Opinions on “Free Roaming” Reptiles

[SamanthaMarikian]

I’ve talked to people I know through instagram about their free roaming geckos and one more popular instagram account even has a free roaming reticulated python. Small ish i think at about 6 feet. I wanted to get some thoughts on it? One of them just has a free roaming tokay that favors a large money tree in the corner of his room. If you have a room humid enough for it to be comfortable assuming it’s more tropical, and it gets fed, is it ok? I had at one point 3 mourning geckos out in my room. I didnt want them out, they just got out, are cocky, and i didnt want to hurt them in the process of catching them. I left out Pangea for them to ensure they were fed and my room is very humid and it’s safe to say i did not have a flying insect problem in the time they were out in my room lol. I did catch them all and put them back in their enclosure eventually and they were all in good shape. One was gravid and another even laid her egg in my room and i had to catch the teeny lil baby. Thoughts on having a gecko or multiple roaming freely in a safe room for it?

 

[fried rice]

I don’t think you should do this. People on Instagram don’t do good things. Some people post pictures of themselves with tarantulas on their faces. If you have cats or dogs they could kill your geckos.

 

[The Snark]

At any given time we've got a dozen or two gecks romping the house. In futile pursuit the cats are getting pretty good at climbing the walls but the ceiling defeats them. I'm getting really tired of unsticking a cat from where it is clinging to a screen. Temperature and weather: whatever. They don't really care.

 

[schmiggle]

As @The Snark said many species happily inhabit houses without issue. My bigger concern would be that they would escape your house entirely and end up established in California. Obviously the likelihood of this is species dependent.

 

[StampFan]

I’ve talked to people I know through instagram about their free roaming geckos and one more popular instagram account even has a free roaming reticulated python. Small ish i think at about 6 feet. I wanted to get some thoughts on it? One of them just has a free roaming tokay that favors a large money tree in the corner of his room. If you have a room humid enough for it to be comfortable assuming it’s more tropical, and it gets fed, is it ok? I had at one point 3 mourning geckos out in my room. I didnt want them out, they just got out, are cocky, and i didnt want to hurt them in the process of catching them. I left out Pangea for them to ensure they were fed and my room is very humid and it’s safe to say i did not have a flying insect problem in the time they were out in my room lol. I did catch them all and put them back in their enclosure eventually and they were all in good shape. One was gravid and another even laid her egg in my room and i had to catch the teeny lil baby. Thoughts on having a gecko or multiple roaming freely in a safe room for it?

The only critters I have seen this with (which make sense) are tortoises who get free roam of a room or two, a green iguana that has its own room, or a chameleon that will pretty much stay on the plant it is living on with some ground boundaries. Any other reptile is likely a bad, bad idea.

 

[basin79]

If you had a suitable room I don't see how it wouldn't work but to be honest I'd imagine the gecko would prefer to be contained just for the ease of catching food. That typed I'd be lying if I didn't put it would be phenomenal to watch Zeus (my Tokay) running up the walls and along the ceiling chasing moths.

 

[basement pets]

I personally wouldn't do it. there are just too many things that could go wrong

 

[SamanthaMarikian]

As @The Snark said many species happily inhabit houses without issue. My bigger concern would be that they would escape your house entirely and end up established in California. Obviously the likelihood of this is species dependent.

My question was mainly meant for smaller ish tropical arboreal lizards like the mourning geckos i mentioned. I’d never had one leave my room and i dont think they’d be interested in leaving since its the warmest and most humid room in the house. If they did get outside somehow, they wouldn’t be able to live long let alone reproduce.

 

[SamanthaMarikian]

I personally wouldn't do it. there are just too many things that could go wrong

Well in my case, i didnt let them out voluntarily, but when i noticed they were out, no other non reptile animal was allowed in my room, except for my dog who couldn’t care less about a tiny lizard n she’s too old to catch them. And there’s no way they couldve gotten out since the door was always closed n they couldn’t crawl under it. I made sure the room was humid enough which Wasn’t a problem because i had a chameleon that’s since passed away. In the event they did get out they cant reproduce because the rest of the house is too dry since I’m in California. Idk what else could really go wrong with that since they cant reproduce outside of a warm humid area, if they’re fed, have places to hide, nothing can eat them, etc. I just think its a cool topic.

 

[SamanthaMarikian]

As @The Snark said many species happily inhabit houses without issue. My bigger concern would be that they would escape your house entirely and end up established in California. Obviously the likelihood of this is species dependent.

Yeah I wouldn’t do it with anything that could survive outside in the event they could get out of my room and somehow out the house. I haven’t seen anyone do it with anything that wasn’t tropical and I’m in southern California so an invasive tropical lizard wouldn’t make it far.

 

[Rhino1]

We had a large free roaming carpet python years ago that somehow managed to pull a power point off the wall and get into the wall cavity and was lost.
Anything smaller and it's too easy to accidentally crush, step on or even get bundled into a washing machine with sheets or clothes etc. At least in an enclosure it's safe.