All new playful exotics in town

CHENNAI: Snakes, iguanas, tegus, and what not, Chennai is advancing in fetching pets from cats and dogs to exotic reptiles and mammals. We all have seen taming cats, dogs, and even rabbits in some houses. Still, there are a group of people who always wants to be unique and different from the mob, “The recent advancement in the taming of exotic pets in Chennai has been growing at a more significant rate where people go for primates and reptiles in an interesting manner,” says Thilak Rajkumar, a private tamer at Madhavaram.

Recently, Chennai has been developing with different varieties of exotics starting from reptiles to tortoises. “Reptiles and primates are best-selling,” says Thilak. As new entries under primates, there are common marmoset, red hand tamarin, cotton-top tamarin, squirrel monkey, and Mohai bush baby and reptiles like ball python, corn snake, Mexican, and California king snakes, are also showing their growing face in town.

Iguanas are a new reptile family that the majority of people opt for he says. Under iguanas, there are green, red, and blue iguanas which are the best-selling reptiles in Chennai. Amphibians such as Pacman bullfrog, red foot cherry headed tortoise, leopard tortoise and sulcata tortoise are now a new incoming in Chennai he adds.

He also says, “Though there are people buying exotics in awe there is still a group that claims that these animals are difficult to tame, but on contrary, I say that these are like babies and they adapt to whatever way tamer tames them.

“The government of India has legalised exotic pets in India and the documentation of these pets will be given to the owner of the animals when they buy them from us, so there needs to be no panic in taming these exotics,” adds Thilak.

Except for reptiles and snakes every other animal can be tamed in or out of the cages but it is very important that you look after the reptiles with some extra care tells Thilak.

Talking about Tegus, “Tegus are much more playful and we mostly feed them with frozen mice, rats, chicken, and prawns. They live for more than 15 years and they are harmless,” says Bryan Thomas who owns a Tegu.

He also adds that “Tegus are so friendly that they climb at people once it is comfortable with them.” He also has iguanas which clamber in his head happily as soon he fetches them. “Iguanas are spinach eaters, and they usually live up to 30 years,” says Bryan.

“People think that snakes will kill us and are poisonous, but mine is a calm and consulate one,” tells Sheldon De Souza, who owns a ball python.

“Every reptile family has a common diet of frozen mice, rats, and chicken while iguanas alone are fed with spinach. The primates can be given a proportionate diet that includes nuts fruits berries and vegetables,” says Thilak. He also adds that the maintenance for these is much lower than that of a cat or a dog.