Native Animals as Pets - With dr dave

(Music plays) Dave: What have we got here? This is an Eastern Blue Tongue, a really awesome native animal. But this isn’t a wild one. This is a pet. It belongs to Alisha over here. There you go.   What are they like as pets? Are they like cats and dogs? Do they get the paper?   Alisha: They’re really good to have because they’re really friendly and they like to run around.   Dave: So what sort of things do you feed them?   Alisha: Well, we feed them snails and soft fruit and they can also eat rose petals.   Dave: So while it might seem a bit strange to keep lizards as pets, there’s a growing interest in this throughout Australia.   Quolls, dunnarts, hopping mice, sugar gliders; all sorts of our native animals can make really good pets and it’s something that a lot of people are interested in doing.   But what have we got here? Oh, look at this. What have you got here, Douglas? Douglas: I’ve got a carpet python. Dave: Oh, great. So here we have a Murray Darling carpet python   that is one of the most spectacular of the snakes that you find in this area and they make, surprisingly, really good pets.   This guy is Murray and he’s our pet, isn’t he Douglas?   Douglas: Yep. Dave: So what’s he like as a pet? Isn’t he scary? Douglas: He is a bit when he’s hissing, you know, in your ear or sliding down your back   because it is a bit freaky when you can’t see his head.   Dave: But does he bite you? Douglas: No, he hasn’t bit me because it’s just we don’t annoy him. If you annoy him, he’ll bite you. Dave: Fair enough. Douglas: So he doesn’t bite.   Dave: And you know, what does he eat? Douglas: Well, he eats sparrows, blackbirds, pigeons and in the wild he’d eat other lizards and other mammals. Dave: Right. Excellent. But there are a few things that you need to bear in mind about keeping not just snakes but all native animals as pets.   Firstly, you need a permit. You can’t just have one.   It’s easy to get. It’s not a problem. You pay your money once and you’re fine.   You can have one permit and you can keep bearded dragons, you can keep all sorts of things without any trouble at all. The other thing to bear in mind is you can’t take them from the wild.   This is a captive born snake. This isn’t from the wild.   This actually came originally from parents all the way back from the Flinders Ranges   but he was born in captivity in Sydney and he’s much more relaxed, much more friendly,   than your average carpet snake from the wild.   Also, he’s got no diseases, no parasites, so when you see a wild one, that’s great, leave it in the wild.   If you want a pet one, you can go to a specialist pet shop   and as long as you’ve got permits you’re home free.   (Music plays)