I suspect most people who
read this article aren’t going to go out and change many
(if any) aspects of how they keep their reptiles. But
wouldn’t it be great if practices like offering your pet
bearded dragon enrichment opportunities became
commonplace in the hobby, rather than generalisations
like red bulbs are good for dragons or sand is bad? It
saddens me to say it, but in many ways the hobby has
stagnated and we need to start pushing for interesting,
exciting and novel changes to not only fix the issues
we’ve whinged about for years, but also to improve
captive husbandry techniques for current and future
keepers and their animals. Get enriching!
Further reading:
This paper is open access (free) and has a tonne of
interesting information:
http://inpractice.bmj.com/content/35/3/123
Above left: this naturalistic enclosure has been specially
constructed for Chameleon Geckos, and offers a high de-
gree of environmental complexity. Image by Rob Porter.
Above: likewise, this outdoor enclosure provides a
complex environment for Green Tree Pythons. Image by
Michael Cermak.