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  • Friday : 10:00AM - 05:00 PM
  • Saturday : 10:00AM - 05:00 PM
  • Sunday : 10:00AM - 05:00 PM
  • Monday : 10:00AM - 05:00 PM
  • Tuesday : 10:00AM - 05:00 PM
  • Wednesday : 10:00AM - 05:00 PM
  • Thursday : 10:00AM - 05:00 PM

Reptile Health Checks

Behind the Scenes…

This lockdown we are taking you behind the scenes, showing you what our Aquarists get up to. Once a month we weigh our reptiles and give them a health check. So here is how we do it:

  • To start with we catch all the terrapins and place them into large buckets.
  • Now that they are separated, we check them over one by one and re-paint the identification spots on their shells.

This helps us to identify individual terrapins. As it is very important to monitor weight changes, we use coloured dots to allow us to keep a record of weight loss/gain and general health notes.

  • Now that dots have been repainted we weigh them.

Each terrapin is weighed and released back into their tank quickly and safely. We do this regularly so the terrapins are used to this procedure, but we still try to do it as quick as possible so that they can return to their environment.

Once our terrapins are back in their tank after a full health and weight check it’s our Water Dragon Mushu’s turn.

Aquarist Abby, handles Mushu wearing protective gloves for her safety. Mushu has very sharp claws and can unintentionally scratch.
He is then placed in a lightweight box, which has been previously weighed so that we can subtract it from the final weight.

After we release him we give him a treat, this month was mealworms. We feed him his treat by hand so he continues to trust us when we pick him up again for next months weighing.

We do this on a monthly basis so that diets can be adapted if needed and heath care can be given if any animal is injured.

Thank you for coming behind the scenes with us.

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