An assessment of reptile husbandry information available in licensed pet shops across England

Over the past two decades, there has been a substantial increase in reptile ownership, yet empirical research on their complex biological needs remains limited, leading to conflicting opinions on their suitability as pets. This lack of research, combined with limited access to specialist veterinary services, often results in an over-reliance on anecdotal husbandry knowledge shared among owners, which can sometimes be contradictory. Previous research by the RSPCA indicates that novice reptile owners trust advice from vendors, such as pet shops, above all other sources of information. Given the wide availability of reptiles in diverse types of pet shops (e.g., general pet shops, specialist stores, garden centres, aquarists), this raises questions about whether the care advice provided is consistent or contains contradictions.

To investigate this, 146 pet shops across England were visited and assessed using a mystery shopper model to record care advice. This advice was compared against RSPCA care guidelines as benchmarks and scored to evaluate variations or contradictions between shops. An ordinal regression analysis showed that shop type had a near-significant effect on the scores (p = 0.082); specifically, aquarist shops had 4.50 times lower odds of receiving a high score compared to reptile specialist shops, a statistically significant difference (p = 0.017). Multiple Chi-squared Goodness-of-fit tests identified key areas where advice varied or contradicted benchmark guidelines, particularly regarding enclosure requirements, tortoise hibernation, animal aggression, and the importance of registering with a veterinarian.

This study highlights areas where further empirical research is needed to fill knowledge gaps and where animal welfare organisations may need to target educational campaigns. Providing consistent, evidence-based care advice could help prevent issues and promote sustainable reptile welfare.